Recruiting Christmas Wish list

[goose3960]

ND absolutely frigging refuses to cast a wide net at DE and it irritates the hell out of me. Every year they target about 10 guys and when they strike out, they are left holding their dicks, looking like chumps. Pass rushing DE's are arguably the most coveted players in the nation with offenses becoming more and more pass happy. Each kid is a battle. ND has to quit this nonsense of slow playing every quality guy, hopi g the next Stephon Tuitt is going to sign... People talk about Stanford and Michigan State and how they get a pass rush. It's simple. They recruit and develop pass rushers. The odd one is a big time prospect, but most are high 3 stars and low 4 stars. But when you get 3 of them each cycle, some of them develop and work out. Some leave and some graduate having little impact on your program. That's recruiting.

If I'm Brian Kelly, I hold a 7:00 am meeting tomorrow with all my recruiting analysts, and Mike Elston. I tell them that all of them are fired if by next Friday morning they don't have a list of 25-30 offerable DE's for the 2018 cycle. I make it their only responsibility. If it takes them half of each of their days for the next week, so be it. Next step is to personallyrics evaluate each one and have their film lined up and waiting for my new DC hire and tell him you want all of them evaluated by lunch on his first day... Before the day is out, get their offers prepared, and have your new DC, new DL coach and whoever else it takes, on these kids immediately. Tell them you will not settle for less than 3 pass rushers in each class, from now on. Stars are irrelevant here. Lets kids that can rush the QB.
What can be done about 2017?

Start with this....

I have hourly contact with Josh Paschal, Hunter Echols and Josh Kaindoh, until they literally tell you to leave them alone. Promise them whatever you have to in terms of opportunity to play and do whatever it takes to try to get in their homes and prepare the best pitch of your life with your new defensive coordinator. Tell each that he is the most important player in the class and that he'd play from day 1... Don't quit until they'be signed their LOI's an faxed them in.

Here is what I would do next... I'd put a gun to head of my assistant coaches and the I'd put it in my own mouth as well if I'm BK. I'd tell them that "were going poaching" at all costs.... These would be my targets.

Kwity Paye- He might not even answer, or he may tell you to F-Off now that you successfully slow played the crap out of him when he wanted to come that ND and instead went to Michigan when they realized that he was underrated. Call anyway.

Drew Jordan- This 4 star Duke commit camped at Irish Invasion and did well, but left without and offer for some ridiculous reason. He's now committed to Duke. The Georgia prospect has grades. Get your ass down to Georgia and apologize to him and get his family up to ND.

Michael Allen- He's 6'6, 240lbs and committed to Wake Forest. If Elko comes to Notre Dame, I want him too. The kid is little raw, but he can play. Offer him now. Borderline 4 star player.

Jonathan Kingsley- Why the hell does Syracuse have a 6'4, 220lb, 4 star pass rusher in their class and ND doesn't. He's a North Carolina kid going to play football in New York. Check his grades and if they check out, get him a damn offer.

John Van Diest- 4 star kid from Colorado. ND does well with white kids. It's worth a call. "John, Boulder is beautiful, but hown do feel about the chance to play at Notre Dame?" Maybe he hangs up, maybe he and his family get on a plane.

I can name you 5 more guys I'd call, if you care to hear about it.

I was a recruiting coordinator (albeit not at Notre Dame). I can tell you that there are positions that you have to be hyper aggressive with and you have to cast a wide net. WDE / OLB (depending on if you play a 4-3 or 3-4) is one of them. You have to work tirelessly and diligently on about 30-40 guys, in order to find 3 of them that are good players and a good fit. ND dealing with about 10-12 guys per cycle is comical at best.

Are you available? Love your strategy.

 

[goose3960]

Thanks IIO - all very reasonable and logical. But I have to say, do you really believe this or a similar conversation hasn't taken place? it is difficult for me to believe that BK, with 25+ years of head coaching experience, plus all of the other coaches and program staff, have NEVER thought deeply about Recruiting and specifically recruiting defensive players that can pass rush? I'm not being a smart-ass towards your thoughts - they make total sense.

I am frustrated like every other fan when I see us with out DB's and Safeties that can't take care of business. Year over year we had this issue - even when we had players (i.e., Harrison) they didn't seem to blossom or "get it" until their senior years (showed flashes) or later in the NFL. We had players like Max who we all were excited about as a 5* safety and again, he never materialized. Coaching obviously had a lot to do with that. Now we have a stable of promising young defensive backfield players and I am once again "hopeful" they will become solid performers.

We have had some success with LB's (Manti, Jaylon) and recruits we were really pretty excited about. Nyles is "kind of" getting there. But once again, not seeing the development of Tevon and others (yet) that we are hoping for. As for the DL, the only FR DL I remember us seeing hype about is Tillery and his SO year wasn't a big leap over his FR year.

Back to the DL line and specifically pass rushers, I just don't get why they aren't going after these players as you suggest.

Tillers was an OL recruit.