It has never been less important to hire “great recruiters.” If the pattern holds, virtually all top 100 guys moving forward will be bought not recruited. Same thing might expand into the entire top 300ish and beyond, but I doubt there is as lucrative a financial market for low four and three star players.
Then when you get to college, it’s going to be about how you acquire talent through the transfer portal and how you retain talent if you’re a lower tier school or one that isn’t paying.
How does Belk or any other “hungry recruiter” help ND combat that? I want the best coaches who are good at coaching and developing players. Hiestand is probably going to crush recruiting because he has something to sell and Rees can be the “hungry” guy.
I’m very skeptical that Stuckey, Belk, etc. are going to be any value add. They have no resumes. They got hired because they’re very charismatic and have similar personality type to Freeman. And I do think that Stuckey has all the hallmarks of a good coach, but I don’t think for a second he’s the kind of guy that is going to land Carnell Tate. I think if that happens it will be despite him not because of him.
We’re building the greenest staff in CFB and that’s going to rear it’s ugly head at some point. I wholly supported Lea to DC, Rees to OC, and Freeman to HC. It’s ok to roll the dice on people who you believe in. It’s not OK to build a staff where everyone is 30 and nobody in leadership is a grizzled veteran. Mistakes are going to be made, and I’m increasingly skeptical that we see a consistent product in the fall. If we opened up the bank for Wiggins and retained Elston and got Heacock I would feel 100% different.
I get it. Veteran coaches are also capable of making their fair share of mistakes and when we look at the current landscape of college football, outside of Saban and Dabo, who would we really want from a veteran HC? Most are all retreads who vary from below average to above average but none move the needle for ND to reach the next level. Just look at some of the better names out there.
Now, I’m totally with you in being nervous about an incredibly young staff. And yes, there will be mistakes. But this is an outside the box, high risk-high reward situation and I’m all here for it. If it fails, the Fickell’s and the Campbell’s of the world will still be there but I like where this is going. Young coaches who can connect with young players in an incredibly different landscape of life we haven’t seen. And it’s not like these guys don’t know football. They may not have 20+ years of experience like BK, but there’s a good mix of NFL and NCAA experience.
Too often ND has been snakebitten by lack of quality depth. When Alabama or OSU lose a “Kyle Hamilton” to injury, they replace him with another “Kyle Hamilton”. When ND loses Kyle Hamilton to injury, we move a WR to S in-season, move a CB to S, and rotate them with high 3-star/low 4-star players. Not a knock on any of the players as you can see them bust their ass and give it their best but you end up losing out when you come up against the elites. So, we are taking a different approach. It could most certainly backfire but it’s worth trying. There’s no better time to try then right now of we’re being honest.
Sign me up for this. If it doesn’t work then we reset and get our Campbell/Fickell. But for right now, let’s ride.
