With the signing of 5 OL from last year's class, I'm not so sure we actually take 4 OL this year. It could be 3. And with the recent announcement that GAIII will stay at RB, I'm not totally sure we take another RB-- provided his name isn't Keith Marshall.
Note: I realize there are reports out there that say we are taking __ recruits at a certain position this year, but those reports are mainly coming from the mouths of high school seniors relaying the coaching staffs' words. Add in the fact that the coaches can't say anything at all about recruits until NSD and that they are pretty tight-lipped about recruiting anyway, and I'm led to believe the "reports" we've heard may not be very accurate.
What if neither of the Marshalls or Russell want to come to ND? Do we still sign another RB because the coach supposedly wants to sign 2 in this class? Would coach Kelly sign, say, a 3 star project RB and potentially not invite Cwynar back because of the numbers? What if only 1 of the elite OL we're recruiting wants to come? Does the staff then sign some 3 star project type just because we think we need another OL on the roster? What if Yuri Wright and Shaq Thompson both decide they'd like to come to ND? What if they both decide they'd like to do so, and those top RB's and OL decide they do NOT want to come to ND? Do we tell one of them no in order to sign a long term project at either RB or OL?
I obviously have no clue what the answer is to any of those questions. I don't think the coaching staff knows exactly what they would do. There are just so MANY variables. Another thing BK and his staff have to keep in mind is that as low as the numbers may be this year in the recruiting cycle, they will be even worse next year. Perhaps the staff may not try and squeeze every single scholarship out of this cycle that they can, and instead, hold onto a couple more 5th years this year to help boost the overall scholarship numbers for next year. I've talked about the overall balance in recruiting for the past couple months (i.e. trying not to oversign a particular position in any one cycle). Next year there will only be about 17 open scholarships. And we HAVE to sign a QB and a TE. That leaves about 15 scholarships then for WR, OL, RB, DL, LB, and DB.
Ultimately, I think BK and crew will handle all of this okay. I have every confidence in the world that they will do a good job with the scholarships. I think, though, that it's sometimes one of the huge difficulties of being a college head coach.
