Wild Finish For 2017 Notre Dame Recruiting
With two weeks to go until signing day, 2017 Notre Dame recruiting was in a dark place indeed, with only 15 commits in the class. Some knee-buckling late defections, the natural uncertainty around five new assistant coaches, and the negative vibes from a disastrous 4-8 season had most of the Irish fan base in a very dark place indeed. Those final two weeks kicked off rather inauspiciously with a rumored Irish lean discovered to actually be a silent Oklahoma commit, and another rumored Irish lean reporting that he didn’t connect with the players on his official visit. At that point we were circling the drain – or so it was assumed…
Fast forward to signing day, and, well… All I can say is that everyone on the Notre Dame coaching staff most definitively deserves coffee today. The story of the 2017 cycle changed dramatically over the final week, as the Irish picked up six quality commits to get to 21 overall and push the 247 Composite class ranking to 11th. Yes, there are of course some concerns – we’ll get to those – but we need to acknowledge the fact that the new staff busted their proverbial tails on the recruiting trail and did a phenomenal job to close out the class in style.
If you have a few minutes, I highly recommend you at least scan the transcript of Brian Kelly’s signing day press conference. Particularly notable was the amount of praise he heaped on the core 15 commits who stuck with the Irish throughout the cycle, starting with this quote just a minute or so into the proceedings:
We couldn’t be where we are today unless we had 15 student-athletes that were committed to Notre Dame from the start to the finish. Really during a very difficult season, this group of 15 really had to endure the things that would occur out there in recruiting during a very difficult season. Other schools reminding them about a very difficult season that we had. Then there was them sticking together because of why they wanted to come to Notre Dame.
I think this class, I guess is what I’m saying, is about the 15 that really stuck together, giving myself an opportunity to reconstitute our staff, put our staff together, get back out on the road after the dead period, and finish it out really strong.
You can also check out the official Notre Dame signing day coverage at UND.com – they have bios and videos of all the players, interviews with the coaches, etc.
Class Rankings by Service
247: 13th (10 four-stars, 10 three-stars, 1 two-star)
Rivals: 13th (8 four-stars, 12 three-stars, 1 two-star)
Scout: 13th (11 four-stars, 10 three-stars)
ESPN: 16th (10 four-stars, 11 three-stars)
247 Composite: 11th (10 four-stars, 10 three-stars, 1 two-star)
If you’re wondering how we have the 11th class by Composite when we don’t rank that highly on any of the individual services, note that the Composite team ranking is not a straight arithmetic mean of the other services – it’s the result of an algorithm based on what the individual players’ Composite scores are, with higher weighting given to higher-level players.
Class Composition
Here are the number of signees by position.
QB – 1
RB – 1
WR – 2
TE – 2
OL – 4
SDE – 2
WDE – 1
DT – 2
LB – 2
CB – 0
S – 3
K/P – 1
The number that really jumps out, of course, is the zero at cornerback – the late defections of Thomas Graham, Paulson Adebo, and Elijah Hicks really left the staff in a bind, especially since they all occurred during the dead period. Fortunately, we took a lot of defensive backs in the 2016 cycle and it turned out that all of them could play. As it stands right now, Notre Dame has five corners with quality game experience who have multiple years of eligibility left in Shaun Crawford, Nick Watkins, Donte Vaughn, Julian Love, and Troy Pride. They have two other guys in Ashton White and Nick Coleman who have experience at corner and will get a look at safety in the spring, per Todd Lyght’s comments yesterday. Taking a zero in this class is not ideal, certainly, and it puts more pressure on the staff to get both quality and quantity in the 2018 cycle, but it’s not the end of the world.
The other number that sticks out is weakside defensive end, where the Irish landed just one developmental prospect. That position continues to be the bane of Notre Dame recruiting for some reason; even more so than corner, I think the staff has to really hit a couple of home runs here in 2018. They also have to hope that Daelin Hayes is as good as advertised to give them a bit of a cushion for the 2018 season.
Otherwise, I really like the breakdown here; I think there’s very good balance in this class, especially when combined with last year’s class.
The Super Official 18 Stripes Class Grades
As a reminder, here’s our standard grading scale for this exercise:
95-100: Truly elite prospect with All-American potential
90-94: Multi-year starter with All-conference level potential
85-89: Eventual starter with chance to play as underclassman
80-84: Raw prospect with decent potential but a couple years away from impact
75-79: Likely a backup
70-74: Reach by the coaching staff
| Staff | Offense Grade | Defense Grade | Overall Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brendan | 88.9 | 87.1 | 88.0 |
| Eric | 87.7 | 84.8 | 86.3 |
| Jaden | 88.3 | 86.5 | 87.4 |
| Tyler | 88.9 | 85.9 | 87.5 |
| Overall | 88.5 | 86.1 | 87.3 |
Offense Signees
| 247C Score | 18S Grade | Player | City/State | Ht/Wt | Pos | Stars | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| .9665 | 95 | Brock Wright | Cypress, TX | 6-4.5/243 | TE | * | * | * | * | * |
| .9600 | 89 | Robert Hainsey | Bradenton, FL | 6-4.5/276 | OG | * | * | * | * | * |
| .9589 | 92 | Cole Kmet | Arlington Heights, IL | 6-5/230 | TE | * | * | * | * | * |
| .9417 | 94 | Josh Lugg | Wexford, PA | 6-7/293 | OT | * | * | * | * | * |
| .9251 | 88 | Aaron Banks | El Cerrito, CA | 6-7/315 | OT | * | * | * | * | * |
| .9053 | 85 | Avery Davis | Cedar Hill, TX | 5-11/192 | QB | * | * | * | * | * |
| .9036 | 89 | CJ Holmes | Cheshire, CT | 6-0/200 | RB | * | * | * | * | * |
| .8847 | 80 | Dillan Gibbons | Clearwater, FL | 6-4/311 | OG | * | * | * | * | * |
| .8709 | 87 | Jafar Armstrong | Mission, KS | 6-1/205 | WR | * | * | * | * | * |
| .8706 | 86 | Michael Young | Destrehan, LA | 5-11/175 | WR | * | * | * | * | * |
| .7902 | 89 | Jonathan Doerer | Charlotte, NC | 6-3/188 | K | * | * | * | * | * |
Defense Signees
| 247C Score | 18S Grade | Player | City/State | Ht/Wt | Pos | Stars | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| .9328 | 90 | Darnell Ewell | Norfolk, VA | 6-2/295 | DT | * | * | * | * | * |
| .9089 | 85 | David Adams | Pittsburgh, PA | 6-1/224 | ILB | * | * | * | * | * |
| .8986 | 89 | Isaiah Robertson | Naperville, IL | 6-3/190 | S | * | * | * | * | * |
| .8721 | 88 | Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah | Hampton, VA | 6-2/197 | S | * | * | * | * | * |
| .8708 | 88 | Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa | Kapolei, HI | 6-4/270 | SDE | * | * | * | * | * |
| .8671 | 87 | Kurt Hinish | Pittsburgh, PA | 6-2/283 | DT | * | * | * | * | * |
| .8649 | 84 | Jordan Genmark Heath | San Diego, CA | 6-2/205 | S | * | * | * | * | * |
| .8459 | 81 | Jonathan MacCollister | Orlando, FL | 6-4/238 | SDE | * | * | * | * | * |
| .8452 | 89 | Drew White | Fort Lauderdale, FL | 6-1/225 | ILB | * | * | * | * | * |
| .8427 | 81 | Kofi Wardlow | Washington, DC | 6-3.5/230 | WDE | * | * | * | * | * |
Grading Out
Addressing Needs: B-
Two corners and an additional weakside defensive end, preferably game-ready, would’ve made this an A. We needed offensive tackles, and we got two very good ones in Lugg and Banks. We needed interior defensive linemen, and we got three good ones in Ewell, Hinish, and (probably) Tagovailoa-Amosa. We needed safeties, and we got three plus guys in Robertson, Owusu-Koramoah, and Genmark Heath. We even managed to get one of the top kickers in the country in Jon Doerer to hedge against any health concerns for Justin Yoon next year.
Home Run Factor: B+
Wright, Lugg, and perhaps Kmet as well have All-American potential. Lugg might well have the highest ceiling of any offensive lineman in this cycle, in fact, and Wright already has Deion Sanders believing he’ll play on Sundays in a few years. It’ll be a lot of fun to watch those guys develop. I see some high-ceiling guys on defense but things are a bit cloudier there, which keeps this grade down a bit.
Immediate Impact: B
Wright will play next year for sure. Maybe CJ Holmes as well. On defense, Ewell could work his way into the rotation, as could MTA. Robertson will almost certainly work his way into the two-deep at safety. In all likelihood Doerer will be the kickoff specialist from Day 1, and possibly more than that if Yoon’s knee is more of an issue than expected. I don’t see anyone in this group playing a big role right away, or being asked to for that matter, but then again that’s not the worst thing in the world either.
Class Comments
One more time – how did we end up with no corners?
Well, as noted above, the defections of Graham, Adebo, and Hicks within a couple of weeks of each other really threw a wrench into things. Notre Dame tried hard to add a corner down the stretch, most notably in their attempts to land Oklahoma signee Tre Norwood and flip Lousiville commit Russ Yeast. I think if the staff had to do it again, they would’ve been more aggressive with their Plan B options as soon as Graham decommitted. Lyght said today that this recruiting cycle taught him he had to avoid getting too attached to kids, which was an interesting comment. Perhaps his approach going forward will be more contingency and less handshake.
How did the flip battle end up?
In this cycle, we lost Robert Beal, Pete Werner, Donovan Jeter, Paulson Adebo, Elijah Hicks, Thomas Graham and Jordan Pouncey. Donovan Jeter was never coming, so he doesn’t really count, but everything else was a gut punch of one sort or another. I think every Notre Dame fan knew it would be tough to keep Beal, but even so, he’s a difference maker at a position we rarely recruit well. It was a very tough loss. Werner was a tough one too, and probably the one decommit that had any connection to the way the season went. Pete Werner bailed for Ohio State largely because Meyer suddenly pushed hard for him and got in his head about staff stability at Notre Dame (which is a fair point). Paulson Adebo wasn’t recruited at all by Stanford, reportedly was annoyed by that, and still jumped to them as soon as they offered in January. Elijah Hicks actually graduated early without telling the staff, then headed to Cal to enroll early. Until it leaked out and forced his hand, I honestly think he was just going to show up for classes at Cal and not tell anybody anything.
We did our share of taking too, though – in the last couple of weeks we flipped Owusu (Virginia), Armstrong (Mizzou), Genmark Heath (Cal), Wardlow (Maryland) and Doerer (Maryland). We lost more than we gained, but still, we pulled in some really solid prospects and ended up just -2 in the flip battle this year. Not too shabby.
Until the final week, the Irish just could not buy a break this cycle.
Josh Paschal desperately wanted an offer but wasn’t ready academically, so the staff helped him get there – and then he committed to Kentucky. Osiris St. Brown said that how Equanimeous was used would be important to his decision-making process, Quan blew up in the first half of the season, Osiris committed to Stanford. Early in the cycle Notre Dame was considered the heavy favorite to land top 100 defensive tackle Haskell Garrett out of Bishop Gorman, but he committed to Ohio State without even visiting. Top 50 running back JK Dobbins did the same just days after talking about a potential summer visit to Notre Dame. Another top 100 defensive tackle, Greg Rogers, made no secret of how much he wanted a Notre Dame offer and how much respect he had for Gilmore. He got the offer in April, and eliminated the Irish shortly afterwards. You can’t make this stuff up.
What’s particularly infuriating is that we lost the “dream offer” battle in both directions. Russ Yeast, Mac Hippenhammer, and Deon Jackson all desperately wanted a Notre Dame offer, but when they finally got it they felt bound by a sense of duty and reaffirmed their commitments to other programs. Adebo, on the other hand, was recruited heavily by Notre Dame even after he committed and was literally ignored by Stanford until the Under Armour event, but jumped as soon as they offered. Michigan completely stopped recruiting Oliver Martin over the summer to chase higher-rated prospects; they turned up the pressure again, and Martin ate it up. He chose Michigan despite not really talking to the staff in almost eight months, with Harbaugh’s cringe-worthy, fully-clothed pool jump serving as the perfect coda of absurdity.
There was some really bad luck, some missteps by the staff, and some just plain weirdness in there. It’s no wonder that in mid-January the mood was so dark for Irish fans.
Let’s talk about happier stuff. What are the early thoughts about the new staff members’ recruiting ability?
We’ve joked about this behind the scenes here, but in all seriousness, Mike Elko really did do more recruiting in a month than his predecessor did in two and a half years. Clark Lea is a ball of energy who oozes likability, and incidentally was one of Wake Forest’s best recruiters. Del Alexander has tons of connections on the West Coast as an LA native and former USC coach and player, and has a reputation as a plus recruiter. Likewise, Chip Long has lots of Southern connections – he’s from Birmingham and was a star receiver/tight end at Division II North Alabama – and has a reputation as a plus recruiter. Also, while there are certainly older coaches out there who are grinders on the trail, I think the fact that the staff got considerably younger this year will infuse some energy into our recruiting efforts. Elko is almost 20 years younger than VanGorder, Lea is almost 25 years younger than Gilmore, even Alexander is eight years younger than Denbrock. Polian is considerably older than Booker, but he’s also a boss on the trail, so no worries there.
I’ll offer this as a final thought on the staff’s recruiting effort going forward: between the day before and the day of signing day the staff tossed out five new 2018 offers, and on signing day multiple coaches (including Kelly himself) made calls to key 2018 targets. Our first junior day is nine days away. Don’t expect that pace to slow down anytime soon.
Hampton Roads, take me home, to the place, I belong… Notre Daaa-ame! Hampton Roads, take me home, Hampton Roads.
Prior to this class, Notre Dame has had only six players ever from the Hampton Roads region of Virginia. Darnell Ewell and Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah will increase that total by 33% in one fell swoop. Craziness. The region has turned out elite prospects at an increasing rate, so it’s good to see the Irish get back in there and, perhaps, establish a foothold for the coming years.
Wrapping Up
All in all, I think you have to be fairly pleased with landing the #11 class in this cycle; even I, who am a died-in-the-wool optimist, didn’t envision us ending up higher than 14th. I just can’t say it enough, the staff did a fantastic job keeping things organized and closing on some key guys in the home stretch. I’m very interested to see what they can do with the full 2018 cycle.
We’ll leave you with a quick poll from the contributors to this post – a sort of mini-superlatives discussion.
Who will see the field the soonest?
- Brendan: Brock Wright
- Eric: Darnell Ewell
- Jaden: Darnell Ewell
- Tyler: Brock Wright
Who has the highest upside?
- Brendan: Josh Lugg
- Eric: Isaiah Robertson
- Jaden: Josh Lugg
- Tyler: Josh Lugg
Who’s your favorite offensive player?
- Brendan: CJ Holmes
- Eric: Brock Wright
- Jaden: Cole Kmet
- Tyler: Brock Wright
Who’s your favorite defensive player?
- Brendan: Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah
- Eric: Darnell Ewell
- Jaden: Isaiah Robertson
- Tyler: Isaiah Robertson
And with that, mercifully, we can finally close the book on the 2016 season and move forward. Go Irish!
Really impressed with the offensive numbers. Ideally you would probably like 1 more WR with the losses from this year, but otherwise that’s pretty much perfect balance. Year in and year out, they’re filling pretty much all holes on that side of the ball. If they can hit on a blue chip WR and RB next year, there really can’t be any complaints about the recruiting on this side of the ball lately.
Good points. Here are the position numbers for the last two years:
QB – 2 (Book, Davis)
RB – 3 (T. Jones, McIntosh, Holmes)
TE – 2 (Wright, Kmet)
OL – 7 (Kraemer, Eichenberg, Boudreaux, Lugg, Hainsey, Banks, Gibbons)
WR – 5 (McKinley, Stepherson, Claypool, Armstrong, Young)
DT – 2 (Ewell, Hinish)
SDE – 3 (Kareem, Tagovailoa-Amosa, MacCollister)
WDE – 4 (Hayes, Okwara, Ogundeji, Wardlow)
ILB – 3 (Jo. Jones, Adams, White)
OLB – 1 (Ja. Jones)
CB – 3 (Vaughn, Pride, Love)
S – 7 (Studstill, Elliott, Perry, Morgan, Robertson, Owusu, and Genmark Heath)
Really DT and OLB are the only spots that strike me as light, and with a 4-2-5 defense and umpteen safeties who can be DCE’d to Rover I’m not really worried too much about OLB. The staff needs to do a better job of securing some of the elite guys they chase, but they definitely have put together a nicely balanced roster management plan.
Great write-up! Really fantastic work, guys.
Thanks!
Great job all! Very thorough. I read CBK’s transcript and once again, I’m drinking the kool-aid. All things considered, I am very pleased with this class and particularly the the faith and loyalty shown by the “First Fifteen”. In my mind, that sort of commitment shows true character and leadership. Thanks Lads!
For the situation they were in, the staff did a pretty good recovering. They maintained decent roster depth without falling down to Willingham levels of talent.
If I had a wishlist, it would be for ND to use their best recruiters to focus big time on some attainable 5 star defensive talent for next year. As Brendan noted, I think that the recruiting prowess of the new coaches is a big step up from BVG and others who left (besides Denbrock), so let’s hope that this can help the talent acquisition going forward. Even just a few of these talented individuals can make a huge difference (see Teo, J Smith, Tuitt, etc. for examples).
Really, you couldn’t have asked for a better final week if you’re ND. After all of the chaos, it took one commit (Genmark Heath) to get the ball rolling again.
The class has some really impressive talent, and is well-rounded minus CB and WDE. The class was 4 decommitments shy — Beal, Adebo, Hicks, Graham — from being absolutely elite.
It’s easy to look at the class and think about how great it should’ve been. With who we were in the running for and who we lost, we certainly didn’t max out the potential. But looking only at the guys we have, this is a pretty damn good class. You probably shouldn’t ask for much more coming off of a 4-8 season.
Any early guesses from y’all on where the class will end up next year? Presumably there are three different paths for the season that would presumably significantly impact things: (a) 10-2 or better, BK placed on solid ground, probably will be around for at least 2+ more years; (b) 9-3 (and maybe 8-4) – BK still on hot seat but not fired; (c) BK fired.
I ask because I recall this time last year there was a lot of talk about how the 2017 class had the potential to be great based on early interest of top prospects. I’m guessing that’s not the sense this year coming off of 4-8?
I guess that’s the $64,000 question nd. To me, the biggest variable in the equation will be Elko and his ability to not only transform the defense, but to develop the players as he seemed able to do at WF. I still maintain that he has a lot of talent (current and potential) with which to work. I have to imagine that he is giddy although expectations are high.
From a few interviews and transcripts I read, it sounded like CBK owned the results of last season. Rightly so and about time. I hated that he singled out players when our defensive scheme was nothing more than a wet tissue. BVG was on him and the red flags had been waving for at least a year prior. Still not sure who made the calls (CBK or JS) but something had to be done… and now it has.
I still like CBK and believe he has the skills and experience to get us back on track. Unpopular opinion for sure. My biggest concern is that he appeared to develop personal vs. professional relationships with some of his coaches and this may have clouded his judgement. I am hopeful that the past season has provided him with a valuable education to this point.
Really tough to make any predictions at this point. If I have to go out on a limb, I will say they will be much better than 4-8. LOL!!!
New quarterback, new defensive scheme… all untested. That being said, I am really looking forward to September and seeing the metamorphosis of ND Football! Cheers!
I know, we say this every year, but with how we’ve started with 2018 kids (#4 class right now) and what I think the new assistants bring to the table, I’m pretty confident that if we go 10-2 we’ll have a top 5 class. I don’t think Kelly will really be on the hot seat at 9-3, but I’ll guess a top 10-12 class in that scenario. If he’s definitively on the hot seat, maybe a top 15 class. If he gets canned, we’re probably looking at a transitional class around 20th or so.
That’s SWAG work right there, as it’s waaaaay too early to base any of it on actual data.
Poor Dillan Gibbons. No respect.
Excellent and thorough analysis Brendan.
Considering the situation we were in a month ago, I am very satisfied. I like the comparative youth of this coaching staff and the way they hit the ground running. Hope we can land some quality CBs in 2018.
I am also loving this trend of landing hyphenated/3 named players, although I am sure the announcers are not.
You know who else is known by three names? Serial killers and assassins.
We may be moving away from the RKGs…
WAIT! I just noticed your name. No wonder you’re excited.
Great write up. I’m impressed with how the staff finished, and like you said, grateful this season is over. This season is probably my fault. I attended my first game. I probably shook everything up with my attendance.
One thing I noticed with the grades between David Adams and Drew White. The services have Adams as a much higher rated prospect but you guys like White a lot more. In effect, your grades are swapped from the what the recruiting services have for these two LB’s. How come?
We’ll have position group posts over the next week or so that will get into more detail, but basically, we all think White is comically underrated. As do many of the pay site mods, which makes you wonder how he’s so underrated… He didn’t do any camps or anything like that and he got hurt at the end of his junior year, so he didn’t have any buzz coming into his senior year.
On the other hand, he just won his third straight state title, he puts up huge numbers for one of the top Florida prep schools, his brother is on scholarship at Auburn, and USA Today just named him first team all state regardless of class, along with guys like Josh Kaindoh and Dylan Moses. And he had offers from Ohio State, Michigan, and LSU, among others. A o, yeah, sometimes rankings are stupid.
Without being a Debbie Downer, I see this as more of a top 15-20 signing day than a top 10ish class. The 247 Composite is as good of a ranking tool as we have, but as Brendan pointed out, it weights more heavily the guys at the top of each class with descending importance placed on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th ranked guys within each class and so forth.
The red flag to me is that once again the guy propping up our high ranking aren’t really where I’d prioritize them / positions of need – two TEs, and three OL comprise 5 of our top 6 guys (Ewell as the other). We definitely needed to go heavy on tight end after abstaining last cycle, but given the choice between two TE’s that highly regarded vs. two DEs or safeties, I think I know where I’d put my chips. Similarly, while I appreciate Harry Hiestand just hand-picking dudes each year, there’s no dearth of talent on the offensive line.
Beggars can’t be chooser obviously, and recruiting well at those positions is obviously something I hope continues. But if we’re factoring some element of talent/fit/need together, I think that our class is a bit weaker than some others in the same ballpark with 10-12 blue chips that are a bit more evenly spread out, at least at the top.
So much this.
Can’t find anything to disagree with you here Michael. I can’t help but feel after the 4-8 of last season, many of the faithful are breathing a collective sigh of relief with the class we were able to retain and a few last minute additions.
I believe we still field a pretty competitive team albeit with some depth concerns at certain positions. Perhaps Elko’s new scheme can mitigate some of those issues.
2018 is a long way away, but we seem to have some great interest from high ranked guys that want to be Irish. We put together a decent run this year and I am confident we will have a lot more in the fold.
I’ll pause now to clean the rose-colored glasses. Cheers!
Considering where we were 2 weeks ago, things ended up ok. Considering where we were 2 months ago, this stings a little bit. While I’m not an NDNer, I’m certainly not as high on this class (or the previous 2, for that matter) as the writers seem to be.
Sure, we only lost the flip battle by 2, but we also downgraded on every one of those flips. There has to be some kind of multiplier there. Then add in the fact that DL and elite defensive prospects have the highest correlation for success at the college level, and this class really doesn’t look great, given the expectations at ND.
In my (worthless) opinion, the staff has to put together a 9 win season AND a Top-10 2018 class for me to feel ok about the direction of the program.
I’m really eager to see what Elko and Lea can do on the recruiting trail. Here’s to hoping…
I’m not suggesting the five we got are equivalent to the seven we lost, but we definitely didn’t downgrade on each flip. Pouncey and Armstrong are a wash – Armstrong actually tends to be ranked a bit higher. I think MTA (not a flip, but Jeter’s position) has more upside than Jeter, and Owusu has more upside than Hicks. JGH is about even to Hicks, probably. Beal would’ve been the second highest guy in the class, no sugarcoating that loss. Werner likewise would’ve been our best LB, and has more upside than Adams or White. Adebo and Graham are just straight losses and painful ones.
Anyway, my point wasn’t that the five we got cancel out the seven we lost, it was more about making numbers. Losing seven guys and still finishing a 21-man class is not too shabby.
Like you say, I think this class is fine as a down year, not as a peak. If we get a similar class next year, we’ll face some problematic holes in a couple of years. And like I said above, I think if we win 10 games we’ll land a top 5 class with a floor of top 8.
Agree with most of what you said. I’m not a good enough talent evaluator to compare each recruit side by side, but it seemed that in most cases we wound up with someone lower ranked, plus those DB losses. I wasn’t trying to suggest that the 5 would wash out the 7, just that I would have felt better if we had 5 of those original 7. Of course, I want the guys who want to be at ND, so I’m glad the staff was able to put things together.
All things considered, top-15 after a 4-8 year isn’t bad at all. But this is ND, so 4-8 shouldn’t happen, and Top-10 classes should happen more regularly.
BK alluded to a possible grad transfer in the next week or two, and that’s why he left a “slot” open, not an OL,DL,TE or LB. I’m guessing a possible CB or S, and hoping its a really good get
Wild Bill!
The guys at II suggested it might be a QB with some experience, coming in to back up Wimbush. With Ian Book being the backup now, that sounds plausible. It seems it would have to be someone with starting experience who’s being pushed out by a younger guy or a guy returning from injury. Someone who could take the reigns if Wimbush gets knocked out for a game or two.
Would have to be a pretty cerebral guy to do that. Meaning, he would have to understand the only way you’re getting in the game is if Wimbush goes down. But hell, if he can recognize that he ain’t going to the League and he can get an MBA from Mendoza while playing a sort of mentorship role—more power whomever it be.
Is it possible for ND to get the DE that was spurned by Bama? I think his name is Parks.
Doesn’t look likely 👀
He’s going to greyshirt for them, believe it or not. A top 100 DE with dozens of offers. He was a silent commit for a long time and had his scholarship pulled on signing day, and he’s going to greyshirt. I just don’t understand it.
I wonder what the track record is in terms of greyshirted guys staying and contributing at that school they commit to. It’d be a small sample size, but my guess is that very few end up suiting up and doing much with that school and the majority end up transferring.
I think most never make it onto the roster, but I’ve never heard of anyone remotely as talented as Parks taking a greyshirt. Kids turn down scholarship offers from FAU or UMass to greyshirt – they don’t turn down scholarship offers from Auburn, Clemson, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, LSU, Miami, Michigan, Michigan State, Mississippi State, Nebraska, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Stanford, and Southern Cal.
That, by the way, is a partial list of the schools who offered Parks and would still take him in a heartbeat. Again, I just don’t get it.
I believe the answer is related to this:
The way Alabama goes about recruiting and the utter lack of any repercussions for it is a great argument against karma.
I have no idea what Parks is thinking with that decision.
What about the mysterious comment that there was more to the story?
I had assumed with the lack of previous comments, cryptic comments about ‘Bama, and general defensiveness towards SEC derisions that “rbn” stood for “Roll Beachfront Neap.” And that the “more to the story” just meant “stop being a hater.”