‘27 FL QB Wonderful “Champ” Monds IV (Notre Dame Verbal)

[rtrn2glory]

Nothing when it is discussed in the "chili" thread!!

 

[allenm5333]

So I would venture to guess he's a silent at worst. Would really like an announcement soon. Not interested in turning this into another Deuce/Food thread

I would guess we get the "decision date" announcement soon with the top 3 on the infographic. News about Pete cancelling his visit. Media having to act dumb as if it isn't a foregone conclusion

 

[rtrn2glory]

Got around to watching his highlights on the first page. For those who haven't watched yet, you don't need to watch past the first 4-5 minutes. Pretty impressive, but not convinced he plays against elite competition, I could be wrong. I'm no QB guru, but he seems to understand where his windows are in the passing game and throwing guys open. Granted a lot of highlights he was hitting his 1st-2nd read. Pretty good arm talent for a kid his age, and I didn't think he looked as big as he's advertised to be on tape. I like the ability he gives to run the ball, though. seems to be more geared to what Denbrock truly wants out of his QB.

 

[allenm5333]

Got around to watching his highlights on the first page. For those who haven't watched yet, you don't need to watch past the first 4-5 minutes. Pretty impressive, but not convinced he plays against elite competition, I could be wrong. I'm no QB guru, but he seems to understand where his windows are in the passing game and throwing guys open. Granted a lot of highlights he was hitting his 1st-2nd read. Pretty good arm talent for a kid his age, and I didn't think he looked as big as he's advertised to be on tape. I like the ability he gives to run the ball, though. seems to be more geared to what Denbrock truly wants out of his QB.

I think he is also young for even the 28 class. His team lost to Grubbs in the finals

 

[IrishLax]

How would y'all rank these 4.. Am I the only one who'd have champ 3,4?

Bourque, Davidson, Monds, Lopati

I kinda agree with you, would've probably preferred Bourque the most but clearly there is something they don't like there if he was always back burner and then had him cancel visit.

All in all -- HS QB recruiting is probably what I care least about. So many of these dudes transfer or don't pan out, and there are always transfer portal options. I think they are taking Monds on upside, which is probably the right move if you consider them all lottery tickets. You don't want to be spending $12M on a guy like Bryce Underwood.

 

[BrooklynDomer]

Are you ranking current talent/production, or potential? A player like Bourque is at this moment clearly better than Monds. I would still much prefer Monds, cause I think Bourque is about at his peak, whereas Monds hasn’t even scratched what he can be. Does that mean he’ll get there? Who knows. But I’d rather take the higher upside than someone peaking as a senior in high school.

 

[Irish5Saint]

I kinda agree with you, would've probably preferred Bourque the most but clearly there is something they don't like there if he was always back burner and then had him cancel visit.

All in all -- HS QB recruiting is probably what I care least about. So many of these dudes transfer or don't pan out, and there are always transfer portal options.

But if you don't hit on your HS guys, you end up paying an expensive tax for a portal guy in a year or two.

 

[IRISHbluehen]

Monds and Davison probably have the highest ceilings and lowest floors. Bourque is high floor but lower ceiling because of his age. Lopati somewhere in the middle. Will be interesting to see what Monds looks like this year as he has basically only played during his freshman season

 

[rtrn2glory]

Yep, I like the kid on tape, but I also give him a 50% chance at best to stick around for the long haul to be the QB here. Based on nothing else other than there's already 2-3 guys ahead of him that'll be on campus and competing. If he beats all of them out then we probably had a rough year or two stretch.

 

[SoIll]

How would y'all rank these 4.. Am I the only one who'd have champ 3,4?

Bourque, Davidson, Monds, Lopati

 

[rtrn2glory]

Are you ranking current talent/production, or potential? A player like Bourque is at this moment clearly better than Monds. I would still much prefer Monds, cause I think Bourque is about at his peak, whereas Monds hasn’t even scratched what he can be. Does that mean he’ll get there? Who knows. But I’d rather take the higher upside than someone peaking as a senior in high school

I am leaning towards this as well, and I think the guys that are already in the fold allows them to take this risk with Monds. I kinda would like to see him against some higher level competition

 

[IRISHbluehen]

But if you don't hit on your HS guys, you end up paying an expensive tax for a portal guy in a year or two.

IMO, if a HS guy does hit, you'll be paying him close to the top of market value anyway, and will also have invested a good amount to get him in and keep him around. I would rather have homegrown guys but I just don't think getting established QBs is the worst thing

 

[allenm5333]

How would y'all rank these 4.. Am I the only one who'd have champ 3,4?

Bourque, Davidson, Monds, Lopati

I would rank them as: Monds, Davidson, Bourque, Lopati. Big drop off between 3 and 4. I think there is an argument with Davidson up as 1a/1b.

IMO, if a HS guy does hit, you'll be paying him close to the top of market value anyway, and will also have invested a good amount to get him in and keep him around. I would rather have homegrown guys but I just don't think getting established QBs is the worst thing

Slightly disagree. Always easier to keep and retain via HS path. Big picture- It is hard to get kids to decommit/transfer still. They meet and connect with people on campus and build some comfort and often take a discount to stay there or even bring in talent (e.g. Carr, Tae).

 

[NDhoosier]

The thing with Monds is that he will have time to develop. I probably would rank Monds behind some of those other QBs right now, but his ceiling is the highest among them all. He will not be needed in his first year, maybe not even until his Junior year.

 

[maxwell]

Got around to watching his highlights on the first page. For those who haven't watched yet, you don't need to watch past the first 4-5 minutes. Pretty impressive, but not convinced he plays against elite competition, I could be wrong. I'm no QB guru, but he seems to understand where his windows are in the passing game and throwing guys open. Granted a lot of highlights he was hitting his 1st-2nd read. Pretty good arm talent for a kid his age, and I didn't think he looked as big as he's advertised to be on tape. I like the ability he gives to run the ball, though. seems to be more geared to what Denbrock truly wants out of his QB.

Monds plays in highest high school classification of football in Florida (7A), so I would assume the competition to be pretty elite

 

[arrowryan]

IMO, if a HS guy does hit, you'll be paying him close to the top of market value anyway, and will also have invested a good amount to get him in and keep him around. I would rather have homegrown guys but I just don't think getting established QBs is the worst thing

Pretty much this. Carr is getting paid what he deserves, which near the top. I’m sure ND is still getting a discount though.

 

[NDPhilly]

I think Monds / Davidson are 1A and 1B. Outside of being injured, Monds did nothing in his 63 attempts to make his stock go down. Had a 72% completion % and no ints. He has offers from literally everyone for a reason and OSU was hard after him and not guys like Bourque / Lopati for a reason.

 

[RudyVerse]

Not saying others have glossed over his running ability but he is a truck. He’s not your normal “good speed for a QB”, he has power as well, serious power.

 

[stlnd01]

The thing with Monds is that he will have time to develop. I probably would rank Monds behind some of those other QBs right now, but his ceiling is the highest among them all. He will not be needed in his first year, maybe not even until his Junior year.

The flip side of this is that, as I understand this thread, Monds has basically played one year of high school football? His freshman year. He was then injured most of his sophomore season. Next fall will be his true junior year and then he's re-classing into college. He's definitely a developmental play, with obvious upside, but he appears to have the tools to develop. Hopefully he's patient enough to take that path.
Either way, as others say, if he doesn't pan out it's easy enough to get an experienced QB in a few years. Worth the shot.

 

[NDFAN2008]

The biggest wrench in the QB dominoes could be if Carr decides to come back for his final year or not. I could see a scenario where he comes back for his 3rd year.

 

[stlnd01]

The biggest wrench in the QB dominoes could be if Carr decides to come back for his final year or not. I could see a scenario where he comes back for his 3rd year.

At this juncture I would gladly take that scenario and any dominoes that may fall from there.

 

[RudyVerse]

The biggest wrench in the QB dominoes could be if Carr decides to come back for his final year or not. I could see a scenario where he comes back for his 3rd year.

He already took a pay cut to keep the roster in tact. I don’t think he passes up money again when it’s NFL.

 

[Dale]

The biggest wrench in the QB dominoes could be if Carr decides to come back for his final year or not. I could see a scenario where he comes back for his 3rd year.

No 2027 kid is signing expecting to compete for the job in 2027. If anything it would help because then the 2027 kid is not behind Jarrard/Grubbs being a starter already

He already took a pay cut to keep the roster in tact. I don’t think he passes up money again when it’s NFL.

Every QB in CFB who is a returning starter has a feel good story about taking a pay cut. I’m sure CJ is doing just fine financially

 

[MeanGreenBeans]

It was Ted Cruz’s dad. I thought we all knew that already.

And John Denver.

 

[GoldenAura]

Sorry if I missed someone say this already, but what kind of injury did he have to miss most of his season? Just curious.

 

[Irish Man3]

Ankle

 

[IrishLax]

But if you don't hit on your HS guys, you end up paying an expensive tax for a portal guy in a year or two.

But you also have to pay for the HS guys, and the five star HS kids in some recent cycles have gone for absurd money. I think college teams are figuring out now that it's a waste of resources, but spending ~$4M/year on a proven portal guy each year > spending millions each HS cycle AND still having to pay that guy $4M+ per year if he hits.

I don't know the exact math on all of this, I just think it's interesting that post-CJ they are clearly not going "high star" guys. They aren't doing what Vandy is doing and over paying for a 5-star unproven kid. They could *obviously* be landing "high star" guys if they wanted to given how the other recruiting has been going.

I would bet that the moneyball way of doing QB recruiting is getting guys who check boxes for athleticism, arm talent, etc. but are lower rated and then 1) they will stick around longer as a backup to develop 2) they cost less while sticking around 3) they have commensurate upside to "high star" guys if they hit.

There are guys like Cam Ward, Riley Leonard, Mensah, etc. in the portal every year that are better than what -- for example -- Arch Manning showed after multiple years of burning tons of NIL $$ on the bench.

 

[NorthDakota]

But if you don't hit on your HS guys, you end up paying an expensive tax for a portal guy in a year or two.

Of course you want to hit on guys. But even some of them are going to leave. The days of having a good backup QB for more than a year is gone. You might keep him for a second year, if there is a QB competition into fall.

I'm fairly blackpilled on QB recruiting. CJ has been a pleasant and welcome surprise, but I suffered through fifteen years of highly recruited kids, Crist to Buchner... not panning out, getting hurt, getting beat out by Tommy Rees or Ian Book.

To me, the nice thing about getting a highly touted QB is it might make it easier for other high profile kids to commit. Easier to imagine playing for a team when you can picture who the QB is. But so many won't pan out, or get beat out and transfer.

So yeah you want to recruit studs, but at this point throwing a few million bucks at a kid whose already shown he can play is perfectly logical and pretty safe. There is never going to be a year ND couldn't poach someone. There will always be some kid who lit it up at NDSU, Duke, Oklahoma State, or somewhere who wants a shot at playing for ND.

 

[NorthDakota]

But you also have to pay for the HS guys, and the five star HS kids in some recent cycles have gone for absurd money. I think college teams are figuring out now that it's a waste of resources, but spending ~$4M/year on a proven portal guy each year > spending millions each HS cycle AND still having to pay that guy $4M+ per year if he hits.

I don't know the exact math on all of this, I just think it's interesting that post-CJ they are clearly not going "high star" guys. They aren't doing what Vandy is doing and over paying for a 5-star unproven kid. They could *obviously* be landing "high star" guys if they wanted to given how the other recruiting has been going.

I would bet that the moneyball way of doing QB recruiting is getting guys who check boxes for athleticism, arm talent, etc. but are lower rated and then 1) they will stick around longer as a backup to develop 2) they cost less while sticking around 3) they have commensurate upside to "high star" guys if they hit.

There are guys like Cam Ward, Riley Leonard, Mensah, etc. in the portal every year that are better than what -- for example -- Arch Manning showed after multiple years of burning tons of NIL $$ on the bench.

This. Recruiting QB is kinda upside down now.

 

[allenm5333]

But you also have to pay for the HS guys, and the five star HS kids in some recent cycles have gone for absurd money. I think college teams are figuring out now that it's a waste of resources, but spending ~$4M/year on a proven portal guy each year > spending millions each HS cycle AND still having to pay that guy $4M+ per year if he hits.

I don't know the exact math on all of this, I just think it's interesting that post-CJ they are clearly not going "high star" guys. They aren't doing what Vandy is doing and over paying for a 5-star unproven kid. They could *obviously* be landing "high star" guys if they wanted to given how the other recruiting has been going.

I would bet that the moneyball way of doing QB recruiting is getting guys who check boxes for athleticism, arm talent, etc. but are lower rated and then 1) they will stick around longer as a backup to develop 2) they cost less while sticking around 3) they have commensurate upside to "high star" guys if they hit.

There are guys like Cam Ward, Riley Leonard, Mensah, etc. in the portal every year that are better than what -- for example -- Arch Manning showed after multiple years of burning tons of NIL $$ on the bench.

Post-CJ they did try to get Deuce Knight....

I think it is a combination of things. I definitely feel this staff values "fit". They aren't going to take a guy who is 100% going to leave if he isn't playing after a year. Hebert is what he is- the scramble mode qb because of Deuce. The 26 qb class didn't have a lot of ND fit type players. 27 qb class has been interesting.

I think it is a year by year thing. If there is a stud who fits, they will pay. But they won't pay just to pay. They realize that they can get a high end transfer if they need to.