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Link: 10 Early Enrollees Begin Notre Dame Football Careers Today
I wonder how many of these early enrollees will make an impact in 2019?
Can't see much from the O-line as the usually spend their first season getting bulked up
Jacob Lacey and Osafo-Mensah look like they could be put in certain packages.
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They have one five star on the roster, but are 10th in team talent according to 247. They had 43 four star players on the team last year, more than Texas, Michigan, Clemson, and tied with USC. All those teams are ahead of them in the team talent rankings. No team below them had more four stars. They are finding a lot of good, to very good players. Some they have developed into great players (Coney, Tranquill, Love all composite three stars). Good classes, but not remarkable. Certainly not for a school like Notre Dame.
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A deep and talented secondary, no. Top five recruiting class year - year out, no. Developing 3 stars into top CFB players, no. We are once again in the 10 to 15 ranking as far as recruiting goes with a couple of top 20’s. Not remarkable.
much "closer" to remarkable, than just good...could it be better, sure, but we weren't going to bring in much more talent than what they did with what was happening on the field.
Now, if Kelly keeps stacking 10+ win seasons on top of each other then our talent will likely spike to where it looks like past recruiting was average, but its all relative...kids wanna play where they know they will win a bunch of games. Win a bunch of games and an equal recruiting effort will yield more fruits.
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typically end up with more NFL ready players.
The winning and talent thing is like the snowball affect...
Don't get me wrong, Kelly has upgraded the talent, but we're still a few difference makers in each class away from "championship level". It has to change or making the playoffs every 5 years is the ceiling.
The single biggest problem with Notre Dame against Clemson was Wimbush being a miss in recruiting. He was composite top 50 player, borderline five star. Notre Dame had about five possessions against Clemson with a chance to tie or take the lead. It snowballed against their defense, but there was also the realization when it got to 16-3 that the deficit was probably too much. Ian was limited in how he could hurt Clemson; didn't have the legs to scramble, didn't have the arm to hit them over the top. Brandon had that skill set, but not the consistency. You get good Brandon out there, Notre Dame can compete with them.
But, I said compete. As in 3-4 out of 10 times they can win if the breaks favor them. As you point out, they'd need to get more top line players to be in a situation where they are favored against a team like that. And that's the goal. Don't be competitive, be favored. Clemson came into the game with nine five star players on the roster. Notre Dame had one. There is your difference.
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ENOUGH games just to get to the playoffs is more about leadership and team chemistry. Of course talent plays into it but the other items are arguably more important. IMO, the last two squads have had great leadership which has fostered the solid chemistry the team has—-which is highly evident.
Sorry, disagree, because I watched the games and the talent disparity is too much to overcome vs Clemson/Bama without perhaps a generational talent at QB. We're not far off, but need to recruit a few more blue chippers each cycle before I see a NC as a possibility.
resulted in less successful seasons. Each of the 2012 and 2018 seasons contained games that could have gone either way. In such games I believe the chemistry / leadership factors contributed greatly to the dub and not the L.
aka more talent, to compete for the full 60 minutes with the elite teams we'll meet there and still be close enough to have a legit shot to win at the end.
That's why you didn't really hear me beating Kelly up after the Clemson loss, there wasn't anything he did in that game that messed it up and I don't think a Holtz or Ara on our sideline would have made a difference in this particular game. Prior to Love going out of the game we were competing with one of the better teams in recent years toe to toe, so we weren't poorly coached. I think even if Love doesn't go out they still wear us out in the end with their depth and get the win, but it woulda been a much closer and competitive game.
Building the depth of talent will come from continuing to win all or most of the ones on our schedule every year without the 8-4 or 4-8 drop offs, then we'll be able to compete if the coaching is there.
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than those that are running it.
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JaMinion Frankin and Hunter Spears are coming off injuries and may not be able to contribute right away and the possible replacements are inexperienced and/or undersized for Nose Tackle duty. Jacob Lacey is going to be involved early. Hopefully, he will perform as advertised. Ewell will probably be moved back to the DL but he is a big questionmark. I didn't even mention the loss of Tevon Coney and Drew Tranquil at linebacker. Next year's defense is a real ?
Bonner and Tillery will be missed, but Kareem, MTA, Okwara, are back and that is all to the good. The big loss will turn out to be Love going pro.
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