ND can’t fill roster holes like other programs do. Therefore, it’s much more important for program stability that we have a solid base of commits/signees throughout and at the end of every cycle.
The reason for that is ultimate numbers recruited for each class. ND recruits approx 2-3 less players/cycle than most football factories. And that's not including JUCO's or transfers. ND is very selective on transfers. And, JUCO's is a hard no.
So, if ND misses on a position group because they're chasing the elite talents late in the cycle, it is much harder for them to fill that void (at least it has been) due to the previous limitations. And, keep in mind, this is with Kelly already starting to push numbers higher.
For example, over the last 4 years, Bama has added 115 players, per 247 through recruiting, transfers, and JUCO's. ND has added 95. 20 players over 4 years is 5 per cycle. That's insane. Imagine if ND could start to fix roster holes by simply adding 2 extra DB's, 2 extra WR's, and an extra DL (just name a position). That's two extra. Meaning if ND usually adds 4 DB's they start adding 6, every cycle. Instead of 4 WR's it's 6, every cycle. Even if ND gets to the point where they are recruiting elite talent every year, the numbers will always put ND at a disadvantage when they miss. Which is why I made the point a couple weeks back that if this is how we're going to recruit, I think the only logical way for it to make sense is to build in class attrition. If the plan is to sign 5DB's then be prepared to take 7 DB commits.
Committed prospects taking visits just increases the risks as we're holding spots for guys that are on the fence. Last cycle, ND recruited 4 DB's + an elite S. They missed on the elite S and then had a de-committment from a guy on the fence. This ending up with 3 DB's. Now, they did get a grad transfer S so that makes 4. But, I don't know how likely it is that their will be Brandon Joseph's at every position lined up for future misses.
