I looked back at recruiting in years where the position coach at the time was a good recruiter to show why the folks who say "ND will never recruit like OSU, Bama, or Georgia" are wrong.
Coach Denbrock was the WR Coach at ND from 2012 - 2016. Here is the list of WRs he signed.
Neal, Chris Brown, Corey Robinson, Hunter, Fuller, Brent, Holmes, Sanders, Boykin, St. Brown, Guyton, McKinley, Claypool and Stepherson. In five recruiting classes, he signed 5 NFL WRs and a total of 11 four-star recruits. The 3-stars he signed were Brown, Stepherson and Guyton. That's a pretty solid. I would argue Denbrook is a good recruiter but not elite like Hartline. If Del was the WR Coach at OSU, they would not have signed all the studs that they did. Hire a dynamic WR Coach and WR recruiting will skyrocket.
Harry Hiestand was OL Coach from 2012 - 2017. Here is the list of OL he signed.
Stanley, Elmer, McGlinchey, Mustipher, Nelson, Bars, Kraemer, Eichenberg, Boudreaux, Lugg, Hainsey and Banks. He signed several other 4-star recruits during this time that never played like Bivin, Hoge, Montelus, and Byrne.
The year after Hiestand left and Quinn was hired, Quinn signed four 3-star recruits. Recruiting is that important and that sensitive. One year after HH signed four top 100 OL, Quinn signed four 3-stars and only Patterson ever played in that group. Embarrassing. Quinn is honestly a poor recruiter. He signs some good OL because he is the OL Coach at ND and ND has some of the best OL in the NFL right now.
Todd Lyght was an up-and-down recruiter. He signed Love, Pride and Vaughn in 2016 but outside of that season, it was really hit and miss. 2017, ND signed zero DBs. 2018, ND signed Noah Boykin and Bracy. 2019, it was Rutherford and KJ Wallace. Hart was also 2019 but was recruited to play WR. Wallace switched to safety and Rutherford transferred.
With Mickens at the helm, CB recruiting has gone up and is still underrated. I love Morrison and Mickey this year and Barnes as a 3-star last year is laughable. Clemson wanted Barnes BAD! Mickens also it seems is a better position coach. He got Lewis ready as a freshman and converted Hart from WR into a really solid CB. Mickens has Rhett in 2023 and Gray seems to be leaning ND with OSU in hot pursuit.
I don't think we need to rehash the RB recruiting under Denson and compare it to the ridiculous recruiting happening now under Taylor. Diggs, Estime, Price and Irvin. I mean seriously!!!
There are two HUGE reasons why schools like Bama and OSU could weather the storm of a crappy hire that ND could not under Kelly.
1. The head coach at those schools are big-time recruiters unlike Kelly was. So they could make up for the shortcomings of the position coach and Kelly did not do that. Coach Freeman will do that if it happens.
2. The head coaches at those other schools make swift firings if the coach is underperforming. Coach Kelly was either too loyal, too cowardly or too lazy to get rid of coaches that underperformed. Will Coach Freeman be similar? We don't know this yet. But I suspect that he will make quicker decisions than Kelly and be more apt to hire coaches outside of his circle unlike Kelly.
You take all this together and ND can absolutely recruit with OSU, Bama, and Georgia. The difference between a top 7-8 recruiting class and top 1, 2, or 3 each season is 3-4 kids. Take 2021 for example. Say ND gets Beaux Collins, Aaron Armitage, Thomas Fidone and Ceyair Wright instead of Thomas, Oyne, Evans and Tucker. That probably bumps ND from 9 to 7. USC would lose Wright and Clemson would lose Collins plus ND would sign four more 4-stars. ND was in on all 4 players.
Let's stop this idea that ND can't recruit with the big boys. Absolutely a false narrative.
Coach Denbrock was the WR Coach at ND from 2012 - 2016. Here is the list of WRs he signed.
Neal, Chris Brown, Corey Robinson, Hunter, Fuller, Brent, Holmes, Sanders, Boykin, St. Brown, Guyton, McKinley, Claypool and Stepherson. In five recruiting classes, he signed 5 NFL WRs and a total of 11 four-star recruits. The 3-stars he signed were Brown, Stepherson and Guyton. That's a pretty solid. I would argue Denbrook is a good recruiter but not elite like Hartline. If Del was the WR Coach at OSU, they would not have signed all the studs that they did. Hire a dynamic WR Coach and WR recruiting will skyrocket.
Harry Hiestand was OL Coach from 2012 - 2017. Here is the list of OL he signed.
Stanley, Elmer, McGlinchey, Mustipher, Nelson, Bars, Kraemer, Eichenberg, Boudreaux, Lugg, Hainsey and Banks. He signed several other 4-star recruits during this time that never played like Bivin, Hoge, Montelus, and Byrne.
The year after Hiestand left and Quinn was hired, Quinn signed four 3-star recruits. Recruiting is that important and that sensitive. One year after HH signed four top 100 OL, Quinn signed four 3-stars and only Patterson ever played in that group. Embarrassing. Quinn is honestly a poor recruiter. He signs some good OL because he is the OL Coach at ND and ND has some of the best OL in the NFL right now.
Todd Lyght was an up-and-down recruiter. He signed Love, Pride and Vaughn in 2016 but outside of that season, it was really hit and miss. 2017, ND signed zero DBs. 2018, ND signed Noah Boykin and Bracy. 2019, it was Rutherford and KJ Wallace. Hart was also 2019 but was recruited to play WR. Wallace switched to safety and Rutherford transferred.
With Mickens at the helm, CB recruiting has gone up and is still underrated. I love Morrison and Mickey this year and Barnes as a 3-star last year is laughable. Clemson wanted Barnes BAD! Mickens also it seems is a better position coach. He got Lewis ready as a freshman and converted Hart from WR into a really solid CB. Mickens has Rhett in 2023 and Gray seems to be leaning ND with OSU in hot pursuit.
I don't think we need to rehash the RB recruiting under Denson and compare it to the ridiculous recruiting happening now under Taylor. Diggs, Estime, Price and Irvin. I mean seriously!!!
There are two HUGE reasons why schools like Bama and OSU could weather the storm of a crappy hire that ND could not under Kelly.
1. The head coach at those schools are big-time recruiters unlike Kelly was. So they could make up for the shortcomings of the position coach and Kelly did not do that. Coach Freeman will do that if it happens.
2. The head coaches at those other schools make swift firings if the coach is underperforming. Coach Kelly was either too loyal, too cowardly or too lazy to get rid of coaches that underperformed. Will Coach Freeman be similar? We don't know this yet. But I suspect that he will make quicker decisions than Kelly and be more apt to hire coaches outside of his circle unlike Kelly.
You take all this together and ND can absolutely recruit with OSU, Bama, and Georgia. The difference between a top 7-8 recruiting class and top 1, 2, or 3 each season is 3-4 kids. Take 2021 for example. Say ND gets Beaux Collins, Aaron Armitage, Thomas Fidone and Ceyair Wright instead of Thomas, Oyne, Evans and Tucker. That probably bumps ND from 9 to 7. USC would lose Wright and Clemson would lose Collins plus ND would sign four more 4-stars. ND was in on all 4 players.
Let's stop this idea that ND can't recruit with the big boys. Absolutely a false narrative.
