It’s coming up on three months since Notre Dame’s last commitment on the offensive side of the ball — the most recent one being 3-star OL Pat Coogan on April 15th. There’s a lot of grumbling going on by ND fans insisting this is Tommy Rees’ fault or Jeff Quinn’s fault or (insert the name of any offensive coach here)’s fault. While I’m far from happy with how offensive recruiting has gone over the past few months, we’re in the completely unprecedented situation of a roughly 4-month-long-and counting recruiting dead period so I don’t think that’s completely fair. Notre Dame’s bread-and-butter has always been wow-ing kids on campus visits and those have been prohibited since March.
2021 QB commit Tyler Buchner’s composite 5-star status will probably disappear whenever the recruiting sites tweak their rankings next. He competed in the Elite 11 event this week and did not look his usual self. His throwing motion just seemed off and reports are he struggled with consistency and accuracy throughout the entirety of the 3-day event. Word is he changed quarterback coaches about a month/month-and-a-half ago and had been training 7 days a week leading up to the event. Is he in the middle of tweaking his motion? Fatigued from all the training? Who knows? I’m choosing not to worry at this point because he looked absolutely elite at his regional event a few months back and his film is arguably the best in the country. He’s transferring to Helix this fall and will be facing significantly better competition, then he’ll have a week of All American Bowl practices in January. Those will be better measuring sticks, I think.
What’s going on at linebacker? There’s really only one realistic target on the board at this time for 2021 — 4-star Prince Kollie. The Irish might lead for him, but Louisville seems really confident in their chances as well. Georgia, Oklahoma, and LSU round out his top 5. I think Clark Lea would probably call it a day for 2021 if ND were to land Kollie, then focus on 2022 targets (of which there are a few with serious ND interest already). If ND doesn’t land Kollie? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It’s been about two months since 5-star running back Will Shipley chose Clemson over Notre Dame and I still have no idea who ND has the best chance of landing at the position this cycle. Lance Taylor will get somebody of course. He’s going after Top 50 MI back Donovan Edwards but I don’t like our chances there. Tavierre Dunlap, Logan Diggs, and Alton McCaskill are names to watch but I don’t have any confidence in any of them picking Notre Dame just yet.
Looking ahead to 2022, Notre Dame’s evaluation of quarterback prospects for the next cycle has been severely hampered by the COVID dead period. Typically the Irish would get a group of guys they like best on campus, watch them throw and go through some drills, and offer the guy they like best. At this point they’ll probably have to rely on junior film in the fall.
I mentioned an offensive commit drought earlier — there’s a chance that will end in the near future as 3-star OT prospect Joe Alt is reportedly pretty close to making a decision. In-state Minnesota and Iowa (his father’s alma mater) are the other teams in his top 3. The Irish just entered the picture for him a bit more than a month ago, but they’ve made quite the impression.
Months back, I wondering if Notre Dame would target a placekicker this cycle since Doerer is nearing the end of his eligibility. At this point I don’t believe that to be the case. Hopefully this means the staff likes where they’re at with the development of former walk-on Harrison Leonard.
If I were to guess the position breakdown of how Notre Dame wants to close out its 2021 class, it would go as follows:
RB – 1
WR – 2
TE – 1
OL – 2
LB – 1
DB – 2
The Irish have 11 commits in the fold at this point in time, so assuming no de-commits in the future (not a sure thing by any means), this would bring the class total up to 20. Another small-ish class after landing 17 guys in 2020.
Considering the reality of ND recruiting with the dead period going on, people are going to dig at Brian Kelly’s comments months back on thinking ND can start landing top 5 recruiting classes in the near future. But honestly a top 5 class is never happening if we’re only landing 20-ish kids in a cycle. The last top 5 class Notre Dame landed was back in 2013 when the Irish landed 23 guys with an average commit grade of .9230 — and that was the fifth-ranked class in the country. It won’t happen this year, but a top 10 class is a far more realistic mark to strive for unless we’re expecting a big class numbers-wise.
I remember thinking after the Iowa state game it would be a nice, relaxing offseason. Little staff change, really solid base and prospects to have a borderline great recruiting class all coming off 3 straight double digit win seasons. I was wrong. Clearly we cannot have nice things as ND fans.
Recruiting is really disappointing. I get it but it’s disappointing. I have no idea what Lea plans are and frankly his recruiting gives me great pause to have him as the next coach. Kelly has done a great job in so many places but recruiting is the area that needs to improve if we are going to make that jump.
All of this recruiting is graded on a curve knowing that Ohio state/Clemson are in back to back schedules. Missing on groups or too end talent in general will be on display in a painful fashion.
Not that this is what Tyler was saying, but I do think there is more to it than “we can’t get kids on campus and campus is far away from home from kids; what can you do?” You get the sense from the reporting that this is the narrative that the coaches are trying to get out there. However, Michigan and Ohio State are recruiting just fine and nationally through all of this, so it’s pretty clear that there is a staff and/or recruiting department-specific problem or problems too.
Not sure what it is to be done, but hopefully they fix it.
I definitely think getting kids on campus has been more important for Notre Dame’s recruiting process than it is Ohio State, Michigan, and the vast majority of FBS programs. It’s far and away the biggest hurdle right now.
I’m sure having a first-time OC also plays a factor but not to the extent that a lot of people probably think it does.
I think the offensive staff in general is a group of “pretty good” recruiters. I think it’s fair to say that without a true “ace” it’s been a struggle to overcome the unique set of challenges that have presented themselves this cycle.
I don’t know what to make of ND’s recruiting right now. Back in January things looked much more positive. There were a large number of highly ranked players showing big interest. ND has missed on all since then and only a couple remain in the picture. Certainly the pandemic is one reason for the fall off. Does Chip Long’s departure figure in too?
If things don’t improve some, back to back years with Clemson and tOSU on the schedule look foreboding. There will be a big talent gap if things stay the same.
Speculation is this could be a big year for kids flipping. Seems there were many more early commitments than in years past. Hopefully ND can flip a player or two while keeping their own kids in the fold.
Some thoughts based on what I have been reading lately.
QB — I agree that he is likely to lose that 5th star, but his commitment seems solid
RB — Going all in on only Shipley seems like a bad strategy at this point
WR — There seem to be some possibilities, but no one seems to have ND as their favorite.
TE/OL — What is up here? I think Eric had an article this past year that ND’s recruiting scores were somewhat inflated because of their consistently high recruiting for TE and OL. That does not seem to be the case this year.
DL — Elston has done a good job, but is Abiara a de-commit waiting to happen?
LB — Surprised by the small number of offers. Perhaps Lea likes converting Safety’s to LB?
CB/S — Mickens has been really good so far.
I understand that the lack of campus visits can hurt ND a little bit, but ND has a lot of positives to sell — playoff appearance, double-digit wins, positive team culture, respected degree, alumni connections, 5 star QB committed. There has to be something else happening besides the campus visit excuse.
If Buchner has a new QB coach, it is not that surprising that he’d regress some, before making progress. I’m surprised skill guys on ‘O’ haven’t been enticed with the chance to play with TB.
“I understand that the lack of campus visits can hurt ND a little bit”
This is a huge understatement IMO. It’s not a coincidence that momentum came to a halt the moment the dead period began.
<NOTE: I’m not trying to get under your skin with this — just wanting to discuss>
I get that the campus visit can be important, but why is it so important for ND (relative to others like Michigan/OSU)? I have seen many people and articles report this, but none of them include an explanation as to why it is so important — especially when ND has so much to offer in general (and as I noted above, a 5 star QB in this cycle as a bonus!). I am an alum, so I know that the campus is inspiring, but I would think that this could still be conveyed to some degree through video. The writers over at SI have been saying that the campus visit reason is just an excuse being thrown out by ND, and I just want to hear more from both sides of this discussion.
Just guessing here, but maybe an in-person campus visit is important to dispel negative recruiting about ND being boring, the terrible weather, South Bend being a dump, etc. Michigan and Ohio State don’t have those stereotypes, as far as I’m aware.
Ha. Beat me to it by that much
It’s important because Notre Dame is often so much different than the schools they’re recruiting against — small, private, faith-based, academically challenging even for student athletes.
I can guarantee these kids are being told by just about every other coaching staff in America that they wouldn’t fit in at Notre Dame, they wouldn’t fit in with the team, they won’t have fun, South Bend is a dump, etc.
Having recruits physically on campus and around the team for 1-2 days is critical to overcoming that kind of negative recruiting. You can do virtual visits, and you can have a zoom chat with some of the guys from your position group. But both of those are poor substitutes for the real thing.
And Ohio State has a lot of momentum. What like 12 in the top 100, the pitch writes itself “you better join up we got a power house here”.
Also with online courses and not really having to go on campus and get to focus so much on football, it’s a lifestyle difference that will translate easier in these times.
And though it’s kinda going unsaid, the mentality seems like if you’re a top player go to a very elite team, if it doesn’t work out just transfer. Especially since the restrictions there are easing up
Have you ever been to Ohio State’s campus? It’s fine but not a ‘wow’ kind of place. Kids aren’t going to OSU because of that, so they’re not being hurt in any material way by recruits not visiting in person.
Joe Alt has committed to Notre Dame.
We’ll have something up on this later.