UHND.com - Notre Dame Football, Basketball, & Recruiting

I think Freeman is a great cheerleader, but at best a mediocre head coach. He's yet to deliver a top 5 class, and not only hasn't closed on difference making talent, but continues to lose the ones that have committed. There's a lot of talk about what would have happened if DK would have signed. Whether he would have transferred and if not, would he have been a bust. The fact of the matter is who cares. When you're consistently stocking 5* quarterbacks, it doesn't matter if one of them is a bust.

If ND doesn't start consistently closing on difference making talent, we'll continue deluding ourselves that by some magic or force of personality, ND will get over the hump. I wouldn't necessarily call Michigan an outlier because of the quality of coaching. Every champion on that list other than MI has had at least 2 top 5 recruiting classes in the last 6 years except ND.

YR CHAMPION RECRUITING CLASS RANK AND YEAR
2023 Michigan - 16(2024), 18(2023), 9(2022), 15(2021), 10(2020)
2022 Georgia - 1(2024), 2(2023), 3(2022), 3(2021), 1(2020)
2021 Georgia - 1(2024), 2(2023), 3(2022), 3(2021), 1(2020)
2020 Alabama - 2(2024), 1(2023), 2(2022), 1(2021), 2(2020)
2019 LSU - 7(2024), 5(2023), 12(2022), 4(2021), 4(2020)
2018 Clemson - 14(2024), 11(2023), 14(2022), 5(2021), 3(2020)

Notre Dame 11(2024), 10(2023), 6(2022), 12(2021), 18(2020)