Freeman would’ve been the perfect coach for ND… in 2017. In the era of NIL and portal free agency ND is poorly positioned and him being a charismatic hard worker only goes so far. Every school that signed a “top” QB this year paid for them. Every single one.
I want ND to recruit at an elite level but ultimately I think it’s going to be more and more unrealistic until something changes.
Next few seasons are big. QB recruiting has just as much to do, if not more, with winning, development and a path to the NFL as it does NIL.
Our QB room has been an unacceptable disaster. Why would a QB want to go there. Highly rated QBs haven’t developed or ran off in favor of 3 star/low 4 star recruits. Luckily it’s a new regime but between Minchey, transfer, or Carr…we need one of them to ball out.
I firmly believe that if our former QBs included Lawrence, Bryce Young, CJ Stroud, Justin Fields, or Jalen Hurts type players…we’d be in the running for big names. Instead we have Ian Book, Drew Pyne, and Jack Coan. No knock on those guys but no recruit and/or recruits family is going to advise their son to go to ND when you have coaches like Lincoln Reilly, Nick Saban, Dabo Sweeney, and Ryan Day pitching multiple 1st/2nd rounders in the NFL on their resumes.
Also, QB of ND is arguably one of, if not the most famous positions in sports. Jimmy Clausen would be at the top of the NIL market if he played now. The money is their for the taking.
Btw I think we dodged a bullet with Dante Moore. If the reports are true that he’s wavering…at Nike money of all things…he would’ve been a headache.