Notre Dame added it’s 3rd commitment in less than a week on Thursday with the addition of Ohio cornerback Nick Coleman.
Coleman was just a recent recipient of a Notre Dame offer – an offer that the Dayton native did not take long to act on. Coleman visited Notre Dame this week and decided on his trip to campus that he was ready to end his recruiting becoming the first cornerback in the class of 2015 for Notre Dame in the process.
While Coleman is the first cornerback, he is the third defensive backfield joining safeties Prentice McKinney and Nicco Fertitta. Look for Notre Dame to continue to search for help at corner in this class though after signing just one corner in the class of 2014 – Nick Watkins.
Notre Dame has been rumored to be the odds on favorite for another Ohio cornerback, Shaun Crawford, as well, but there hasn’t been much news on that front recently. Crawford, a one time Michigan commitment, was set to visit Ohio State a few weeks ago, but canceled the trip. Since then however, there hasn’t been any news on that front.
Prior to committing to Notre Dame, Coleman, a 3-star prospect, picked up offers from Michigan State, Boston College, Cincinnati, and Pitt.
Coleman’s commitment continues a busy week for Notre Dame on the recruiting front. Over the weekend defensive tackle Brandon Tiassum committed to the Irish on a weekend visit. Just yesterday defensive end Micah Dew-Treadway joined Notre Dame’s class of 2015 as well after a midweek visit. All three recent commitments received their Notre Dame offers in the last month.
Notre Dame now has 11 overall commitments in the class of 2015 with the addition of Coleman, Tiassum, and Dew-Treadway in the last week. With Notre Dame set to host the Irish Invasion later this month, that number could very well continue to grow this month.
I’ve seen Nick play a number of times. He’s right up there with Malik Zaire, Chris Borland, and Nick Mangold as the best players I’ve seen come out of Alter High School since following AHS for 20 years. He’s been flying under the radar. Consider Justin Brent and Corey Robinson. Both were only 3 star recruits, but have quickly proven they were much better than recruiting analysts projected. Mark my words, he’ll have a great career at ND.
Though I think if we can get more 4 & 5 star rated players we increase the probability of having better teams, getting solid 3 stars doesn’t necessarily put us in the cellar either. Coaching and player development ARE important for any rated player and coaching & player development WERE issues occurring prior to Kelly’s arrival (since Holtz got shoved out the door). There are many reasons why better rated kids don’t come to South Bend. One of those reasons is academics- those academics being TOO CHALLENGING for the individual. It’s like Judge Smails said from CADDYSHACK, “There are more important things than grades,” and then describing how a Caddy Tourney win would look good on their record. Well, many good rated players don’t always have what it takes academically to have success at ND and they go where they would have a much less challenging time-winning their caddy golf tourney so to speak. There are other reasons too which everyone on this site is aware of. I want 4 & 5 star rated players too, but, I want player development & coaching to go along with that, which includes recruiting for your schemes/philosophy and not always looking what a player is rated at from a “star” point of a view but how does he fit in what we want to do on the field.
Go Irish
This is from a guy who is an assistant and wide receiver coach at a small school in the Midwest: He is speaking about Coleman:
“Like the kid that they just offered from Dayton the other day. I love that kid. No one’s heard of him. That’s the kind of kid that Tressel would recruit and then locked up early as a three star and nobody would notice and then all of a sudden three years later he’s first team Big 10……..”
An overall comment on the above (below? whatev – PRIOR) criticisms: “C’MON MAYON!” We’ve all heard “recruiting is an inexact science” and all the balms for taking the wrong guy. (ahem, Jimmy Clausen, ahem) And referring exactly to Woody O’Hardy, “Stars don’t mean jack-spit. (; Coaching is key.” Stars are a deception. WE MUST HAVE RKG’s. Last year was a relative disaster. (relative to NotaDame-caliber excellence) The Championship-campaign happened because NotaDame had RKG’s. RKG’s are about WINNING. Individuals can win in high school. Individuals do not win on the college-level. RKG’s are about the WIN.
On an different, unexamined-level, I have a theory as to why Diaco was given near-autonomy over the D last year and Chuck Martin was given the O. Where are they this year? Right – elsewhere. Last year was an admitted throw-away season, after Golson got bag’d for cheating – or “academic impropriety.” (wink:wink) Diaco/Martin were given so much power because that’s how you elevate their COACHING ACUMEN. That’s how you create a COACHING-TREE. (à la Bill Parcells) Kelly is increasing his own pedigree. And while that does nothing to remedy the disaster that was 2013, that increases Kelly’s stature. I live 6mi from Boston. And Kelly was around town earlier this summer, meeting with this guy Belichik. Belichik is from Parcells’ COACHING TREE. Parcells was NFL Champ wit the Giants. With Belichik on the staff. 25-YEARS-AGO! I think BK is creating such-a-COACHING TREE in the college-ranks.
Just a thought…
Oh ha – did I mention Belichik built a dyNASTY here in new England? And where is BK from?
Stars don’t mean jack $hit. Coaching is key.
A lot of “super stars” lack team work.
Go IRISH,
Woodrow
I think the one of the most important things is to look at the player’s offer lists. Elijah has pretty good list, as mentioned above and I believe he will add more offers/star to his name by the end of the year. He has high upside. Also on the flip side you look at Fertitta or MDT and their offer really doesn’t stand out. So they are mostly projects/special teamers (if capable obviously not MDT). Coleman list is decent and will improve over the season. These players still have all summer, a season to play, and a spring before they even step on campus and have much room to grow/improve. Give them time before writing them off. By the time their HS season is done you maybe glad we locked them up. We are building quality depth and these guys will stay around 4-5 years. We just got to look for the right stars to add in and you got a good team. We are still in it with some pretty good players. Also this class maybe bigger than most expect, we have a lot if 5th yrs to chose from, but some have been injury prone or if they get passed by younger guys they have to move on.I like where this class is headed, could be a special class by NSD.
Anyone else on here notice we added another DL in Elijah Taylor. He’s a 3-4 star recruit. Had some nice offers from Miami, FSU, and a few others.
I mentioned it in one of my earlier posts. Rivals has him at 3 stars.
Mike,
Read the description for a three star recruit per rivals. To paraphrase A player who will not start right away but will eventually be a solid division I starter. Sometimes guys are slated as three star because of size, experience, competition they play against. I’ll give you two three star ayers ND passed on Paul P from Penn State and Luke K. from BC. I would have loved to have had them in an Irish uniform. You keep recruiting stars I’ll recruit for position need and potential.
Jack:
You and I can debate the incorrect “starring” of recruits all day and night, but it still doesn’t change the fact that having a class loaded with 4 and 5 star recruits is a better class than one loaded with 3 star players. That must be true or else no one would more heavily recruit 4 and 5 star recruits than they do 3 star recruits. Again, you are pointing out the exceptions and ignoring the rule. Makes no sense.
I disagree. Oregon routinely gets classes o 3 star recruits mostly because of size. Standford gets 3 star recruits. It’s about player development and not star power. I would rather have 3 star players that stay for four years than 5 stars that bolt after their junior year
Wow, he looks lightning fast> just what we need in the ND backfield!
Just checked the Rivals website. This guy is the lowest rated recruit ND has signed (so far)in a class loaded with 3 star recruits. Is anyone in the ND program paying attention? This is the type of guy who, if he’s needed, you “flip” at the end of the recruiting cycle. They did it with Tranquill last year. They did it with Everett Golson.
Take a deep breath Mike.
I just did.
I was even breathing into a paper bag 🙂
It’s still a problem though Ron. They just another 3 star commit in Elijah Taylor. They might be able to coach these guys up and turn them into All-Americans. However, why start by giving yourself a disadvantage of not getting enough 4 and 5 star recruits. This recruiting cycle is going to be small. Again, you can’t have a small class loaded with only 3 star recruits. The percentages do not favor you competing for a Nat’l Champ. if you do.
Here we go! Another 3 star commit for a small class that’s already LOADED with 3 star recruits.
Below is a year-by-year breakdown of the first round of the NFL draft:
2012
5-star — 4
4-star — 13
3-star — 10
2-star — 4
2011
5-star — 7
4-star — 11
3-star — 11
2-star — 3
2010
5-star — 6
4-star — 15
3-star — 6
2-star — 5
2009
5-star — 6
4-star — 12
3-star — 6
2-star — 7
and there are about 50% less 5 stars in every recruiting class than 4 stars. So yes, there are more 4 stars in here….but percentage wise, more 5 stars get drafted compared to how many 5stars are in each class.
example: in the 2015 recruiting class (rivals.com), there are 23 5 star players. then from 24-100 they are all 4 stars. (the rankings currently stop at 100 so there are probably quite a bit more). 5stars are more rare, but more likely to produce and go pro
Assessing Individual Rankings. Take All-Americans, for example, the best measure we have for assessing individual success at the college level. Over the past five years (from 2008 to 2012), 316 players have been named to at least one major All-America team. Of that number, only 42 of them — barely 13 percent — arrived on campus as can’t-miss, five-star prospects according to Rivals.com. Only 81 of them (around 25 percent) were ranked among Rivals’ top 100 prospects in their respective recruiting class.
By contrast, twice as many All-Americans in the same span (162, more than half of the total) were regarded as mere three-star prospects or worse. According to the gurus, the top dozen or so recruiting powers in the country should field more talented rosters than that by themselves, right?
Excellent analysis, Ron Burgundy. Well done, sir! Like I’ve said, when you want to, you can both entertain and enlighten!
I agree with Steel Fan Rob. That’s excellent analysis by you. I’d still rather have 4 and 5 star recruits who fit my program over 3 star recruits who fit my program.
OK, but there are WAY less 5-star ratings handed out than 3-star ratings. What you should do is look at the percentage of all 5-star rated players that end up all-americans vs. the percentage of all 3-star players that end up all-americans. I think you’ll see a big gap between 5-star players and 3-star players. While the star system obviously doesn’t guarantee success a the college level, a much higher percentage of 5-star rated players will pan out than lesser rated players.
You sir earned yourself a scotch with that post!
Crack him a beer! This is NotaDame football, not Harvid croquet.
C’mon Hurls, try to keep up.
I hate to say it, because I love any kid that wants to play for ND, but I agree with Mike. Elite talent wants to play with elite talent. Even if half the remaining commits we get are 5-stars, we probably aren’t a top-10 class. And from what I’ve seen in terms of interest in ND, we’ll be lucky to land 1 5-star in this class, unless some of our 4’s get upgraded.