It has been 557 days since the Notre Dame 2024 recruiting class officially got underway with its first verbal commitment from quarterback CJ Carr out of Saline, Michigan. This week, the Early Signing Period begins on Wednesday, December 20th and lasts through Friday, December 21st signaling the beginning of the end of this recruiting story of 2024.
Like last year–Marcus Freeman’s first full recruiting class–it’s been a cycle of hope and challenges while being filled with far less drama than the finish to 2023. For 2024, the Fighting Irish hit a lot of their targets but continue to be on the outside looking in to the elite of the sport in terms of recruiting.
Notre Dame’s 2024 Recruiting Class
Class Size: A Two-Part Process
It’s difficult and reckless to discuss the incoming freshman recruiting class without linking it to the transfers coming in and going out from the roster. For the foreseeable future these moving parts will continue to go hand in hand.
On the surface, a freshman class of 23 commits does feel a little on the small side. In a recent article, I discussed the reports that Notre Dame would be targeting 7 transfers this off-season and how that didn’t seem like enough, either. In recent days, that number looks likely to increase as the Irish have already brought in 6 new transfers (QB Riley Leonard, WR Kris Mitchell, WR Beaux Collins, DE RJ Oben, CB Jordan Clark, K Mitch Jeter) this month and we must remember the transfers won’t really stop* until well after spring.
*The spring transfer portal has been reduced this year to just 15 days running from Monday, April 15, 2024 through Tuesday, April 30, 2024. So, it’ll open up likely towards the end of Notre Dame’s spring practice and close a little bit after the Blue-Gold Game.
Being able to balance the freshman vs. older transfers each cycle will be tricky and full of problems. If you want more freshmen you’re guaranteeing more will leave when they are inevitably recruited over. And when roster holes become more apparent, whether due to injuries or sudden transfers, it’s often too late to add more freshmen commits. Notre Dame–like many other programs in the spotlight–seem to be figuring out that it’s better (and easier) to add a few extra proven transfers than sign a bloated recruiting class of freshmen.
Case in point, Notre Dame has only added 2 commits for this 2024 cycle since the beginning of July with no verbals over the final 3 months before the Early Signing Period begins on Wednesday.
Flip SZN: Batter Stayed Cold
This was maybe the quietest cycle for flips in many years. Officially, the only recruit the Irish did pull away was wide receiver Logan Saldate from Oregon State.
There were some other high profile guys flirting with Notre Dame throughout the year (Tennessee verbal and corner Kaleb Beasley 0.9348 being one of the more reported instances) but nothing major come of it in 2023.
The Losses: Whatever
This section is WAY better than last year!
Just over a year ago, defensive lineman Brandon Davis-Swain (0.9160) left Notre Dame’s class, and after reports that Michigan would be his likely destination, he’s been in Colorado’s class since June 10th. Best of luck.
Another defensive lineman Owen Wafle (0.8925) committed in the late spring of 2022, tumbled way down the recruiting rankings, left Notre Dame’s class in May 2023, and has been a member of Michigan’s class since June 11th.
Canion stayed home with the Yellow Jackets.
The more stinging loss was wide receiver Isiah Canion (0.9119) who left Notre Dame’s class after a little over 3 months as a commit and then picked Georgia Tech to stay closer to home.
Freeman Impact: Keep the Prayers
Last year we discussed how Marcus Freeman wasn’t able to work miracles in a really depressing close to that cycle. Overall, the recruiting game at Notre Dame has been very good under Freeman, although the needle hasn’t moved all that much compared to his predecessor.
Following a very small class in 2020 (maybe the last small class in school history) the Irish have finished 9th, 7th, and 12th in the 247 Composite team rankings while holding on to 10th in the team rankings currently for 2024. The class average has been over 91 each of the last 3 cycles which is nice, even if that has trended downward ever-so-slightly from 91.82, to 91.77 last year, and 91.43 currently.
Adding More Talent: F5 Not Needed
Will there be a late surprise flip or an uncommitted prospect ultimately signing with Notre Dame late in the process? It’s always possible, but we wouldn’t recommend sitting at your computer or whipping out your phone for constant updates this week.
Today, 10 offered prospects from Notre Dame remain uncommitted:
RB Anthony Carrie (0.9064)
DE Ernest Willor (0.9470)
DE Solomon Williams (0.9113)
DE Jayshawn Ross (0.9167)
LB Bradley Shaw (0.9256)
LB Naki Tuakoi (0.8975)
S Zavier Mincey (0.9719)
S Damian Thompson (0.8775)
ATH Aaron Butler (0.9491)
ATH Jason Mitchell (0.8953)
Most Underrated Prospect: Micah Gilbert
This section last year was a prediction nightmare for your boy. A cursed list, for sure. I singled out Jayden Limar (we knew it was coming but flipped late to Oregon and rushed for 98 yards this year), Brandyn Hillman (flipped late to Michigan and played in 4 games in 2023), Kaleb Smith hurt his shoulder and missed the entire regular season, and Armel Mukam (who we thought would play on the edge) came in at 280 pounds and wasn’t heard from much from this year.
I’m going to cheat a little bit and select wide receiver Micah Gilbert. From his commitment to Notre Dame I was surprised he wasn’t ranked higher by the services. During his senior year at Charlotte Christian he totaled 76 receptions for 1,105 yards and 10 touchdowns. To me, Gilbert looks like the type of physically ready wide receiver that could be make an instant impact. Normally, he’d be getting plenty of hype but his classmate Cam Williams has been justifiably taking up a ton of the spotlight.
Strengths: Skill Talent
This is a very top-heavy offensive class. If you look at the On3 rankings above, the bottom 7 players are all from the defense.
Overall, it feels like a really top-heavy class anyway…which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I’d rather take that then a more evenly distributed blue-chip ratio. Being able to hit big with Carr, Williams, Lambert, KVA, Thomas, Gilbert, and Young would make this a class one of the best in modern history at Notre Dame. Of course, batting 100% with 6 or 7 players is never easy.
Weaknesses: Defensive Interior
It’s quite possible that Bryce Young grows into a tall interior wrecking ball and if so that blunts some of my worries. However, I am quite surprised that adding more beef to the defensive line wasn’t a bigger priority this cycle. Especially with 2025 being a new era moving on from Howard Cross (and Rylie Mills?) I would’ve thought at least one more recruit for 2024 is the answer.
Ask me right now and 2025 is probably a big portal year for defensive tackle or nose guard.
# of Early Enrollees: 15
Yup, we have a whole lot of freshmen enrolling early this year. With these additions we should have a nice full roster for spring practice.
QB CJ Carr
RB Kedren Young
RB Aneyas Williams
TE Jack Larsen
WR Cam Williams
WR Micah Gilbert
OT Styles Prescod
OG Peter Jones
OG Anthonie Knapp
DE Loghan Thomas
DE Bryce Young
DE Cole Mullins
DT Sean Sevillano Jr.
LB Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa
S Kennedy Urlacher
The highest rated recruits not to be enrolling in January are Lambert, KVA, and Johnson. The latter 2 players are expected to be sniffing around some playing time in 2024 so we’ll see how they progress when they arrive during the summer session.
5-Stars Remaining: 0
We are fresh out of 247 Composite 5-stars who are not committed to a school. I can’t remember the last time we’ve been at this spot in the calendar without at least a couple 5-stars still waiting to make their pick. It’s another sign of the accelerated recruiting calendar.
From the top 200 in the Composite only the following have yet to decide:
No. 41 Overall, WR Gatlin Black, Burley, ID
No. 56 Overall, S Zavier Mincey, Daytona Beach, FL
No. 64 Overall, WR Drelon Miller, Silsbee, TX
No. 114 Overall, DL Ernest Willor, Towson, MD
No. 142 Overall, WR Courtney Crutchfield, Pine Bluff, AR
No. 149 Overall, DL Jericho Johnson, Fairfield, CA
All of the 5-stars at On3 and Rivals are also committed right now.
Notre Dame’s Final Team Ranking for 2024: 10th Overall
I’m sure there are plenty of people posting incessantly on the Irish Illustrated and Irish Sports Daily message boards lamenting a class that is only 10th in the nation when Marcus Freeman was supposed to provide a bump in this department. In some ways, I agree with that criticism although I’m sure it’s exhausting reading those comments every day!
Yet, this 2024 class does feel a little different, doesn’t it?
Can the Irish hit at quarterback big time this cycle?
This topic is something I’ve brought up in the past that the composition, positionally, seems important. Take a look back at the 2013 recruiting class for the Irish (the Jaylon Smith one) and the top 14 players in that class included 2 running backs, 2 tight ends, 4 offensive linemen, 1 defensive end, 1 linebacker, 3 corners, and 1 safety.
That class finished 5th nationally (yay!) but how exciting is it really with no big-time hits at quarterback and wide receiver* with zero defensive line depth?
*The development of low 4-star Will Fuller does color things a little more favorably for the class indeed!
Having a class led by a potentially star quarterback seems a lot better right off the top. Of course, the success of CJ Carr will go a long way to determining whether this cycle was a huge success or not. It’s only 10th right now but putting yourself in position to hit at quarterback with a potentially great wide receiver class–in combination with very good depth at most other positions–is an encouraging place to be.
The blue-chip ratio is still a bit disappointing (On3 count is 57%). And I think while you are right that it is an improvement that we are getting more talent at QB/WR – two of the most important positions in the game right now even if the overall talent isn’t moving upwards too much. I suppose that’s the slightly disappointment too. The dream was that getting an elite QB recruit at the very beginning would allow him to help a better class (esp. with Carr himself who seemed to be in on a whole lot of recruiting trips to ND). That seems to have worked at WR but not really with the class as a whole.
I suppose we’re banking on the Cincinnati plan a bit with those lower ranked defensive players – where they seemed to regularly take lower-rated recruits and turn them into NFL players.
Nice article from OFD on the blue chip ratio on the roster by teams based on Bud Elliott’s calculations with criteria for eliminating transfers, kickers and community college transfers.
Notre Dame Football: Irish are still a blue-chip ratio boss
Using the same criteria and focusing just on the Classes of 2022, Notre Dame’s 2022 class currently has fifteen blue chip players of twenty-one signees. I subtracted the kicker and a medical retirement (Tanona) from the twenty-three who originally signed. The blue-chip ratio at this time for Notre Dame’s Class of 2022 is 71.4%.
A quick calculation of Georgia’s 2022 class of thirty signees using the same criteria is currently at 64.28%. They’ve had ten transfers including four blue chips and six three star players. They had one transfer from a Community College and one kicker signed in that class. They currently have eighteen of that class on the roster (twenty-eight qualifiers).
Georgia’s 2022 class ranked third while ND’s class ranked ninth that year.
This would need to be updated since the 2024 class’s blue-chip ratio is a slightly disappointing 57%. Disappointing since 2022 and 2023 were in the upper 70’s(!) when they signed and closer to what we’d really need to compete for championships considering we don’t get enough 5 stars/top 100 players.
I think the analysis Bud Elliot did in 2022 has a decreasing importance after the Portal’s impact from 2023 on and the waiver of class limits. The dilution of blue chip recruiting ranking importance makes this less predictive. The full roster analysis Elliott did also does not take into account the lesser importance of freshmen and sophomores to wins and championships.
Comparing Notre Dame’s and Georgia’s 2022 Classes at this time does take into account the Portal’s impact in a way and is a better way to assess blue chip ratio rather than a single year’s ratio. Notre Dame keeps more of their blue chips relatively over that two year span than Georgia.
For ND’s Class of 2024, factoring in the players transferring in who replace some transferring out would be more accurate in a roster blue-chip percentage.
So I’m not sure if the calculations that Elliott do is worth doing today.
At least the lower ranked players are on the D, where I trust the staff’s evaluation, recruiting and development more than the O at this point.
This year is also weird in that the last time anyone will look at the rankings is in December. But there used to be a ton of updates in January after senior film, all-star games, etc. Who knows if that will even happen now. I’m sure some of it has moved forward and is baked in, Young and Young are great examples. But the guys who are 3 stars probably aren’t having their SR film poured over.
Some examples of guys with great seasons who probably deserve a bump.
ISD reviewed Karson Hobbs’s senior film and he drew comparisons to Christian Gray.
Kahoun – 200 tackles, 27 tfl, 9 sacks
Sevillano – 49 tackles, 11 sacks (although down from 22 sacks as a JR).
From the O. Aneyas Williams has actually dropped over time, maybe size/speed related? But he had another ridiculously productive season. 1,415 rushing yds, 26 rushing tds, 815 receiving yds, 17 tds. 3 return TDs (2 punt, 1 int). Finished 2nd all time in career TDs in MO HS history (152).
Agree about the D.
You make some good points.
Also, over the last two classes (2022, 2023), four blue chip players on offense have transferred out (Merriweather, Flores, James and Staes). I don’t count Tanona. The staff admirably fill in the impact of the young wide receivers transferring while adding Williams, Gilbert and Saldate in this year’s class. The depth in tight ends may minimize Staes departure as at RB did this year after Diggs left.
On defense only Bellamy – a three star – has transferred in those two classes. So we are keeping the blue chip recruits for the most part.
Parker is going to be HC at troy…
Classic move. Let the OC search begin! What could possibly go wrong.
Well, we’re starting the search like 7 weeks earlier this time, so that’s something.
Please, please, please do not hire a first-time OC.
Actually we’re bringing Stuckey back as OC.
I upvoted this because who is downvoting these types of comments!??
I didn’t downvote it but I did think it’s maybe too soon for jokes like that.
I just realized they’re probably going to promote Guidugli and that made me sad.
Ben Arbuckle, Washington StateBeau Baldwin, Arizona StateTim Cramsey, MemphisAndy Ludwig, Utah
I hope they think outside the box and don’t hire an OC for the sake of continuity in a system. Change the system (or don’t) and hire a dynamic playcaller that can sell recruits on ND.
Kliff Kingsbury! /s
Did he ever come back from Thailand?
He had a nice up close viewing to the whooping in South Bend:
Kevin Johns from Duke for your list, and maybe take Baldwin off since he got fired mid-season.
Internally it wouldn’t surprise me if Deland McCollough had the inside track over Gino, but that’s just supposition.
I’m going to make the bold prediction that ND is not going to promote Guidugli. Or McCullough.
Early reporter vibes are they’re looking for an outside hire; I’m certainly happy to be wrong here.
Charlie Weis would count as an outside hire.
A Christmastime miracle. This is like Charlie Molnar but way better.
I don’t understand all the hate for Parker. ND could have done a lot worse and he was statistically better than Rees. I know everyone has this belief that Hartman was Tom Brady before Parker got ahold of him, but that’s not the case. And I’ve said this before Chris Tyree probably cost ND 2 games this year between his drop at Louisville and the punt off his facemask at Clemson.
Side note regarding the 18S article. I think Golden is not a good recruiter and that’s why we’re seeing the dip. I don’t think it’s a strategy to go the Cincinnati route, but more of a byproduct of our DC not having the energy to go all in on recruiting.
“Hate” is a very strong word and it’s not anything that you read here. I am confident that nobody here hates Gerad Parker.
The problem — and this is only my opinion — is that we keep going back to the well of first-time OCs (I know Parker called plays for like half a season at WVU) when we have a first-time head coach with zero offensive background. It’s an organizational issue. Statistically, Parker was better than Rees because Parker was better at destroying bad opponents. He wasn’t much better at moving the ball on actually good defenses.
I should have clarified I didn’t mean hate in the sense people don’t like him personally.
I don’t disagree with the disappointment of hiring a first time OC.
We had the #18 F+ offense this year. I think with the talent we had, even with the deficiencies at WR, that’s pretty bad IMO. And, of course, he got particularly outcoached in situations where he was going up against high-level competition both in terms of the players going against and the coaches on the other side of the field (I realize some folks reasonably think the Ohio State offensive gameplan was solid; I disagree but YMMV there, and also that screen pass he called at the end was abysmal judgment in any case).
Also I’m never really going to fully get over the offensive braintrust deciding to try to play for a long field goal with 30+ seconds left at the end of the Duke game. The end of that game was the quintessence of “bad process; good outcome.”
But, to ACS’s point, I don’t “hate” him – he was just underqualified for the job and didn’t do a good job of it. I think Notre Dame can reasonably expect to have one of the ~15 best OCs and hope to have a top-10 OC, and there’s no way Parker is that.
I’m beginning to think that the advanced stats have limited utility.
Well, there are people on the 247 board saying “how can you say he was a bad OC; his offense was in the top 10 in a bunch of categories!!!” so having something that is opponent-adjusted is helpful. And, even so, we got to 18 by running it up on teams we were beating down more than playing well against near-skill opponents, which is not how you want to get to a top-20 F+ offense.
And also just as a general matter being at the bottom of the top 20 isn’t that great for a program that aspires to be at or near the top of the sport!
We also ran up the score on teams because of our defense/special teams. We were top 10 in points per game, but barely top 30 in offensive yards per game.
I disagree with the talent level. I don’t think we were that talented and we had so many unknowns outside of Estime. The IOL was bad, Merriweather could never put it together and it wasn’t until after the OSU game did people have huge expectations for Evans. Heck Staes was the flavor of the month after NC State. I think the offensive talent has been blah which is kind of funny since Eric mentions that being the most attractive thing about this class.
The OSU game was a combo of so many screwups. Hartman not getting the first down 2x on, not running Estime again, Hartman not handing the effing ball off to Love, DJ Brown having stone hands.
I don’t hate going for the FG against Duke. The WR’s weren’t giving you anything. Hartman had almost ended the game on the 3rd down play before his 4th down run. Plus the guy was turnover prone. We’re not in practice but I would believe that he also threw a lot of pics in practice so I don’t blame the staff for avoiding a turnover.
At the end of the day he exceeded my expectations going into the season. I was thoroughly unimpressed with Hartman and have way more concerns about the Rudolph and the oline than I did with Parker.
wow. Wonder if Freeman “encouraged” him to be looking for jobs like that. It looks like a promotion but….
Troy is a great head coaching job, way to go Gerad!
It did make me think, this might have been why Freeman didn’t let him go. Back channel knowledge that he likely was going elsewhere. Then it saves everyone the headache of firing and nobody looks “bad”. Idk…
Between the fact that Troy’s outgoing coach was hired away and was a college teammate’s of Parkers, and the lackluster showing in big games of the offense. I do believe that Troy may have has some input from outside the search committee.
And then suddenly we’re playing Troy next season in that open Miami game spot.
Parker gone, and USC has lost both Domani Jackson and Malachi Nelson to the portal, which makes our portal losses feel less significant, I’m enjoying this day 😌
Couldn’t happen to a better group of folks
Warms the cockles of my heart.
USC’s once-vaunted depth at receiver is no more. Will the Trojans regroup?
Their two WR commits for 2024 are Xavier Jordan (247’s #18 the position) Ryan Pellum (#33) plus no WRs transferring in through the Portal. They do not have a QB commit for 2024 Class at this time.
They’re apparently looking good for the K State QB transfer, who is a solid player but not exactly Caleb Williams.
It appears my instincts were very wrong about Riley in LA, and I am very happy about it.
I know you spend a lot of time with this with your qualifications on its limitations. As a baseline reference, 21 years of Notre Dame Football recruiting results (OFD)
-Did higher rankings and a greater blue chip ratio result in better seasons and more wins?
-How do you compare previous seasons stats with this era of transfers? In a prior era, transfers and class sizes were limited.
Oregon, for instance, had a terrific season by all measures and came close to being in the CFP. Last year the Ducks had a #7 national team ranking with thirty commits while the previous year’s ranking at #11. Their blue chip ratio for the 2023 class was 60%. Their ranking was based on thirty commits. They had thirty players transfer out and sixteen players transfer in. So far in 2024 they have had twelve players transfer out with twenty-three 2024 commits with a blue chip ratio of 70%. So far, Georgia has had twenty-three players enter the Portal.
Notre Dame will never have that level of churn. How do you compare the two in overall recruiting ranking which is based on that one year for a class? Solely in comparing national team rankings is becoming less important. A need-based model including transfers over a period of time may be more accurate but is problematic in its development though still may not be predictive.
I saw it mentioned in the comments in an earlier article that it is possible that Freeman might be regressing to an RKG strategy. I have to wonder in today’s recruiting landscape if you take some three stars just to keep some continuity in the program, the kids that value the education and program more than the playing time, and have a chance to develop into a 1 or 2 year starter / 2 deep. After all, it only takes one breakout year in your last season to get drafted.
Calling it now: between recruiting and parker, we’re gonna get a lot of comments.
TOMMY REES: WAR CRIMINAL OR MARTYR? A THREAD:
Depends if he beats Michigan.
I’m conflicted on the Bama Michigan game. On the one hand, Michigan, on the other hand, SEC getting into playoffs over undefeated P-5 champion. Also, Sankey’s smugness about the whole thing.
There is no reason to root for Michigan ever. If they were playing ISIS, I would root for ISIS.
Roll tide!
haha i’ve made this comment like 100 times with friends. i’d say this joke, but that would imply i’m kidding. i’m not. roll tide. plus sean mcdermott would be leading the isis football team so more defensible
You can turn your life around, perform community service, reflect on your misdeeds and act as a mentor and a role model to those in need of a stabilizing figure in their lives, especially in Alabama. One can be proud of how far they’ve come in life. Still, “my people will get you” is a reasonable fallback if you hint that you mean your defense attorneys and are not John Harbaugh.
Notre Dame QB Rees jailed in police confrontation
Carlo for OC
Peppermint/Candy Cane Ice Cream is a top-tier ice cream
Die Hard is a Christmas movie.
Die Hard is a Christmas movie in that it involves a Christmas party, but it’s a Thanksgiving movie in that Notre Dame is beating USC in Los Angeles during the movie.
They’re watching a VHS of the game – Die Hard occurs on Christmas Eve
Don’t we all watch tapes of ND beating USC on Christmas?
Unless ND is busy pantsing Hawaii in the Hawaii Bowl
It seems more likely that they’re just pretending it’d Christmas Eve than that Eddie has fifty bucks on the Trojans in a game that he’s watching them lose on VHS, but to each their own interpretation.
No, man. It’s canonically Christmas Eve. Why would LAPD Cop Carl Winslow be in on the bit that Holly McClain’s company is calling November xxth “Christmas Eve” during their office party?
Exactly.
I always thought ND was playing USC on Christmas Eve in the Starco Brands LA Bowl Hosted By Gronk in Die Hard.
Gino is going to call the offense during the Sun Bowl, and coincidentally ND’s acting TE coach is former Troy lineman Caleb Carbine.
I hope this isn’t an audition for Gino as OC. I don’t think Or St has a defense that is anything but average.
I know we are not unanimous on much but I’d like to think we can be unanimous that Marcus Freeman is not stupid enough to take any long-term coaching decisions based on what happens when Steve Angeli with all the most experienced offensive weapons gone faces interim-coach Oregon State.
Apparently CJ Carr is already on campus and participating in practice. That’s crazy. Not able to play in the game, but I’m surprised he’s even allowed to participate. He can’t actually be a student, yet, right?
NCAA rule that incoming recruits may begin team activities once the semester prior to their enrollment has concluded, apparently.
Yeah, this rule just makes it consistent with the Fall. Non EE freshman arrive in summer, well before the Fall semester starts.
Ah, that actually makes sense.
How did Saline not make the Murtaugh best uni list? That’s better than half the ones that were featured.
It was a failure.
Fire Murtaugh
We all have our blind spots.
Too much yellow
Listening to ISD podcast, seems that Freeman knew Parker was leaving for a long time and has a plan in place. They speculate that Mike Denbrock will be next OC. He has been offerred a new contract at LSU but has not signed it yet…
Landing another coordinator who has been offered a mega-deal by LSU would be very cool for the brand. His career is weird but the roster is set up for a playoff run next year and coordinators of Golden and Denbrock would be the experienced coaches who may be able to help Freeman keep the team level and on target.
I think the defining question there is how Denbrock feels about LSU, coaching the the SEC, and living in the south generally. Unless he has conflicted feelings on any or all of those, it’ll be hard to pry him out.
Denbrock grew up eating corn flakes an hour from South Bend. He’s clearly got an affinity for Notre Dame and even though he’s spent more years with Kelly he also has coached with Freeman.
His decision will be interesting, but either way the athletic department is basically opening negotiations for the OC replacement by draping a banner from the administration building that says “We will outbid SEC teams to get whoever we want.” Encouraging.
He also coached TEs at ND with Ty, 02-04.
FWIW, we’ve already done that twice. We outbid LSU for Freeman in 2021 and for Rees (oy) in 2022.
I don’t think showing the SEC who’s boss should be the goal of this OC search.
I dunno, man. Denbrock checks all the boxes in terms of experience, but what is that experience? Do we really want to go right back to the well of Kelly offense?
I realize that Denbrock just fielded a Heisman winning QB and the best offense in the country but that is a major outlier among the rest of his career.
Everyone on the outside of our fanbase would consider Denbrock a home run hire; tough to balance that among the fact that he’s been at Notre Dame during unsuccessful years in the past, but it means something.
Denbrock, Moore, or Candle seem to me like they should all be considered tier one hires.
I’m not categorically against Denbrock, it just feels weird that we’re going to be running Kellyfense for like 20 years when it’s all said and done.
He has had more success than just this year. He also had a top 10 FEI offense last year and #27 in ’21 with Cincy.
Only UGA, UM, USC, Oregon, and UW also had top 10 offenses the past two years. So at least for very recent results, not much better than him.
But true that his overall results have been a bit more of a mixed bag. His early Cincy offenses weren’t great, but they were 105th before he started there so he wasn’t starting out with much.
His one year of being the actual/sole OC at ND, 2014, we were decent at #20, up from #35 the year before. Not sure that says much as it’s almost identical to the jump we made from TFR-’22 to GP-’23.
He was AHC in 2015, for our best offense of the FEI era, followed by a flop down to #38 in that glorious 2016 year. Who knows how much credit/blame he deserves for either as AHC, with Sanford as official OC.
One definite positive is that since 2017, when he moved back to full time OC with Cincy, his offenses have improved every year. 84 > 61 > 60 > 36 > 27 > 9 (move to LSU) > 1. Although safe to say next year will not be an improvement.
So not really sure what to glean out of all this as far as how he would do at ND. But hopefully it saves people from doing as much googling as I have been.
It would certainly be a very good look as there aren’t many OCs hotter than him right now.
Well this entire post can be ignored as it’s covered in “Now Hiring” but with F+ which is even better (although FEI is the only advanced stat I can ever find).
NDNation’s list of OC candidates is a hoot. Skip Holtz! Weis Jr.! Tom Clements! Anyone whose last name we recognize from 20+ years ago!
Hahahaha. This is glorious. But where’s Gruden? Clements is one of the silliest ideas I’ve heard, yet.
Yeah their need to yell “get rid of Kelly’s gay spread offense” and then pining for Skip Holtz and Weis Jr is some cognitive whiplash.
WE NEED TO RUN A PRO-STYLE OFFENSE which is apparently what Marty Schottenheimer ran in 2002
Gruden is busy sending an email with slurs so heinous you’ll have to look them up on Urban Dictionary.
GrUdEn
On brand of course, they are BIG MAD about discussing anyone else which is totally normal behavior.
Can’t wait for them to say we’ve got to at least call Lou. Make him say no.
Much easier than him saying “Yesssssschhh”
FYI, the ESD open thread will open tonight.
We’re already 1/23 since Aneyas Williams signed yesterday.
I’m sure technically it doesn’t get filed until tomorrow; I never saw an explanation why he was doing it early.