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Link: What To Make Of Notre Dame Football's Recruiting Surge
We had the best defense in the CFP this year, but we didn’t even make the finals. The rules favor the offense, and specifically the passing game.
Freeman is a great addition. But ND needs to do the same thing on the offensive side of the ball at skill positions.
We had the D, we had the OL, and we had the TE”s and RB. But we didn’t have the WR or the QB.
Who will ND hire to get the offensive recruits necessary, or how will the present staff change itself to mirror what has happened with the defensive recruiting?
Freeman’s work will ensure ND will have good teams, maybe even CFP teams, but the offensive equivalent is necessary to take the step to the top.
Last year, for example, we had a terrific line, a quality experienced Q.B., very good tailbacks, but absolutely no one at receiver who could stretch the defense or win battles downfield. An otherwise championship-caliber team suffered because of it.
In 2019, we had a terrific line, the same quality experienced Q.B., a superstar at W.R., but our tailback situation was quite frankly poor. Swap out the backs we had for Kyren Williams, and I guarantee we'd have beaten Georgia, and the season would have been FAR different.
In 2018, we had the terrific line, very good receivers, a star tailback, and then a Q.B. situation that was such a mess that we had to put in the aforementioned Q.B. before he was developed.
If we could ever avoid these holes and have an evenly developed roster, we might actually do something in the playoffs for a change.
And a healthy procise was champion ship caliber
Unfortunately, the guy running the defense was anything but that. If we didn't have all of those NFL draft picks playing on defense, 2015 would have been just as bad as 2014.
I still seethe at how Van Gorder pissed away one of the greatest talents of all time at ND (Jaylon Smith).
I'm not referring to last year, because we were definitely lacking. But there is a lot of talent at WR right now. If we bring in a couple top 150s this year (and continue that) we should be fine.
Where we are really lacking is QB. I don't know what it is but, nobody has really panned out there since Clausen. Book out performed his ranking but, that's not good enough. Hopefully, Buchner is the one. We'll have to wait and see. We really need to land a bug time QB in 23.
I also agree that CB was an issue.
This easily could be Kelly not playing the best talent at WR, but I suspect that if a kid is the level of talent that we are talking about, then even Kelly would have played him, and he would have been noticed.
But even Waddle can’t look good of the coach doesn’t call a deep route because his QB can’t get it there.
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For better or for worse, it's all about the QB these days.
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our QBs making mistakes, than encouraging them to use their God-given talents, have fun and 'make plays'. Of course a H.S. QB has a lot to learn at this level, and mistakes are very costly; nonetheless, to my eyes the top QBs play a lot more aggressively. BTW, as someone said (you, maybe), you don't always need a %* QB to be successful.
What say you?
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It can't be coincidence (or Kelly's fault) that all of our QBs have gone on to fail at transfer schools or in the NFL. And I think Kelly got everything anyone could out of Book.
However, common sense tells me that some of it absolutely has to be scheme and play calling.
I'm not the biggest Kelly fan either.
The secondary, outside of Kyle Hamilton, later on, Clarence Lewis, wasn't exactly stellar. Tariq Bracy kept getting burnt all too often, and while Shaun Crawford was able to use his brains and experience to get in the right place at the right time, he often times lost the battles of athleticism (much how Joe Schmidt was in 2014).
Even though Brian Kelly had recruited good talent at the CB and S positions, the fact that a 6th year Shaun Crawford who was but a shell of his former self (he was physically outstanding in practice in 2015 before those injuries) was our starter at strong safety shows that we had some issues there.
That being said, I do staunchly agree that we need to really step it up on offense if we want to hang in there with Clemson, tOSU, and Alabama, on a regular basis (and not just a once in a long while upset). Going from top 10 material to top 3 is going to require that we truly stretch the field. Last year, we had a QB who was accurate with his short and medium range throws, and could also run the ball very effectively, which unlocked about 75% of the total playbook. Unfortunately, there wasn't much of a deep threat due to Ian Book's arm strength, as well as the fact that we didn't have a bona fide WR who could present that deep threat. The ones that could have were either injured (Lenzy, Keys), or benched (Johnson).
I think Javon McKinley and Ben Skowronek did a decent job as WR1 and WR2, but neither of those two had the ability to separate from their defenders and turn a short passing play into a long chunk gain the way that a Will Fuller, Chase Claypool, or even Miles Boykin, could.
I think Buchner gets some playing time. Don't count out Pyne, either.
Jordan Johnson should get more reps if he gets his shit together. Lenzy and Austin should be healthy. I also think Watts, Colzie, and Styles may get some playing time too. We have the talent at WR. It's time for a couple of them to emerge. EVERY player I mentioned is a solid 4* player. Johnson was a 5* during most of his recruiting cycle.
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He hasn't played a college snap yet. I guess your issue is comprehension in general?
(i guess he actually said "It gets through Buckner"...but not how it's generally remembered...)
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Most important line of the article.
"Freeman clearly doesn’t view many recruitments as though he can’t win them, and he approaches each one that way. It’s a change that was needed if no other reason for the rest of the staff to see it."
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Now, we need the same kind of momentum on fhe offensive side of the ball. Rees, and Kelly need to step up now as well.