Per 247Sports. Kelly was 9, 17, 5 his first 3 years and Freeman is 18, 9, 7 See below.
Kelly was consistently in the 10-15 range until it was clear he was tired of ND around 2018/19. IMO post the 2016 debacle Jack pulled the major decision-making options away from Kelly and he was just looking for an out, but never had a good enough record to draw interest from anyone or the NFL. That is, until Book came along from that point on he was just dangling the whole look at me I got ND back to 10 win seasons.
Effectively ND has recruited upper to middle of the road but has badly underdeveloped the talent it has recruited. Even when taking into consideration the regime change. The offense is worse at best and the defense has progressively gotten worse post Elko/Lea, especially on the fundamental side of things like tackling and angles.
Step 1 - develop what you have
Step 2 - recruit better
We still seem to think skipping step 1 is the fastest way to winning. It's not. Step 1 is the foundation of any winning program.
2022 - 7
2021 - 9
2020 - 18
2019 - 15
2018 - 10
2017 -10
2016 - 15
2015 - 13
2014 - 11
2013 - 5
2012 - 17
2011 - 9
Pre-Kelly
2010 - 15
Link: https://247sports.com/Season/2022-Football/CompositeTeamRankings/
The quality of Freeman’s recruits are significantly higher in number regardless of overall ranking …
Link: https://ndnation.com/boards/showpost.php?b=football;pid=475103;d=this
Full year 1, 12.
Which gets back to exactly what I sad. DEVELOPMENT matters the most.
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Pronounced if you look at the consistency between the classes, body types and frames of the athletes/positions and the lack of holes in the class.
He is off to a very good start in building a far better roster than Kelly was ever able to.
they could not be more night and day, and I'm not a BK fan.
Kids laughed at ND when BK came in. Kids actually consider ND when MF took over. That's a big difference. Yes, MF is getting more talent but it's still to be seen if he can develop it. Year 1 as an honest assessment was a step backward to on par with what we saw previously.
We shall see. Year 2 is the real litmus. Anything less than 10-2 is an underperformance. No excuses. ND only plays 3 games next year. You must win at minimum 1 of them.
Especially with the talent on the roaster.
On 8-5 Freeman…he better win the bowl game otherwise it’s 8-6 Freeman
ted last year’s class to 9th. Now he’s got it up to 7th and it is remarkably well-balanced without holes. And he didn’t even have a full cycle to work with.
Absolutely outstanding job by Freeman.
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He wasn't hired as DC until January of 21. The correct average spot since Freeman arrived is 8th