I said so when I posted the article from the ND Insider around December, Kelly and whatever 2nd/3rd rate assistants are undeniably pathetic and lazy recruiters. They do not work hard at it and it's Brian's responsibility. Notre Dame should, with all of it's money, resources and creativity be at the forefront here in it's media reach. Urban Meyer, Nick Saban and PJ Fleck eat, breathe and sleep recruiting. Cocho Cero gets graded on the "ND curve" by many here and in the national media, as if it's impossible to land top players and consistent top ten classes, missing out on how he's done it once in eleven seasons and fatboy had two top seven classes along with the number two class...after a fucking 3-9 season. Kelly's problems are ND's problems in that he's not held accountable to any extent whatsoever. I'll just sit on my couch and laugh, while the cameras pan over to his vacant face after Dabo has run he and whatever is left of this program out of the stadium.
Look how many recruits other schools have poached from ND vs how many recruits Kelly & Co have poached from other schools.
He's taking things easy until he retires in a few years.
No place even to start . . .
(no message)
(no message)
(no message)
To land a good haul
(no message)
Can you post your source?
(no message)
(no message)
(no message)
That is generally a pretty good indicator that he's about to flip.
That said, it's May and there is a lot of time between now and December. With what has happened to recruiting the last 2 months b/c of the pandemic, there's going to be a lot of flipping over the next seven months.
I have a terrible feeling that over the next 7 months, ND will lose much more than they will gain.
If Kelly actually cared about doing his job, he & his staff should be doing anything & everything in their power to keep any other recruit from the 2021 class from decomittiting & going after the top remaining uncommitted players at the positions they lost recruits (WR, DE & most importantly CB).
Getting upset over a potential decommitment of a player who hasn't officially visited yet b/c recruiting has been shut down is a bit of an over reach. Kelly rightfully deserves criticism for not recruiting as hard as Swinney or Harbaugh, but the staff as a whole has replaced pretty much all of the assistants who weren't strong recruiters over the last few seasons.
If you're going to get that worked over a potential decommit, you might not want to follow recruiting this year. With all of the kids committing all over without ever visiting, there will likely be a lot of decommitments this year all over the country.
the top football programs. And Brian Kelly is not close to the other top head coaches as a recruiter. Head coaches such as Swinney, Saban, Smart etc. are miles ahead of Kelly as recruiters. Urban Meyer, one of the best ever, would surely say that the most important aspect in college football today is recruiting. I was thrilled when Kelly announced the intention of Notre Dame to become a top five recruiting program. Yet, when he made the last few hires, it is hard to see that any emphasis was on recruiting. Long is gone and he was one of the best recruiters. Yet no one hired since his departure is known as an elite recruiter. As recruiters, Reese, Mickens and particularly McNulty are more or less unknown commodities recruiting wise, even though Mickens seems like he might be a good one. Quinn is not getting the job done this year either. Until recruiting becomes the #1 criteria for hiring coaches, Notre Dame will always be behind the top programs and will not get over the hump to join the elite football programs. The 2020 class which started off like it was on fire, is going downhill fast. We were talking about getting an elite running back and a top notch offensive line. Not any more. We will finish with a class that will be outside the top 10. I understand the frustration of many of the posters on this board and get the feeling that as long as Kelly is the head coach, recruiting will continue to be mediocre.
My take on the assistants recruiting skills:
- Jeff Quinn - having a rough year this year (as of now) but can turn it around with Spindler and some luck. Remember, he signed one of the best OL classes in the country two years ago
- Lance Taylor - Shipley was a big loss, but Taylor is known as an elite recruiter
- Del Alexander - pretty good recruiter, not elite level at this point
- John McNulty - very, very impressed with early returns on him so far
- Tommy Rees - think he will be one of the best recruiters in the country very soon
- Mike Elston - elite recruiter, no question
- Clark Lea - becoming an elite recruiter
- Tommy Joseph - very good recruiter so far
- Mike Mickens - still early, but looking like he can be an elite recruiter
- Brian Polian - results speak for themselves
labeled elite.