Midweek Musings: Notre Dame Recruiting Must Get To The Next Level
Thoughts about the Notre Dame football program and Fighting Irish recruiting.
WHAT COMES FIRST, TOP 5 CLASSES OR A CHAMPIONSHIP?
In just over a year, Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly has proclaimed a desire to land Top 5 recruiting classes, before then walking back the Top 5 recruiting class goal.
I don't care whether or not Notre Dame lands a recruiting class that ranks among the five best in the country according to 247Sports or Rivals or ESPN. There are so many flaws in those systems that basing your opinion about the success of the Notre Dame recruiting efforts around those rankings is just not worth it.
Also, Top 5 recruiting classes aren't needed every year to win a championship. More often than not, those types of classes are a byproduct of a championship.
Look at the class that made up Clemson's 2016 championship run. The Tigers classes ranked 20th, 15th, 16th and 9th on the 247Sports composite list. During that same stretch, Notre Dame's recruiting classes ranked 17th, 5th, 11th and 13th.
That is correct, Notre Dame's non-freshman classes in 2016 ranked higher than Clemson's in three of four seasons. Clemson won a national championship in 2016, Notre Dame went 4-8.
The non-freshman classes that made up Alabama's 2009 national championship team ranked 16th, 13th, 12th and 3rd. The two teams that ranked ahead of Alabama in 2008? During that same stretch Notre Dame's classes ranked 39th, 5th, 6th and 2nd. So yes, once again Notre Dame ranked ahead of Alabama in three of four classes.
In 2009 Alabama won a national championship, Notre Dame went 6-6 and fired its head coach.
There are certainly exceptions, with Ohio State's non-freshman classes during its 2014 title run ranking 18th, 6th, 5th and 2nd. Notre Dame's classes during that stretch ranked 15th, 9th, 17th and 5th. Ohio State won a title in 2014, Notre Dame went 9-4 and lost home games to Northwestern and Louisville at home.
The non-freshman recruiting classes that made up Florida State's 2019 squad were ranked 3rd, 3rd, 6th and 11th. The non-freshman classes that made up USC's 2019 squad were ranked 2nd, 10th, 4th and 4th. Florida State went 6-7 and USC went 8-5. Notre Dame's classes ranked 13th, 15th, 10th and 10th .... Notre Dame went 11-2.
In 2018, Notre Dame beat Florida State 42-13. The classes that made up the Notre Dame roster ranked 11th, 13th, 15th, 10th and 10th. The classes that made up Florida State's roster ranked 4th, 3rd, 3rd, 6th and 11th.
Was that difference in success really about recruiting rankings? I don't see how you can make that case.
NEXT LEVEL RECRUITING IS NEEDED
There is, however, certainly a discussion that needs to be had about whether or not Notre Dame is recruiting at a level that allows it to compete for championships. Clearly that isn't happening, at least not across the board. There also needs to be a conversation about whether or not Notre Dame is maximizing its potential as a program on the recruiting trail.
I would argue vehemently that Notre Dame's football program is not making the most of its potential as a recruiting operation.
Notre Dame can and should recruit better, and lowering the academic standards is not something needed to get the program to the next level from a recruiting standpoint.
There are things that Notre Dame must do in order to maximize its potential as a recruiting operation:
1. Head coach must be more involved - No program that is winning titles or is on the verge of competing for one, which is where Notre Dame falls, has a head coach who does as little on the recruiting trail as what we've seen for years with Brian Kelly.
We are hearing a bit more recently about Kelly being more involved with talking to recruits, mostly in the form of Zoom meetings. That's certainly a good first step, but this must become an all-the-time thing, not just something he does for a month after getting called out, which we've seen in the past.
If this becomes more a permanent thing, and Kelly actually starts working on building relationships with potential players, it will provide the recruiting operation with a much-needed boost.
Kelly will never be the recruiter that Ryan Day, Lincoln Riley, Dabo Swinney or Nick Saban are, but if he can narrow the gap it's going to be incredibly helpful.
2. Hire a better recruiting staff and create more accountability - Notre Dame cannot afford to have coaches who aren't great coaches and strong recruiters. For much of Kelly's tenure he has had far, far too many coaches who didn't put in the work on the recruiting trail, and there was little to no accountability for that. Part of being more involved in recruiting is overseeing the day-to-day operation.
No assistant coach, no recruiting coordinator can create the level of accountability that a head coach can, obviously. I've talked to plenty of sources and coaches who will tell you that coaches like Saban, Swinney, Day and Urban Meyer are involved in recruiting every day, and they know when coaches aren't putting the work in. When assistants know the head coach is that involved they will put in the work, because they know if they don't they will be looking for work.
Kelly has allowed far too many coaches to stick around for too many seasons while putting forth subpar recruiting effort or producing subpar recruiting results. That is true of the current staff, and those are changes Kelly can fix today.
A deep staff of strong, hard working recruits would make a difference in being effective in points three and five below.
3. Finish Better - There was a quote recently from Mike Elston, who is now the recruiting coordinator, in which he stated that Notre Dame cannot recruit half the "Top 100" players in the country. I've heard from others it is even less than that. That is not, however, the reason Notre Dame is not recruiting at the level it can and should, and that's been the case for a very long time. It was the case a decade ago when Charlie Weis was landing five-stars and Top 5 classes consistently.
The first response I get to that reality is "Lower the admissions standards." Let's ignore the faulty assumptions that are behind that kind of statement and deal with reality. Notre Dame doesn't need to be able to expand its board with "borderline students" to recruit well enough to win a championship.
Clemson has had plenty of elite players that were more than capable of getting into Notre Dame, so has Ohio State. That's not a guess, that's a fact. Ohio State just signed a five-star running back (TreVeyon Henderson) who was a 4.0 student. Notre Dame has plenty of high-level players it can land, the issue is that Notre Dame isn't landing enough of those players, often due to its own failings or decisions.
Notre Dame needs to start landing 2-3 top-level players each year on top of the 3-4 top-level players it is already. That is the difference right now, 2-3 players a year, sometimes just 1-2 players a year.
I'm not talking about recruiting rankings, but landing actual on-field difference makers. Notre Dame has finished second or third for far too many difference makers over the last decade, and more often than not it was due to its own decisions or mistakes, not mistakes or decisions by the admissions office.
The head coach being more involved with recruits, the head coach creating more accountability and the head coach making sure his staff is filled with 10 strong recruiters are all steps Notre Dame can make right now that would have a huge, huge impact on closing on those players. None of those decisions are influenced by the academic standards or the admissions office.
4. Expand the back office - Notre Dame is starting to get there, but Kelly needs to be willing to invest even more money in the recruiting operation at Notre Dame, especially with on-campus visits being limited for the foreseeable future.
5. Be willing to fight for more top players - Notre Dame has to be willing to fight for more top players, something it hasn't been as willing to do in recent seasons. Far too often Notre Dame will simply not engage a top player if he's looking at programs like Alabama, Clemson or Ohio State, and that cannot continue. Certainly there are plenty of recruits going to those programs who aren't recruitable by Notre Dame, there's no denying that, but Notre Dame has to be willing to battle to the bitter end with more prospects that are fits that end up at those programs, and not shy away from doing battle with them.
Here's the reality, you go to college to study what will allow you to earn a living in your desired profession. If you are "just a student" and you want to go to an elite program that can set you up to be at the top of your field you will go to Notre Dame, or an Ivy league school.
Football players are no different. Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State are the elite programs in the field for every elite football player. If you want to be a professional football player why would you not look strongly at those programs? Doing so also doesn't mean you don't care about academics, its smart business. There are plenty of top players who are also strong students who care about academic, and Notre Dame needs to find, recruit like crazy and land 1-2 of those prospects a year that are currently going to those other programs.
Go look at Clemson's 2018 defensive line, for example. Both Christian Wilkins and Clelin Ferrell were very strong students. Notre Dame didn't make a hard push for Wilkins and it didn't even offer Ferrell. Wilkins graduated with two national championship rings and two degrees. He was a Notre Dame fit.
Guys like that are the kind of prospects that are currently going to places like Clemson, Ohio State and Alabama that Notre Dame needs to start landing, but it requires an "all hands on deck, fight to the bitter end" mentality, and we haven't seen that enough from Notre Dame for years.
TWEET OF THE WEEK
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Former Notre Dame captain Robert Hainsey talked about the next generation blockers ... Andrew Kristofic, Quinn Carroll and Tosh Baker.
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