State of the Recruiting Class - 2024

[irishff1014]

Any recruiting class with CJ Carr and Cam Williams is not terrible lol c'mon now

🤔 could it be better yeah but it’s a pretty good offensive class.

 

[Katzenboyer]

I go away for a weekend and apparently I missed...a lot!

 

[GATTACA!]

Feels like a Weis class.

 

[Sea Turtle]

Freeman emphasized how recruiting was important. Golden and Washington aren't holding up the defensive recruiting. Thank God we have Mickens.

I still believe USC made the better hire.

 

[OhioIrish]

The only solution at this point is winning. ND doesn’t have the hype-culture to pull in top talent without 11-12 wins per year (a la USC). If Freeman wins, he’ll be a top recruiter and the program will take the next step. If he has two more years like last year, he’ll be gone. No sense giving coaches more than 3 years anymore, it only takes a few years to set a program back significantly.

 

[NDMatt91]

Golden and O'Leary should definitely be given pink slips at the end of the year. If there's an upgrade at DL Coach available at the end of the year, then that's a move that should be made as well.

 

[Armyirish47]

Golden and O'Leary should definitely be given pink slips at the end of the year. If there's an upgrade at DL Coach available at the end of the year, then that's a move that should be made as well.

Heck yes, pre-position those staff changes 6 months out before the season even starts, the hallmark of internet leadership.

 

[JamIrish]

So are we done at DL now? If we land Lambert and miss on KVA, are we looking at one more LB and WR to finish out the class?

 

[NDMatt91]

So are we done at DL now? If we land Lambert and miss on KVA, are we looking at one more LB and WR to finish out the class?

Probably another WR. My guess is Lambert and another WR and they’ll be done. Target DT, LB, and S in the portal.

 

[NDohio]

So are we done at DL now? If we land Lambert and miss on KVA, are we looking at one more LB and WR to finish out the class?

I would imagine there will be quite a bit of recruiting activity between now and early signing day which is still six months away. There will be names that aren't even on the radar yet pop up in positions that we may think are already filled. ND is not done with this class.

 

[Blazers46]

Feels like a Weis class.

I feel like ND football is always so close. The Weis years we needed a defense. With Kelly one side would be great and the other not so much.

With that said, I think we were so close with Brian Kelly, and then adding Marcus Freeman to the defensive side. If Coach Freeman were to add someone to take charge of the office and be really good at it, then he could concentrate on what he does best. It’s very confusing that a defensive head coach cannot recruit defense.

 

[Luckylucci]

It's close...... Botelho and Mills in my opinion are better than any prospect we've landed this year. I'm not saying because I expect them to have really good years, they were 2 commits we had to beat some big boys to land.

Similar to Bruntae, i think everyone knew Safety was the spot for watts in that class, it just took watts too long accepting it.

I'll give ya the 2020 class, but not the 2021, we landed some big recruits in that with a few just not panning out. We're not beating anyone of importance for our defensive class.

Gotta include Watts in that class as well as McCloud as a GT. Similar to giving Freeman credit for his transfers BK should get credit for his. McCloud is a legitimate NFL DB right now. So, that makes 5 or 6 key contributors added from that cycle. Not great but looks far better than previously posted.

Also, they didn't take zero LB's because they couldn't land any. They took zero as a conscious decision. In hindsight, that was a very bad one. But it was one. And one that had some reasonable rationale behind it at the time. They had recruited 8 LB's in the previous 2 classes, 6 of which would be considered blue chips. Including some very high profile targets.

Now, the seeming difference between Freeman and Kelly is Freeman wouldn't have stopped there. I think my biggest knock on Kelly is that he would/did. He rested on his laurels too much when it came to recruiting. Assuming of the 8 or 6 prospects, they'd be set for a while. Who called Simon, Lamb, and Osita all being busts? Wild to think about in retrospect but it happens.

 

[ColinKSU]

I feel like ND football is always so close. The Weis years we needed a defense. With Kelly one side would be great and the other not so much.

With that said, I think we were so close with Brian Kelly, and then adding Marcus Freeman to the defensive side. If Coach Freeman were to add someone to take charge of the office and be really good at it, then he could concentrate on what he does best. It’s very confusing that a defensive head coach cannot recruit defense.

I think Marcus misunderstood the differences between recruiting as a HC and recruiting as a DC. He doesn’t have a defensive staff that can do its job right now, and he isn’t in a position as the HC to do their jobs for them.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

 

[Blazers46]

My recruiting PTSD had me reading Eddie Vanderdoes with Tom Petty.

 

[INLaw]

Any recruiting class with CJ Carr and Cam Williams is not terrible lol c'mon now

Your right I still visit all the trophies Jimmy Clausen and Golden Tate won

 

[Luckylucci]

I think Marcus misunderstood the differences between recruiting as a HC and recruiting as a DC. He doesn’t have a defensive staff that can do its job right now, and he isn’t in a position as the HC to do their jobs for them.

I’m not sure I think he did right away but I think he is now.

This is just my takeaways from reading recruiting interviews but he’s less personally involved than he was last cycle. He’s much more of the closer role when kids are in campus or in the relationships. I would imagine he’s starting to realize the difficulties between being the face of ND football, recruiting, and winning.

I think that is playing out in real-time. Ultimately, I think it’s the right decision. To spend more time with the team, coaching, etc. But, it’s the right decision if we win. If not, it’s a slippery slope as BK found out.

Your right I still visit all the trophies Jimmy Clausen and Golden Tate won

Fair but I don't think defensive recruiting or coaching is nearly that bad.

 

[INLaw]

I’m not sure I think he did right away but I think he is now.

This is just my takeaways from reading recruiting interviews but he’s less personally involved than he was last cycle. He’s much more of the closer role when kids are in campus or in the relationships. I would imagine he’s starting to realize the difficulties between being the face of ND football, recruiting, and winning.

I think that is playing out in real-time. Ultimately, I think it’s the right decision. To spend more time with the team, coaching, etc. But, it’s the right decision if we win. If not, it’s a slippery slope as BK found out.


Fair but I don't think defensive recruiting or coaching is nearly that bad.

And I would love to visit the 2008 Hawaii bowl trophy. Unfortunately they hid it in a janitor closet in the gug where it currently holds excess half used toilet paper rolls. When we won the thing it had been long enough that to some of us it would have been meaningful and yet it was never publicly displayed. In my opinion shameful

 

[Luckylucci]

I think the problem is the hype. The Freeman era is the era of hype. Hype on social media. Hype in the community. It's all this hype, 24/7. Which is cool. ND has got a HC with some swagger. My coach could kick your coaches ass, lol. "The Gug" also does a good job controlling that hype. Always a positive for every negative.

Though, I think that has some drawbacks and that is expectations. This is a very good class that will win a lot of football games at ND. I can make cases for many of these prospects, up and down the commit list.

However, avg player rating is 90.62, last I looked. That's a little better than some of Kelly's classes and a little worse than others. It only has 3 top 150 prospects (Thomas is 157, he'll be included). Kelly only had one cycle with 3 or less Top 150 prospects. Which was 2019.

Folks expected, due to the hype, we were going to get something that maybe wasn't achievable to begin with.

With that said, winning cures everything and I have the utmost confidence that if this football team performs as it should, the class will improve from here. Though, it's becoming even more important that it does.

 

[EvilleIrish]

Loy thinks OSU for KVA. Recruiting is officially a joke.

 

[Irish4life]

Your right I still visit all the trophies Jimmy Clausen and Golden Tate won

....might've had something to do with Weis and the lackluster strength and conditioning program at the time.

 

[Crazy Balki]

It's close...... Botelho and Mills in my opinion are better than any prospect we've landed this year. I'm not saying because I expect them to have really good years, they were 2 commits we had to beat some big boys to land.

Similar to Bruntae, i think everyone knew Safety was the spot for watts in that class, it just took watts too long accepting it.

I'll give ya the 2020 class, but not the 2021, we landed some big recruits in that with a few just not panning out. We're not beating anyone of importance for our defensive class.

Except we really didn't.

Remember, we're talking specifically defense.

The highest rated guys were Gabe Rubio and Prince Kollie, both top 150. Important to note that Kollie hadn't committed yet, and was at this point in the cycle, on the fringe of 3-star status.

ND finished with 3 4-stars on defense in '21 with those two and Philip Riley. ND currently has 4 4-stars on defense committed in '24 in Loghan Thomas, Tae Johnson, Bryce Young and Leonard Moore. Not to mention, there's a lot of guys on defense who will likely see a major bump in their ranking after their senior year.

ISD has Mullins, Hobbs and Kahoun currently rated as 4-stars. I'd be surprised if they stay 3-stars, especially Mullins (seriously, why is he ranked so low?). I think Rezac also has a very good shot of shooting up the rankings if he gets bigger. His junior film is impressive, albeit he was quite skinny. I look back on the '21 class, I don't see that kind of ceiling on a lot of guys, at least not ones that were even close to realizing it. There's a big difference between Teddy Rezac's ceiling and Will Schweitzer's. There's a BIG difference between Cole Mullins and Devin Auipiu. The only guy I saw that had that combination of big frame and athleticism that you want for defense was Jason Onye, who funny enough, seems to finally be ready to contribute.

 

[NDMatt91]

Loy thinks OSU for KVA. Recruiting is officially a joke.

Hopefully no one will be surprised by that.

 

[Reaper97]

I still believe USC made the better hire.

Riley?

Dude always has more talent than every team he plays, going back to Oklahoma, & still loses 3-4 games a year.
He had the Heisman winner at QB, & 2 Touchdown lead in the 4th Q & still lost to Tulane.

Riley can’t get out of his own way.

 

[NDQuebec]

Riley?

Dude always has more talent than every team he plays, going back to Oklahoma, & still loses 3-4 games a year.
He had the Heisman winner at QB, & 2 Touchdown lead in the 4th Q & still lost to Tulane.

Riley can’t get out of his own way.

He turned around USC in a year by doing what he had to do. He beat ND. He is a QB's coach, experienced, works hard and knows his stuff. I like Freeman but I'd take Riley any day over him. Riley is one of the top 7 coaches in college football according to many sites. Freeman has yet to prove a thing.

 

[irishff1014]

It’s probably time I follow recruiting a little less. It’s clear we have 0 momentum in Recruiting right now and I would be surprised if someone else jumped ship. And I don’t expect them to land these money hungry kids.

We better hope these coaches can coach and develop these players or we are going to be in serious trouble.

 

[ACamp1900]

So the tone is we are back to the willingham days getting out worked by central Florida,…….

 

[TNUtoNotreDame]

Feels like a Weis class.

Yeah, still a long way to go also. Heaven forbid we struggle out of the gate.

 

[TNUtoNotreDame]

So the tone is we are back to the willingham days getting out worked by central Florida,…….

Just need the golf clubs and a run to the bathroom.

 

[Blazers46]

Yeah, still a long way to go also. Heaven forbid we struggle out of the gate.

Out of the gate means we have trouble with Navy and Tenn State… either and I’m giving my tickets away for free