ND Recruiting is back - Five 5-stars (3 DEs)
ND got the pledge of a 5-star DE from Georgia yesterday. That gives them five 5-stars in this class and essentially locks them into a top-3 class
http://recruiting.scout.com/a.z?s=73&p=9&c=8&toinid=704&yr=2011
Obviously, at least one of these large DEs will slide to DT, you are looking at a future line with three 5-star recruits.
Defense first in South Bend.
January 20th, 2011 at 9:23 AM ^
Recruiting was never a problem at ND.
January 20th, 2011 at 9:55 AM ^
there was a lot of thought that nd has been something of a paper tiger in recruiting - merely by having nd on the offer sheet a kid was likely to get a little extra mojo from the rating services than he would have otherwise. obviously, player development was abysmal under weis, but there were also an awful lot of highly rated recruits who showed up on campus and seemed smaller, weaker and slower than the thinking was prior to their arrival. nd would consistently watch guys lose stars after they signed - nd fans previously attributed this to anti-nd bias. but, i think a lot of it was that weis (particularly in the early years) was a terrible talent evaluator and as more data emerged on kids the real story of the kid's talent emerged and the recruiting services caught up.
one of the bits of kelly's promise is that he's probably a pretty decent talent evaluator. he managed to find quite a bit of talent at cincy in spite of the low star ratings. interestingly, this year we've had more kids get bumped up in the recruiting rankings as the year has gone on than have fallen down...small sample size and all...but, an interesting trend.
it'll be interesting to see how the kelly years play out. i think we've already started to see improvement in player development, particularly on defense. if he does a better job of selecting players than his predecessors, it could be a fun couple years in south bend. i'm cautiously optimistic for next year, which i sure hell didn't think i'd be saying after the navy/tulsa debacle.
January 20th, 2011 at 10:08 AM ^
January 20th, 2011 at 10:20 AM ^
not quite a Michigan man, but great ties to the state, lots of success, ya de ya de ya.
January 20th, 2011 at 11:18 AM ^
January 20th, 2011 at 11:40 AM ^
It's much easier to recruit at ND than at Michigan because of the private catholic school pipeline.
January 20th, 2011 at 12:14 PM ^
It's not exactly hard to recruit at Michigan. Let's get rid of this inferiority complex that's set in recently.
January 20th, 2011 at 1:25 PM ^
for most of the carr era, michigan ate notre dame's lunch in recruiting. as carr's energy waned and charlie came to town, who could at least recruit a little, the balance turned. its been tipped towards nd for the last couple years, but i have no confidence that it'll stay that way...
January 20th, 2011 at 12:30 PM ^
But it kinda makes you wonder where the success comes from.. Kinda Shady...
January 20th, 2011 at 12:50 PM ^
because he is considered to have questionable ethics and will cut corners in order to succeed.
January 20th, 2011 at 5:09 PM ^
I don't even know what to say to this but I am laughing, just wanted to let you know
January 20th, 2011 at 7:19 PM ^
some people from GVSU and CMU and they said the same thing. He is shady and cut corner to success.
Then again, you're a ND fan so....
January 20th, 2011 at 3:45 PM ^
Brian Kelly's record vs. RR: 0-2
January 20th, 2011 at 3:53 PM ^
0-2 in one season on the job is impressive, even by Notre Dame's standards!
January 20th, 2011 at 4:39 PM ^
Did they face each other in the Big East?
January 20th, 2011 at 4:45 PM ^
I lose.
January 20th, 2011 at 5:11 PM ^
He's got Kelly beat on years of NCAA probation too, haha
January 20th, 2011 at 5:42 PM ^
I don't think you want to get into a battle of "bad things" that happened under a coach's watch.
Major glass house situation here.
January 20th, 2011 at 5:55 PM ^
"Too smug for my own good" appears to be a solid rating currently
January 20th, 2011 at 3:05 PM ^
I agree with a lot of what you said but I have a hard time giving him credit for evaluating talent and transferring it to success at Cinci. He was there 3 years so his recuits weren't doing much for those big east champion teams. This year "his" recuits won 4 game in the very bad big east.
Kelly can coach, no doubt. We will see if he can evaluate talent over the next couple years. Personally I hope the paper tiger continues.
January 20th, 2011 at 5:14 PM ^
He (or his staff) rebuilt the entire UC defense in one semester with his recruits which was the same year they went 12-0 in the regular season, you may have heard about it?
January 21st, 2011 at 1:04 AM ^
Granted he did take them to a 12-0 record in the weakest conference of the AQs. Then again that team which he left high and dry got crushed by florida in their bowl game. That game would have happend with the same result and he knew it that is why he bolted. Lets see how he recruits for once... I'm sure by the time his recruits come in he will be gone to the NFL anyways. So enjoy him for the 2-3 seasons you have him..
January 21st, 2011 at 10:32 AM ^
Err I think you are talking about Kelly... But I don't see him in the NFL anytime soon, if ever.
January 20th, 2011 at 9:57 AM ^
if they start combining recruiting sucess with some big wins, the media will be all over ND's and Kelly's knob so hard that it will suck the oxygen out of the room for other legit programs.
ND is kind of nerdy now as a program. Once the media machine gets back to the endless drumbeat of portraying it as an elite glamour program, it will cast a big shadow on other programs, especially in the midwest. It will be the '70's and '80's all over again.
January 20th, 2011 at 11:22 AM ^
Hey, the 70's and 80's were good times for UM.
January 20th, 2011 at 12:17 PM ^
ND cast such a big shadow over us in the '70s and '80s that we had a better aggregate record than they did.
January 20th, 2011 at 9:25 AM ^
Kelly's a good recruiter and will have ND back in the top 10 in a couple years. Look how he had them playing at the end of the year with a back up QB.
We need to start keeping pace, throw a little Hokus Pokus on recruits.
January 20th, 2011 at 9:34 AM ^
January 20th, 2011 at 9:43 AM ^
Uh, I don't think that kid is the back-up anymore. I am sure Crist will compete for the job, but it isn't necessarily his anymore...
January 20th, 2011 at 10:35 AM ^
the qb thing is probably the difference between a solid 8-9 win season and a bcs bowl game/getting into the conversation for the title game. on both sides of the ball the team returns a ton of starters, the areas where we lose guys (te, nt) are areas where the backups played most of the year anyway, and the team was playing much better at the end of the year than it was at the beginning.
a ton is riding on qb. crist is the big time talent, who disappointed in his half season before injury. rees has next to no talent, but managed to not screw things up and let the defense win games during the turnaround. andrew hendrix is a true frosh who most thought was more talented than rees and who may have the extra mobility that kelly has been looking for. everett golson is an early enrollee frosh this year that is a big time athlete that throws the ball reasonably well, but is awfully tiny to be a big time passing qb.
if kelly can solve the qb problem and define a successful offensive identity (spread passing team as we started the season under crist or power running team as we ended it with rees) 2011 will be huge. he better figure it out next year, because the 2012 schedule (and beyond) is brutal.
http://www.und.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/m-footbl-future-schedules.h…
January 20th, 2011 at 10:46 AM ^
Wow, those are two tough schedules in 2012. We take Alabama and ND takes Oklahoma?!? Brutal! Let's hope our program can keep pace with Kelly in the next few years.
January 20th, 2011 at 5:15 PM ^
You should see 2013
January 20th, 2011 at 9:50 AM ^
has not been standing still.
We've fallen behind while we burnt down our house and attempted to rebuild it. Now we're going to do it again.
We need to get stable and get back to perennial top 10 classes. And quickly.
It's early, but it looks like we are now making some progress on the long rocky uphill climb back..
January 20th, 2011 at 5:16 PM ^
looking forward to what happens at UM this weekend, sounds like the stage is set for a big weekend should be fun
January 20th, 2011 at 9:28 AM ^
ND has pulled in top classes year after year. Nothing new this year. That makes me hate them more, that's it.
January 20th, 2011 at 5:16 PM ^
getting defensive players is kind of new
January 20th, 2011 at 9:32 AM ^
Returning to glory since...?
The potential to be incredible has been there for a while with their talent. Here's hoping Brian Kelly effs it up like the rest of the previous coaches have.
January 20th, 2011 at 9:37 AM ^
If they start developing their talent, the sky is the limit. However, that has been missing. Makes me wonder why. Is there S&C bad or is the academic load to much?
January 20th, 2011 at 10:22 AM ^
Unless Kelly has another student death or personally gets a cheerleader pregnant ND will rise from the ashes of mediocrity. Brian Kelly is great at finding raw gems and turning them into studs. Tony Pike was 4th on the depth chart at Cincy and flourished under Kelly. Lefevour was putting up Tebo esque numbers at CMU. The guy can flat out recruit, evaluate, and develop talent.
January 20th, 2011 at 9:34 AM ^
January 20th, 2011 at 9:50 AM ^
Michigan won't lose this game
January 20th, 2011 at 9:57 AM ^
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January 20th, 2011 at 10:18 AM ^
January 20th, 2011 at 2:26 PM ^
It's still your fault we lost Tuesday and I have not forgotten it.
January 20th, 2011 at 9:35 AM ^
At least that's what I've heard.
January 20th, 2011 at 9:37 AM ^
...recruiting was a problem at for the Irish. As they say, "We Are ND!" Year in and year out, they are the most physically talented team on the schedule. During the Weis regime, they just weren't the most mentally talented team on the schedule. We can only hope that Kelly continues to carry that torch!
January 20th, 2011 at 9:41 AM ^
Well I am going to heavily disagree and say that OSU takes that torch. They have pro talent littered all over the field year in and year out especially on the defensive side.
January 20th, 2011 at 10:44 AM ^
...coin toss, IMO.
January 20th, 2011 at 5:23 PM ^
gonna go with OSU too
January 20th, 2011 at 1:00 PM ^
Why can't Michigan get more, or should I say any, 5 star recruits?
Why does ND consistently have good recruiting classes, but poor performance on the field ?
These are questions that keep me up at night.