It wasn’t close until suddenly late in the 4th quarter there was a fighting chance. On Monday night in Atlanta, the Irish fell short on the biggest stage extending the National Championship drought for another season. It was a fun year all things considered. While completing this game review I’ll try to retain some perspective.
I said I’ll try!
A 14-2 season and no. 2 ranking in the AP Poll is where things finished. So close, yet so far away.
QUARTERBACK: B
I briefly put a grade of B+ here but then switched it back after reviewing things for a while. We put so much on Leonard’s plate in this game and on that first drive it looked awesome–if incredibly unlikely to be sustainable. His passing looked pretty bad early in the game with a couple misses high and then another throw in the turf. It didn’t look very promising.
Somehow, Leonard finished with a really solid game throwing the ball. Looking back, I really wish this offense worked on throwing the ball more and trying to develop more through the air. That’s tough to say about a senior quarterback but Leonard really never had the confidence and rhythm as a pocket passer–and yet in the 2nd half against Ohio State we saw signs that it’s possible. I feel 100% that Denbrock played it safe too much with Leonard’s arm in order to win football games and the 1st half the chicken’s came home to roost, so to speak.
Also, Ohio State quarterback Will Howard outgained Leonard in rushing yards. It was close, but the Irish needed a big game on the ground from Leonard and after suffering a big deficit into the 3rd quarter the gameplan had to shift away from running the ball so much.
RUNNING BACK: F
What a sad ending to the season for this group. You can’t help but think what might’ve been different for the offense is Love had been healthy for this playoff run. Despite the protestations that he was good to go over and over, there’s no way he was close to full health. He didn’t have a knee brace during warmups from what I saw and then put it back on for the National Championship.
Seven carries for the running backs in the title game, yuck. We’ll always have that 98 yard touchdown run against Indiana from Love. In the rest of the playoffs he had 28 carries for 78 yards.
Price felt like an even bigger letdown. Only 95 rushing yards in the 4 playoff games at 3 yards per carry. With the known issues in the passing game we just couldn’t win a National Championship with this lack of productivity from the running backs.
WIDE RECEIVER: B
Jaden Greathouse, welcome to all of the pre-season magazines for the 2025 season! After back-to-back 100 yards receiving games in the the last 2 playoff games, Greathouse comfortably finishes 2024 as the Irish leader in receiving yards. That’ll be some nice momentum to carry into next year.
The rest of the receivers played fine in the championship game. The 2-point conversion throw from Faison to Collins was nifty. Can you imagine if Beaux had dropped that pass?
This offense desperately needed a second receiver to develop into a playmaker either over the course of the season and then at the same time in these big games. It just never came together. Hopefully with a more pass-orientated offense in 2025 we’ll see a couple players actually blossom.
TIGHT END: B
A solid game from Evans and Raridon both who made a couple crucial plays. I think we’ll look back on 2024 and wonder what might have been with this unit because it just never got off the ground in a big way like we’re used to seeing at Notre Dame. I’ll be curious to see how Evans gets along in the NFL now. He had one fewer receiving yards in 2024 compared to the year prior in 8(!!) more games this year.
OFFENSIVE LINE: B+
The offensive line played a winning game, I thought. That might seem absurd with the poor rushing numbers but they had to abandon the run early after falling behind. I would guess the running game probably wouldn’t have performed very well if the Irish defense kept things closer but we’ll never know.
The decision to start Jagusah looked like the right one. The pass blocking was very, very good. Leonard had time to throw, and while he was his normal skittish self at times, once he settled down and found some confidence we got to see some decent drives put together to crawl back in the game.
DEFENSIVEÂ LINE: D
Oof, not great. I would imagine Ohio State went into the game feeling pretty good about winning this matchup with Notre Dame hoping for the best. We did not win that bet.
The Buckeyes ran for over 200 yards and Howard really wasn’t pressured very much. I don’t think there’s much else to say.
LINEBACKER: C-
A day later and the picture I have in my mind from this game is Ohio State receivers running horizontally across the field just a step away Irish linebackers for a first down catch. I’m far from an expert but while it seemed like Notre Dame didn’t have the horses up front on the defensive line, we saw Chip Kelly winning a coaching battle against the Irish linebackers.
I’m not that upset, to be honest. Both sides had good players and Ohio State’s really shined brighter in the championship game. Their talent level was just a little too much for Notre Dame’s linebackers. I keep remembering how much I thought this unit would struggle in 2024 and they really grew a ton and should be even better in 2025.
SECONDARY: C
Howard only threw the ball 7 times in the 2nd half and there’s a case to be made that holding the Buckeyes to no completions over 25 yards until that final deep pass to Jeremiah Smith was a win for Notre Dame. Still, Howard starting the game 12 for 12 was such a back breaker. Ohio State wasn’t doing anything super explosive but they kept moving the chains, and far too easily.
The defense needed one crippling big-play interception off Howard so, so bad.
NOTES:
I predicted an 11-point loss and that’s what we saw in the end. Being over 100 yards less in total offense and -1.9 in yards per play don’t feel that great.
Ohio State following up a Michigan National Championship is big kick in the nuts.
The decision to kick the field goal early in the 4th quarter brings up one of my least favorite things in football when you get a 1st and goal at the 8 to 10 yard line instead of being closer to the goal line. Ohio State completely stuffed another Leonard quarterback draw from the 8-yard line and I knew in my heart Notre Dame wasn’t going to score a touchdown on the drive.
It’s not a big shocker with how much time Notre Dame sucked out of the game on that first drive as the Irish only ran 42 plays throughout the rest of the game. Only 7 more offensive plays after going up 7-0 and heading into halftime trailing 21-7 was a brutal turn of events.
By most of the accounts throughout the NFL, it looks like we’ll be losing Al Golden to the Cincinnati Bengals. Thank you for your service! I can’t be too mad after not thinking much of his hire in the first place and I do wish he was going to stick around for another year or two.
I’m sad and disappointed with the loss and it’ll take a while to shake loose from being so close to an elusive championship. Not just speaking from a fan’s perspective, but from a content perspective this would’ve been a huge turning point for Notre Dame going into the future. Now it feels like we’re falling back into some of those usual darkness that can sometimes cloud Irish football. Finishing no. 2 is great and I am happy for others who can look at many of the positives from the season. I tend to see the cracks that need to be fixed and wish things were different!
Now to the off-season!
I was so disappointed in Price during these last couple of games. I thought that he would jump right in and play like a number one back. However, to his credit, in this game it seems like Denbrock used the running backs as a decoy, as Price was only given 3 carries. Or he thought so highly of the OSU defense, that he thought the only way to gain yards was to have RL rushing with the back as a lead blocker (or taking defenders out of the play)
Fantastic season marred by injuries and a soul searching loss that told us a lot about Freeman and the staff. I always believed Freeman was the big game coach and would get us to that next echelon that I haven’t seen having been born in 89. It was nice to see my belief that means nothing come to fruition. Last night was disappointing for sure, I didn’t have and still don’t have that seething Irish temper of wanting to break something like I had for so many years. I feel relaxed in the fact that I believe CMF gets ND back here in a relatively short time. I’m intrigued by the 2025 team and what is going to look like. I could see us having a 2019 Georgia type season with the 2026 team being the 2021 version of UGA. I think ND will be explosive on offense both rushing and passing, but will have a game or two where turnovers are the downfall. For the defense, I think it depends on what happens at the DC position. But I think they’ll be ok. I think we’re going to be just fine at the second and third levels of the D and then for the line it’s a matter of getting healthy quick. I’m very optimistic on Sevillano. Quick side on Mickens for DC. I know Pete Sampson said hold your horses on making that jump just yet, but here’s my reasoning for promoting him. I posted this on Rock’s House so copying and pasting instead of retyping. I think it’s a lot harder to find an elite DB’s coach to come to a place like ND than it is to go outside and higher a DC and hope to replace your elite DB coach and talent evaluator in Mickens. Mickens isn’t elite because he’s just signing the top 2 DB recruits in the country that everyone sees are elite. Those guys aren’t coming to ND. Defensive backs are as tough as elite D-linemen to get into ND. Either cause they don’t want to play school or can’t play school. In my opinion, I want to keep the guy on staff who is elite at identifying elite talent and traits that also fit at ND and then he can also coach them up. Especially with the fact that Freeman is former elite DC and Mickens has been the passing game coordinator and been working alongside Golden for 3 years. There’s a reason that we haven’t had a first round cornerback selection since Jeff Burris in 1993. B-Mo won’t do that this year because of the injury, but at least was on pace for that. From 1990 to 95 we had a DB drafted in the first or second round every year. Look I’m not saying that there isn’t risk to promoting Mickens. There’s a risk in going outside and hiring as well. For me without knowing what Mickens is going to do, I think the bigger risk is letting the… Read more »
What are the chances we get B Mo. back for 25-26? If Mickens is promoted to DC, does that affect his decision?
Before finding out his dad’s story on the NBC show I would have said 50/50. After hearing that, I would say 1% only because you never know what might happen.
Don’t blame him either way. But I’m very excited for the defensive back class that’s coming in. Think there are some all out studs here.
It is official, he has announced he is in the draft.
“Now it feels like we’re falling back into some of those usual darkness that can sometimes cloud Irish football.”
I honestly don’t think so? This program was not plausibly a top-5ish consistent program at any point under Kelly (well, maybe there was hope between the USC game in 2012 and the title game, but that fraud was up pretty quickly) but I honestly think there is some hope that Freeman can keep it up around that level. When you combine being in that mix with a slightly leveler playing field at least at the top end with NIL keeping the depth of the true elite teams a little narrower, it feels like we have a legit chance of winning a natty at some point in the next decade. I haven’t had a feeling like that going into an ND offseason since 2006 maybe? That’s pretty cool, I think.
I remember having hope even after the Natty in 2012. Golson was about the only bright spot in that game but then everything got weird. Kelly interviews for the Eagles (still convinced they accidentally called the wrong Kelly at first and meant to always be calling Chip), then the Manti stuff. Seemed to stabilize with a signing day win with VanderDoes then he transfers immediately and the final nail in the coffin was Golson getting suspended in May.
It just killed all promise that the season had built even with the NC blowout. Knowing we basically were punting on 2013 with Rees at QB. The sad part is 2014 was actually great up until the end of the FSU game and then fell off post ASU.
Based on nothing but pure speculation, I still think Bill Rees and company were behind Golson getting suspended.
Kelly’s complete inability to build momentum coming off of a championship game appearance in 2012 should have been an early red flag that he was never going to get us to the promised land.
Couldn’t agree more. He seemingly caught every break in 2012 with his QB shenanigans working every time even when it shouldn’t have. Then somehow the all world, freak athlete top 5 national linebacker recruit is from Ft. Wayne and you land a top 5 recruiting class coming off the first NC appearance in decades. And in typical BK fashion he just let off the gas and put the whole operation in cruise control.
Golson stuff happens, frustrating losses in 2013 (Michigan, Pitt, Stanford) and the continuation of not showing up for the big time games. Then 2014 we get the frozen 5 or whatever it was called and the wild 2010 version of F-U football after the ASU game basically caused him to sink 2 years there. Mind you also while hiring BVG as his DC which torpedoed his most talented team in 2015.
When you start breaking it down, it’s kind of hard to thank BK for bringing ND back to stability when you consider the first 7 years of his tenure were anything but stable. I would love to know who suggested Balis, Chip Long, Elko and Lea. Without them we’re still wandering in the desert watching LSU win another National Title with Marcus Freeman.
I think this is a big difference in the two tenures and why I have more hope. Kelly had scandal and controversy immediately (with Declan Sullivan, may he rest in peace) and never seemed to get away from it. Maybe it was caused by him and maybe it wasn’t. Either way from qbs to coordinators, to suspensions he never got away from it. Freeman hasn’t had one instance of scandal or controversy that I can think of. The foundation seems much more stable.
I kind of think Kelly put it on autopilot and stopped caring after getting blown out in the playoff in 2018. He came back from the nadir of 4-8, changed up the whole operation, did some performance yoga to show he was different, and still found out his teams couldn’t compete with the top of the sport.
As someone who didn’t think we’d see a title any time soon, I have to agree. BUT, it’s still dependent on the program maintaining an extremely high level of consistency which seems like common sense I know but most of me is still in wait and see mode on that. I’ll be curious to see how expectations evolve, though.
I tried to send my first reactions yesterday but there was a “Closed for further commentary” sign. Now disappeared!
1, I agree with Eric’s title and approach. This is sad, very very sad. As Irish fans, only that elusive 12th national championship would have been right. Anything less deserves our sorrow. To that, check out MF and Riley and Jack Kiser’s post game press conference. Genuine emotion, as it should be. That team wanted it all. Just too bad that it couldn’t have happened.
2, I am also cautious about where the program goes. I concede that there are differences between BK 2012 and MF 2024. And the CFP era will very much help us, if MF can build more depth to make it through the 16 game marathon. But MF is still learning how to be a HC, and that not only involves solving why we weren’t fully ready for the big moment, but his ability to build that program consistency Eric mentions. We’ll see.
You are collectively the greatest to share moments like this with. Thanks!
Sneaky huge play in this game was Henderson breaking up the Watts interception. That’s was Howard’s one really dumb play in my mind; lofting the ball up toward the best ball-hawk in the country. And Watts got both hands on it, but Henderson just made an exceptional play to break up the pass.
These DBs had been so huge at making game-changing plays this year, I just assumed Watts would come down with it…bummer. A 7 point game at halftime is such a different than 14.
Great call on that one. Forgot about it. There were also a couple other times where ND almost punched a ball out too.
Other big one was the lob to Harrison. If he catches that ball and we decline the holding, it’s a 1 score game with 10 minutes left and the pressure is really on OSU.
That one was so close!
I feel the injuries finally caught up to us. I don’t know which one was the straw that broke the leprechaun’s back but, if I told you pre-game that OSU was scoring 34 points, most would have said we have no chance. We had to stop the run first, Mills out, Cross on one leg, Burnham hurt too. TVA and Ausbury banged up. Get a pass rush, Traore and Botelho out. Add our AA CB out. Just too much vs. this Offense. It’s surely a big reason why they doubled their points from 23′? Maybe ND still had enough for every other team but, not OSU. 4 straight drives of 75yds. What if they only had 3 and our #1 weapon on offense wasn’t hobbled ?
The future’s bright. We need to shore up the D line. (portal and health wise) Find our #1 QB. (he’s on the roster) and add a touch of depth at a spot or two. We need to count on the staff to continue to develop players as they have proven they can. Fill the leadership void, which they surely can.
Great year, Bright future.
OK, guy — since it’s you, I’ll start rebounding!
You figured out that my post was partially aimed at you ? 128 other teams would have traded places with ND.
Add to the D-Line issues the fact that Junior had a horrible, no good, very bad game.
First he had no tackles, at all. But second, he lost the edge over and over. OSU seemed determined to maintain Leonard in the pocket with a disciplined pass rush. Junior again and again let Howard out of contain. If he just maintains the edge then Howard doesn’t pick up 6 first downs running, and maybe he forces an ill-advised throw.
He’d been playing so well. I wonder if his previous success went to his head a bit and he thought he could straight up win rather than just do his basic job.
Or probably more likely, he just kept getting beat because the best team in the country had better talent than our 3rd stringer, who was probably playing way more snaps than a normal starter would be anyway, given the depth being only freshman.
But yeah, he had a tough game.
I think we can safely say that Botelho would have helped quite a bit.
This is an excellent point. There were so many times that Howard got the edge – like Leonard normally does, but couldn’t – that just killed us.
Christian Gray is a very curious case to me. Last year, and even early in the season, he was getting tons of hype as seemingly the next high CB draft pick after BMo. He passed up Mickey, a seemingly decent CB, decidedly enough to make him transfer. He makes a lot of big plays, but even with BMo going down, he almost immediately reverted back to the 2nd best CB.
Now he gets absolutely picked on, and gives up a bunch of big plays, but how good is he? He was still the 2nd best CB on an elite pass defense. And 2nd behind BMo and a guy who BMo said would be better than him. Is he actually pretty good and just a sophomore still needing to improve, especially with grabbing and deep balls? If he were on an average defense, would he actually look like an elite CB with teams attacking their CB2? Would we have killed to have him on some of our past defenses, even the good ones? Or is he actually kind of mediocre?
I think he’s really, really good and the best cover corner we’ve had outside of BMo and Moore in 30 years.
He’s grabby and became more grabby as the season went on. I would guess two fold, him and Moore had to be out there for every snap of these games so that makes it tough to be consistently great. He sticks his nose in and hits people in the run game.
I just the defensive gameplan wasn’t good for this OSU team. I went back and watched a little bit from Monday night and we guessed wrong every play it seemed like. There was a 3rd and 3 at the 15 or so and OSU motions the back to the left side of Howard. We slanted hard to Howard’s right and would have been the play up, instead Howard had his RB lead block to the left side of the o-line and he picked up the first down by 2 yards. Judkins walked in the next play.
This seemed to happen multiple times and it just felt like on the rewatch that OSU broke away from their tendencies a lot in this game. We just always seemed to be slanting to the wrong side.
Long story short, I think Gray is still elite and I think next year will be a big help to have some depth. Plus if we get 4 years of Gray and 3 years of Moore plus next year’s class. I’m excited for our defensive backs.
Mmm, I’ll push back a bit on that. Christian Gray is definitely not as good as KeiVarie Russell and definitely definitely not as good as Julian Love. I think there is a reasonable debate between Gray and Terrail Lambert or Darrin Walls. So I think he’s good! Just, not, that good.
oh come on. Because he wasn’t expecting a go route against the best WR in CFB on a do or die need 11 yards play? He was clearing playing a 15 yard in breaking route which makes sense in that situation especially considering they had been running Levels concept all game to that point.
He made the play in the semifinal game to get them into the NC and the play against USC.
Dude didn’t have a great quarter against USC and all the talking heads wanted to do was talk about how crappy he played which was just lazy. UGA tried to pick on him and got 1 PI and a deep go route on him. Penn State and Indiana did nothing against him.
Edit – removed a paragraph. – I’m not saying those 2 guys weren’t good. I think it was easier that those 2 were the best cover guys on their teams. They didn’t have another lockdown corner on the other side. Teams are going to have to throw the ball so they have to challenge someone and since USC it’s been Gray who they have challenged.
Julian Love was an All-American and never got cooked like Christian Gray occasionally gets cooked. Those two aren’t even particularly comparable to me.
KeiVarie Russell was better as a true freshman than Gray was this year, then got suspended, then had a pretty good season before becoming a third-year pick. It’s closer, but I’d still say he’s ahead of Gray, especially considering he was the #1 CB in 2012. You want to say Gray has it harder because they play more man this year, ok, fair enough, maybe I should take back the definitely about Russell. But in no world is Gray better than Julian Love.
That’s fair I can agree with that. Love was a havoc machine in his last 2 years.
I think Gray is going to be great next year. He had 15.5 havoc plays this year. Moore is a straight up beast
I went back and looked at the snap counts on ISD from last year and it’s crazy how much Moore and Gray have been on the field this year with the injuries and transfers. Morrison did it a couple of games last year where he was out there every snap but not week after week.
I can’t believe that those two held up as well they did, especially Moore who didn’t show up to campus until the summer.
I wonder if Gray just got worn down and/or in his own head by the end of the season. Hopefully he can shake it off and get back to who he was early in the season.
I guess another thing to Gray’s credit. He’s had very few bad plays against anyone outside of former 5 star WRs.
Pendelton into the portal. An OL transfer seemed like a sure thing, but Pendelton is surprising to me since he got so much PT. Maybe because of that, he knows he can start at a high level program rather than potentially/probably be a backup next year.
And Colzie (didn’t know he still had eligibility) and Jayden Thomas.
I’m not surprised by Pendelton. Yes, he started, but then he was sitting on the bench later (did he regress? did others snap out of a funk?). Also, when push came to shove and they needed an interior lineman in the Orange Bowl, Jagusah got the call instead
Yeah, it doesn’t not make sense. I just would have expected Chan/Absher/Otting/Terek first, who are all Pendleton’s year or older and even more buried. But I guess the advantage for Pendleton is that he has put some quality tape out there so will probably get a paycheck from a top 25 type team.
I think you are right. Someone offered him a check – something they might not do for one of the guys who really have not played. It’s probably not a bad move on hisa part. He didn’t start the NC game, all 5 who did will be back, and he also has to worry about Craig and Knapp, not to mention Lambert and all the other guys who will push him.
I’m bummed that JT is leaving. I thought maybe he would have a super senior season. Maybe he will – just not at ND, apparently.
Pendleton has a do not call tag on his portal, which most likely means he knows where he’s headed. (my guess UNC-Belicek or BC-O’Brien). He most likely has been talking to someone, plus I’m not so sure he’s ahead of Absher and maybe Terek anymore.
Spindler in the portal now, too. He must be expecting to lose his job to Jagusah/Knapp or someone is willing to pay him more.
I really hope he doesn’t go to michigan.
With you on JT. He’s been such a great team player. Colzie too, I guess, JT is just a bit better. My wife also used to work with JT’s aunt (remotely), so I always brag about that suuuuuper distant vague connection.
Apparently Spindler and Coogan are both in the portal now, and Pendleton is reportedly headed to Tennessee. I would expect spindler and Coogan will be going to big time programs as well (please not usc). Teams will see that they had the talent to start on an oline that made it to the NC game and they will have film on which they can base their evaluations. They will get paid.
As we know, it’s rare to have OL with their talent and experience in the portal. It will be a shame to lose that depth, but it says a lot about what ND has coming back next year. Now, if we could just keep them healthy….
This was easily the most special Irish team of my life and even as I write this on Friday it’s hard to come to grips with this season being over. Notre Dame played far from perfect football with a massively injured squad for most of the night and yet still had a chance down 1 possession in the 4th of the national championship! What could’ve been but I’m just so proud.
As much as I kinda dislike the existence of the playoff it has given us some great things to fall back on. I can watch those first 3 games for rest of our lives!
Countdown to Catholics vs Convicts XXVII begins now
Sheeeeeeeit. Bowden going to USC
Supposedly getting 3x$ the dough he got at ND. At that price ND said see ya and will find a replacement to do the job just as well or better. ND hasn’t moved up in the recruiting rankings with Bowden as much as what they’ve done is evaluate lower ranked kids better. ND isn’t losing the Pied Piper.
How big a deal it is for ND is to be seen. I’m sure we will manage. But going to a team on our schedule every year sucks. And especially the day before a huge recruiting weekend.
Good points, both. I tend to put this in to the “as huge a hire as the new DC” box for MF. Bowen at least resonated with the recruits in clear and obvious ways. If not he, now his replacement desperately needs to move the needle higher on the elite recruits.
His energy and craziness will be missed, though if you watched a couple of those Wake Up the Echoes episodes with both MF and Chad, MF was not always at ease with some of the wilder marketing ploys. Unfortunately Chad’s schtick may well play even better in Na-Na Land.
Anyway, I think this is an important hire, and not necessarily an easy one.
With all due respect to one of the great commenters on this site: in my view there’s no way this is as big of a deal or anywhere as close of a big deal as the defensive coordinator hire. As proof (or at least a super strong indication): if recruiting coordinators were so important and difference-making in terms of value-add to results, they would be getting paid like good coordinators. To repeat I said something in the discord: I realize pay doesn’t have a 1-to-1 ratio with value-add, but it’s indicative, and I suspect he’s now the highest-paid recruiting coordinator in the country… and still making 25% of what Golden was making.
He may have been good at his job, but the market is indicating that people like this are fairly replaceable. Maybe there’s something to be said that the GM position is currently undervalued overall – and this may be indicated by his salary going from $300k to $1M in a year – but I have a hard time believing it was 10x+ undervalued as recently as last year.
The GM position didn’t exist 3 years ago. I doubt the total job description has even been determined. Just as the value $$ of a top notch GM hasn’t. If HCMF thought Bowden of critical importance, he would have asked ND to pony up. They did for his OC & DC. ND certainly needs to keep MF happy and give him what he needs to be successful. I just don’t see evidence of Bowden being irreplaceable. I bet Bevacqua has already received some great resumes.
I yield, o wise ones. I have always benefitted from talent searchers, and then was able to skim off the top. So, OK, I now fervently hope that the current mediocre USC coach is going to waste more of the Trojan radioactively tainted pot of gold with this hire, and that the hiree will come to regret his shameless haste.
I wonder how much of the evaluation Bowden did. Seems to me he was more of the contact guy who recruits had day to day contact with if they wished and even if they didn’t. So many of the ND recruits get their offers after the coaches get a glimpse of them on campus. Especially the low 4 high 3 star kids. Then Bowden would build a relationship with them and help the coaches do the same. As well as with the higher ranked kids.
With NIL and the portal the GM job is going to get much more complex. Being able to foresee and manage the roster one, two , three years down the road.
That’s how I saw it — it was the relational aspect, and he could act like a kinda goofy talented kid and by acccounts the actual kids liked that. It always seemed clear evals were being done (a) by
Go to Top
the team he managed that prospected nationwide, and (b) the position coaches and (c) the Coordinators and HCMF.
I think that’s right… but also our recruiting since HCMF became HCMF has been somewhat underwhelming rankings-wise compared to what we were hoping, so again calls into question how valuable he was.
As you two have indicated, the real step-up in recent years has been talent-identification. For example, Leonard Moore was probably coming to ND regardless given his offer list. The question is who identified him as offer-worthy. If it was Bowden, sure, absolutely, he’s a big loss. But that we didn’t bother to try to match USC’s offer is perhaps a sign that is not really the case.