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

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All good points, except USC is no where near the Pete Caroll era, or even headed there. Their defense will be suspect once again this year. The offense will be dynamic, but not the D.

and their defense has improved since last year due to the portal. I have no doubt that as long as Riley stays, USC will be a top 4 team within two years.

And it will continue to suck under Riley.

Also, Riley wilk jump to the NFL as soon as possible.

Almost as much as ND’s dogshit defensive class.

No ND fan would do that. Get lost.

…rise.

He snagged Caleb Williams and Jordan Addison, and gave every defensive coordinator a major headache. That, plus a total of 23 transfers brought in, including several who got drafted.

USC is going to be good under Riley for a long time.

There are Bama fans starting to wonder if the game has passed Saban by. UGA had moments they didn't like Smart. Harbaugh had to take a paycut to keep his job.

It is what it is.

F**k ‘em, any school that isn’t ND is the enemy.

I'm sure you could have read down the board a little to get the answers you're looking for, if you were looking for them, which you're not.

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Until the product on the field meets consistency and results will we see the fruits of our labor.

Although it helps that Freeman is a better/more aggressive recruiter than Kelly, "connecting" with high level recruits wasn't the key determinant for his selection.

Freeman was hired because a) he has some positive attributes that indicated he would be a good head coach, b) had it not been an internal like Freeman/Rees, it would have killed at least 2 years of recruiting simply from a continuity standpoint (Note: Fickel would have been the head coach had JW had been willing to wait) and c) taking a flyer on an existing head coach that was interested in ND poses its own set of risks and we know JW chooses the easy path. You never know if guy you think would fit in will. Freeman was a known guy who already fit and ND isn't not an easy fit.

We all knew that Kelly was a lazy recruiter that settled for kids easier to recruit because it was easier. He was only marginally better in this regard than Ty who never chased anyone and thought recruits would come to him.

Now that Freeman isn't saddled with a highly inexperienced OC that wasn't of his choosing and he has another year of experience as head coach, I would think that on-the field product will be improved.

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And now, they’re second for KVA. So IDGAF if he is a nice guy, who loves the school, he’s f’n up the program. He hired these noodle brained, lazy asshole assistants that suck at recruiting.

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And no, Freeman was definitely hired to be an elite recruiter. There was no other reason to offer him the job. If hiring Fickell meant blowing up the ‘22 class, that would’ve been the right move, if Freeman doesn’t pick it up. He really should be ashamed at this Defensive class.

And no, Freeman was definitely hired to be an elite recruiter. There was no other reason to offer him the job. If hiring Fickell meant blowing up the ‘22 class, that would’ve been the right move, if Freeman doesn’t pick it up. He really should be ashamed at this Defensive class.

And that is not to blame them for being unable "at that age" to appreciate the life time benefits of a quality education.

No coach ever could woo kids to an institution of higher learning who are more fixated on instant gratification.

Coach Freeman understood and appreciated what ND stands for and is able to offer and he seems sanguine with his situation.

As long as the team plays to its actual potential and the Coach continues to exhibit class and integrity I am perfectly content.

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What’s “real good?”

…assuming a typical year.

We will be really good.

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We've already experienced how the LSU HC recruits at ND. Saban, Dabo, Harbaugh, Kirby, Lincoln, Ryan Day. Could any of these dudes recruit a steady stream of fivers on a yearly basis at ND?

…then you hire the best coaches as assistants and pay them double the going rate.

We would sign at least 20 five stars.

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Amazing! Let some fans tell it and it's only changed for ND, yet 'Bama went thru a down period right after Stallings retired in '97 which was the same time Holtz left ND. Difference is 'Bama got it right after a decade and we still keep putting limits on the program and come up with the same 2-3 excuses 25 years later!

World?
Yikes.

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Really bored with this so I'm done.

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How many 5*? The thing is, this class might finish with 3 5* and a high 4* and still be outside the top 10 bc the rest of the class sucks.

I totally agree with this comment. Everyone wants 5star players but most 5 stars could barely pass a basic math test do you really expect these guys to get into a school like ND, come on. You do understand most high schools down south just pass these 5 stars along because they are afraid of hurting their future by holding them back. This has nothing to do with Marcus Freeman's ability, but the players ability to even get in. ND recruits the best and brighest with emphasis on brightest. ND will never bring in a plethora of 5 stars, your living a fantasy land if you believe this is Marcus's fault. Marcus has done a great job understanding what is needed and spending the time chasing that.Go root for Bama if you cant accept this fact. ND is education 1st, football 2nd. That will never change no matter how bad we all want it to. ND will get it done and get its share of 5 stars that can get in. Im not worried,.#NDIrishFaithfulforever!!

Well GPAs and Test scores are definitely not hard to find in this day and age and would show otherwise, ppl seem to think you need a 3.5 GPA and 1300 SAT to get into ND as an "athlete" as if their regular students and it's simply not true. I remember they posed the question 2 seasons ago about "How many of the nation’s top 100 players, in a given recruiting cycle, can Notre Dame reasonably pursue?" Tom Lemming said 60-70, Mike Denbrock 35-40! I think both were right with one being an admissions bar number and the later being based on "fit". Granted, I remember the stress on higher standards were put in motion after the '93 season when average scores were 1220 for regular students on their SAT's, and the Football team averaged 890. Fast forward to 2011 and it was 1300 for students and 1000 for Football players, basically 80-100 pt increase over close to a decade. I think NDs demand is that you at least just be "competitive" in the class room even as an "athlete" while regular students must be superior, I recall coming out of HS and them having an acceptance rate of around 18-20%.

The SAT score increase was more due to the recalibration of the mean back in the mid 90's, since the average SAT score had been declining with more states making all students (not just college prospects) take the said exam.

This place never fails to disappoint.

UGA, 'Bama, LSU, Clemson, Oklahoma, USC and to a degree Penn St have went head to head with ND in recruting wars and won over 5*. I think the notion needs to change first before anything is done.

Well I never said ALL 5 stars live down south. I know not all top athletes live in just 1 section of the country. I only referenced the south because I coach high school down south and have seen teachers do this for the best athletes in other sports also. Including 1 DT from Cleveland high school in my county that was recruited by Clemson (the same year they were after another DT nearby named Dexter Lawrence from Wake Forest). The only problem is this kid could barely even spell his name but teachers didnt want to hurt his opportunity to go to Clemson. Unfortunately he only lasted 1 year and transferred to a lower tiered FL school. A former head football coach and AD at my high school were investigated by the county school board and forced to resign for a similar reason tampering with a players grades who was being recruited by Tenn, so I was speaking from personal knowledge unlike you. If you dont know everyone's background here then maybe you should just STFU. Its asshokes like you that ruin this site because you cant wait to complain about everyone's comment when in reality you dont know shit. WTF do you care if people post about things they know are real and you have no real life so you cant resist yourself. I dont feel like I have to explain my background to anyone but I'll do you this 1 favor because you pissed me off.... dickhead!

Heh asshole, I live in the south and am sick of the constant bashing that goes on by all the people who live up north and constantly project a stereotype on any kid that comes from the south or any SEC school in the south. There are plenty of hillbilly morons from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana etc.

Meanwhile with your incredible 14 posts in 10 years perhaps it’s best to keep your mouth shut? You don’t seem to have anything to offer and I am guessing have nothing to do with Notre Dame.

Recruit the private schools down south, but the public school kids are going to be an issue.

I’m so tired of the academic excuse. It’s not that hard for any kid that has a functional brain and puts forth some effort. Yeah, that eliminates a lot of public school kids from the South, but that’s not all of the top 100.

Taking low quality players like Wafle, Mullins, Rezac, Kahoun, Hobbs and Urlacher is the staff being lazy.

I've been tired of this academic excuse, its getting long in the tooth and at some point you find a way to turn a negative into a positive.

I agree, it’s an overused excuse, but it’s still a real limitation. And even if a kid does qualify for admission, he might not want to do the work when he gets to ND.

ND needs to get a lot better recruiting in this class, there’s no excuse to take this many 3*.

I know for sure that more than half could qualify, but you do make a better point about getting the work done once your at ND! Well thats also another thing that's been beat like a drum because really it boils down to the coaches decision on eligibilty or penalties with grades, because at ND to be in academic good standing with the "School" Student-Athletes must maintain a 1.8 GPA their first year and as a Sophomore you must maintain a 2.0 GPA, if that's not attainable by a 5* guy and only 3* guys then I don't what is??

Link: https://assa.nd.edu/about-us/information-for-prospective-student-athletes/#:~:text=Academic%20Eligibility,minimum%20semester%20average%20of%202.000.

To where that min GPA shouldn’t be an issue with some effort. But again, a lot of kids have to decide if that effort is worth it when they could be having fun instead of studying.

I don’t think anyone here is under the impression they can match the elite programs in recruiting. It’s just not possible, at least with any kind of consistency. However, they have to be better than they are right now.

NIL was a thing before Freeman was hired, he wasn’t blindside by it. He was hired over more experienced candidates, with a proven track record as a HC, bc he was supposed to be an elite recruiter. And this is far from elite recruiting. I’ll be honest, he did better on the field than I thought he would yr 1 after the 0-2 start. He grew a lot as a HC, but that trade off for this mediocre recruiting, isn’t worth it.

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We could get a coach with actual experience, who wouldn’t lose to Marshall or Stanford. If Freeman is just going to bring in the same 3* scrubs as Kelly, he has no business in this job.