All this talk of losing the best player from our class, doesn't really line up well with where he stood among our DBs.
***JaDon Blair (#51/#3) of Winston-Salem (N.C.) Mount Tabor saw a healthy bump. His move in the national rankings was up 34 spots to No. 51, and he rose from the No. 8 to No. 3 spot in the safety rankings
***Dallas Golden (#112/#10) of Tampa (Fla.) Berkeley Prep moved up 12 spots in the national rankings and is the No. 10 safety, up three spots
***Mark Zackery (#122/#14) of Indianapolis Ben Davis is moving slightly down, going from No. 108 to No. 122 nationally. He moved down two spots in the cornerback rankings to No. 14
***Ivan Taylor (#132/#13) of Winter Garden (Fla.) West Orange saw a slight slide in the On3 rankings, going from No. 120 to No. 132 and ranks as the No. 13 safety nationally
Link: https://www.on3.com/teams/notre-dame-fighting-irish/news/notre-dame-fighting-irish-football-recruiting-2025-on3-rankings-deuce-knight-will-black-jadon-blair/
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J. Blair #51 in nation, J. Flanigan #92 in nation, D. Golden #112 in nation, M. Zachery #122 in nation, yet the #132 player in the nation was our top ranked recruit.
It's a big loss and to the worst of teams, but I feel like they are over selling it.
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Where did you get #2 and #9 from?
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Try reading, and maybe even forming complete thoughts.
247 Taylor 2 Blair 13
ESPN Taylor 5 Blair 13
Rivals Taylor 11 Blair 30
Also, anyone who follows recruiting knows that 247 and ESPN are absolute trash recruiting services.
Rivals does a solid job, except they only do most thorough evaluations for kids who come to their camps.
On3 who I don't love (because of their questionable involvement in the nil process) actually does thorough evaluations on kids by looking at everything out there, including other service camps.
And you still haven't identified where the 2 and 9 came from.
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respect for are On3 and Rivals.
247 and ESPN recruiting rankings are complete trash, unworthy of being averaged in with anything.
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before any of this went down, that if he had to pick only one out of Taylor or Jadon, he would want Jadon.
But then after our 4th ranked DB and 7th ranked recruit in the class flips, suddenly it's they stuffed us in a locker and took our top ranked recruit.
And you are apparently biased enough or stupid enough to fall for it.
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There is literally nothing about a #2 or #9 in my post. So its not about positive or negative, it's about trying to make sense of his conversation with the voices in his head.
...but I cannot be sure...I don't speak stupid.
but his last response makes it kinda hard to stick with that.
In normal humans persons talkings, when you reply to someone with 'So.........' it typically means you are responding 'with' something you extrapolated 'from' what you are replying to.
I presented information (with link) showing Jadon ranked #51 nationally and #3 at Safety and Taylor #132 nationally and #13 at Safety...he replies with 'So 2 and 9'.
I dunno, I guess I don't speak stupid either.
which Rivals is the least complimentary. Taylor 11th vs Blair 30th.
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No one gets them all!
If they were like 'ND suffers huge loss with one of their top recruits flipping to hated rival' I wouldn't push back on that. But they are so blanketed in labeling him the top ranked recruit when we have one of the top ranked QBs, the top OT, a highly ranked TE and three other DBs at least as good and arguably better. It's laughable sensationalism.
And really, rankings aside, looking at the film Blair and Golden look clearly better while Zachery and Taylor film looks comparable.
Had he stayed, this would have been the best DB group we've recruited in a class since the class of 1990. As it stands, it's still an excellent haul.
That, plus I wouldn't discount Ethan Long just yet. He has plenty of potential (the top Big 10 schools all offered him, including tOSU, Michigan, MSU, Penn State, and Wisconsin), and simply needs more growing time, since he reclassified after his sophomore year.