Any recruiting class without at least 3 or 4 top 50 recruits should be considered a failure. I don't see a way we can compete until we hit that minimum and even then we're dogs.
Reasoning tells us that, yes maybe a few more athletically talented students in the right places gets ND the brass ring.
I'm thinking some of those talented kids at those two schools are a little more medicated than they are talented. And why this isn't a topic is mind boggling.
Clemson, of the 85 or so students 12 are drug tested and 25% of that group tests positive. That in medical terms would be a "hot spot" by percentage.
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than investigating 'roids at Clemson OR BAMA , OR a fake academic curriculum at UNC....Its high time the power 5 schools, and ND overthrow this bumbling, corrupt, inefficient , incompetent cesspool..
Would love to win it all, but feels as close as we have been in 20 years.
Hated the loss to Clemson (and yeah I wonder what kind of hair products they sell in South Carolina that so many tested positive?) BUT this year was great. I like winning every Saturday... and I even like the feeling of a "close win" where I can complain that we were a much better team.
Hoping that ND continues at this level.
Go Irish
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Which will continue to happen as long as we don't land top 50 players.
An example - Kelly started three slow players in receiver positions - Finke , Claypool and Miles Boykin...no speed receiver which really makes it very difficult for any qb- especially one limited as Book. ND just lost out on a great receiver/Gatorade Player of the year from Connecticut - Cornelius Johnson, to Michigan (two touchdowns in the All-American Game). Ugh! Kelly better upgrade his speed on this team or he should be canned. Short, limited quarterback and slow receivers will not get it done. The performance vs Clemson was shameful. The clock should be ticking...the undefeated season was a fraud filled with weak teams.
negatives to judge recruiting potential. Another successful 10+ win season (which would make it 4 in 5 years) with a win in a NY6 bowl game would give us a better idea.
that based on admission standards it would be difficult to land even a couple from that group. With admissions "parity," and assuming that Northern Indiana is not a negative, we would still need to split with the other top 15 schools (USC, Ala, UGA, Clemson, LSU, OSU etc.) to land 3 of the top 50... just don't see that being realistic.
Hope we do and think it would be a great … any year we landed 3-4 of the top 50 would be a huge success.
Go Irish!
Here's the last 10 years of recruiting top 50s. Oh, and by the way Georgia took 9 Top 50s in 2018, we have 10 in the last 10 years. No matter how good of a coach we get, we cannot overcome the talent disparity vs the elite.
2019 - None so far
2018 - 0
2017 - 0
2016 - Tommy Kraemer
2015 - Brandon Wimbush
2014 - 0
2013 - Jaylon Smith, Max Redfield, Greg Bryant
2012 - Gunner Kiel
2011 - Aaron Lynch, Ishaq Williams, Stephon Tuitt, Ben Koyack
2010 - 0
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It will be hard for any team to be there every year and even those who were on top (USC, FL St, Oregon, Auburn...) and have great players have struggled of late. And in that group USC seems particularly interesting as they have the 5* talent (average about 3/year over the past 8 years)?
For ND, with our recruiting limitations (I am thinking academic primarily) I think a shot at a NC every 5 years or so is likely a success.
This would require better talent development or better identification of talent (finding gems) in the recruiting process. I think we can agree that we have had some great talent at 4 star and below (Q Nelson or J Love as recent examples) that have either developed or been "coached up" to play at NC level. We would need more of that across multiple years along with a few of the 5's as you note in order to compete with Bama, Georgia etc.
Go Irish
Yes, that is my point. We need to hit on and develop the Julian Loves, Zach Martins and Will Fullers as you mentioned in addition to bringing in 3-4 Jaylon Smiths and Stephon Tuitts. Then, and only then, do we have a chance against the big boys.
At this point I assume we agree, let me know if I missed something.