The competitive advantage of Notre Dame is largely driven by the ability to get recruits on campus. Without that working for us we are in trouble and thats our situation currently. How can we sell the advantage of ND to four and five star kids when we are asking them to typically relocate many miles from home during the virus situation, there are simply too many other good options closer to where they reside.. Mama currently has little interest in having their kid be located this far from home, as indicated by the number of regular students that are opting to take a year off.

Kelly and his staff are not perfect but I personally think its unfair to judge them based on recent experience. I am overall impressed with the team of coaches (from a recruiting standpoint) he has put together but this is not the year to try and judge them. What started as a great recruiting year has turned into somewhat of a disappointment recently and I for one think they are lucky if they can keep the existing committments. I am still optimistic we can find a gem or two this year but its an uphill battle until travel is opened up.

The one advantage I see us as having picked up recently is the likely closure of West Coast schools, and particularly Stanford which has taken several kids in recent years that would have gone to ND, but with the improved football situation for the Cardinal recently this has made them touch competition for the strong academic student athlete that the Irish have had to focus on. For this type of recruit it is often Stanford versus ND as those are the better options in the country for those with a strong academic focus. Given the number of transfers from Stanford after last season year and their lack of success with recruiting this year they appear to be in decline and that should help us in a head to head battle.

As for Mack Brown, I have spent some time with him and he is an outstanding recruiter and coach and he has been energized to prove the Texas folks were wrong to let him go, which they were. He has lots of local talent that typically went out of state and he has now closed the borders successfully. His lack of recruits this year out of state helps support my opinion, recruits, for now, want to stay close to home.