That is nothing but revenge of the nerds excuse making. ND underachieved in 2 areas this year. QB play vs Power 5 Opponents and Offensive Line play. Those are two positions ND can and should recruit as well as ANY school in the country
All I heard from you star gazers was ND would never be able to recruit the kind of depth on the Defensive Line to compete with the big boys.
Well what do you know? ND rolls out player after player on the Defensive Line, and can compete with anyone on the defensive side of the ball.
All this blathering on about the rankings of 18 year old HS kids and then drawing the conclusion the ND is at a "massive" disadvantage is ludicrous.
ND played a C- game on offense at Georgia. The team that will end up #4 and recruits all the BELOVED 5 star players. And was throwing the ball into the end zone to tie the game.
The Michigan game, was similar to Urban Meyer getting smoked at Iowa in 2017 and then getting smoked at Purdue in 2018. Its happens.
ND has the talent to win a National Championship period. The days of low expectations, whining and hand wringing about the rankings of teenage boys are over.
Brother, the bolded parts...you’re not being realistic. You’re right about offensive line recruiting, but even though we SHOULD be able to recruit top QBs, top QBs are going to programs that have proven track records of getting tob QBs to the pros.
Recruiting accuracy has gotten better and better every year and the same five schools are hogging all that talent (this year’s 5 stars were distrubted amongst the fewest teams ever). Not having perfect correlation between ranking and production doesn’t mean that we’re not seeing high correlation.
Yeah, there’s a guy like Burrow who wasn’t a 5 star but was still a 4 star whom many top schools wanted. And there will be the Herberts of the world who was misranked,
but for a team to get lucky finding diamonds in the rough/developing them AND then being good enough to defeat two elite teams on the CFP...YES, it’s possible, but highly, highly unlikely with everything going perfectly. In other words, it’s not realistic. Even WITH EVERYTHING going your way, you’re not likely to win a title in today’s game. Having the best talent gives you the best chance to hedge against bad luck, in-game variance vs. other elite teams (see Ohio St. vs Clemson), but if you don’t have top talent, then even getting to the CFP is difficult snd then you have to defeat two top 4 teams that in today’s game, have all the talent to go along with good coaching.
Take a look at the mock NFL drafts and see how many 5 stars and high 4 stars make up projected picks in this year’s upcoming draft. Alabama and Georgia, both hoggers of 5 star talent the last few years, have as many as 15 projected 1st and 2nd round picks between them.
Burrow, 4 Star
Chase Young, 5 star.
Okudah, 5 Star
Tua, 5 star
Jeudy, 5 Star
Herbert, 3 Star
Derrick Brown, 5 Star
Alabama and Georgia recruits projected to be first round picks from their top few classes these past years
Andrew Thomas, 5 Star by some, high 4 star
Xavier McKinney, 5 Star by some, high 4 star
Swift, 5 Star
Diggs, 5 Star
Raekwon Davis, 4 Star
Solomon Kindley, 3 Star (diamond in the rough here)
Jedrick Wills, 5 Star by some, high 4 star by some
BTW,
@deadirishpoet you wrote in another post about posters downplaying recruiting rankings...here it is.