'27 IL DT Brayden Parks (Offer)

IrishInOntario

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I find it funny that there are still people pushing the narrative that ND is simply buying recruits by spending more money than everyone else. It's just not true. ND is among the top 10 NIL programs in college football this year, but still a little ways from the top. There are a handful of the teams spending money at the same level they are and another handful spending as much as $8-$10 million more (according to reports).

What ND has been pretty disciplined with is their allocation of funds. They're not paying guys $4-$5 million per year to win recruiting wars or to get elite, proven guys to transfer from other big time schools. Instead of paying 1 guy $4 million per year, they're instead paying 4 guys $1 million per year and getting 4 really quality players, building positional and program depth.

That approach has allowed ND to make consistently strong recruiting offers to players throughout their recruiting class rather than paying the top 3-4 players absurb money, then struggling to make competitive offers for the class depth. Take Marcus Fakatou as an example. Oregon reportedly offered him $3 million per year × 3 years, for a total of $9 million. ND by comparison might very well lock up the trio of Abraham Sesay, Aidan O'Neil and Jackson Vaughn for $3 million or less in their first year. If that means losing out on Fakatou to Oregon or Ohio State, so be it.
 
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GATTACA!

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Its called Vatican gold. Show some respect.

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NDPhilly

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Chicagoland man. With all his ND connections certainly feels like he would’ve picked them already if he actually wanted to go there.
 

IRISHbluehen

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Feels like an instance where he wants to go to Oregon but didn't want to disappoint everyone around him. Frustrating but I get it. I'll be interested to hear if they are promising him to begin at 3T rather than 1T, seems that may have been an issue.
 

RudyVerse

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Huge miss. This staff put in years of effort here. And Fakatou looks good on a class calculator but I wanted Parks more. Just gotta pray he takes a ND OV still somehow.

One of the pods said he is “enamored” with Oregon Thursday. Oregon and Miami have become unexpected thorns to ND.
 

IrishInOntario

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We'll see how this plays out throughout the cycle, but ND's not going to win them all. Von Brandt and Parks are examples of guys who might simply value something else or like another school more. Oregon also does a fabulous job of producing DL so it's not like he'd be making a poor choice in going there.

I've been saying for months at this point that ND fans should temper their expectations some about landing 6-7 of their top DL targets in the same class. It's straight up difficult, particularly when everyone has money to spend, depth chart considerations are in play and you're up against the very top schools.

If ND can land Parks, great. If not, pivot to someone else and keep the ball rolling.

Oregon dipping into Illinois for some line talent in this cycle is interesting. Cameron Wagner on the OL and now Brayden Parks potentially on the DL. Interesting national recruiting from Lanning.
 
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Blazers46

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Miami, ND, and Oregon are not similar schools.

if all the schools are offering similar money and recruiting him hard and he wants to go to Miami or Oregon over ND, that’s life.
Traditionally, no. But in today’s NL era, I think we need to stop looking at them as schools and just look at them as teams with money. In that regard, similar.
 

Rocketman84

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Feels like an instance where he wants to go to Oregon but didn't want to disappoint everyone around him. Frustrating but I get it. I'll be interested to hear if they are promising him to begin at 3T rather than 1T, seems that may have been an issue.
Yea, he likes what Oregon is offering but everybody around him and his parents want ND. Classic case
 

Chicago Domer

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ND has not done great recruiting the Chicago Catholic league, primarily Mt. Carmel, Brother Rice and St. Rita. These are part of the original Catholic League that typically have higher ranked kids.

And in general, the ones who did come in say the last 20 years, in general, didn’t become multiple year starters, or even starters at all.. There may be a few exceptions, but not many.
 

IrishInOntario

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ND has not done great recruiting the Chicago Catholic league, primarily Mt. Carmel, Brother Rice and St. Rita. These are part of the original Catholic League that typically have higher ranked kids.

And in general, the ones who did come in say the last 20 years, in general, didn’t become multiple year starters, or even starters at all.. There may be a few exceptions, but not many.

I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that many of the kids in recent years, regardless of where they are ranked, simply aren't good enough compared to the kids ND can find in places like New Jersey, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia and California. Of course that's not true in all cases, but I simply haven't been overly impressed with the quality if talent coming out of that league in some time as it relates to it translating to the elite level of FBS.
 

rtrn2glory

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I'm ok with this based on it seems we're being honest with him about where we see him fitting. I doubt Oregon is TBH considering Lanning came from Georgia and knows the importance of a dominant nose so regardless what he's telling him I can see them sliding him to nose no matter what they've told him
 

HouseofPain

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I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that many of the kids in recent years, regardless of where they are ranked, simply aren't good enough compared to the kids ND can find in places like New Jersey, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia and California. Of course that's not true in all cases, but I simply haven't been overly impressed with the quality if talent coming out of that league in some time as it relates to it translating to the elite level of FBS.
This. I understand there may be a hidden gem in the Chicagoland area but it has been proven to be very few and far between. Parks was well down on my list for nothing more than being from there. Not losing sleep here one way or another.
 

Domina Nostra

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Miami, ND, and Oregon are not similar schools.

if all the schools are offering similar money and recruiting him hard and he wants to go to Miami or Oregon over ND, that’s life.

Traditionally, no. But in today’s NL era, I think we need to stop looking at them as schools and just look at them as teams with money. In that regard, similar.

Even then…

ND = people + education/network + faith
Miami = South Beach, not rust belt Inidana
Oregon = Nike inside track
 
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