Notre Dame had high hopes coming into National Signing Day 2016 with a pair of 5-star linebackers – Caleb Kelly and Ben Davis – in their sights. Neither would end up selecting the Irish, however, and Notre Dame’s only addition to the class of 2016 ended up being Florida linebacker Jonathan Jones.
A month ago hearing that Notre Dame missed out on Caleb Kelly and Ben Davis wouldn’t have been too surprising, but the Notre Dame coaching staff did a good job of getting and keeping Notre Dame in the race up until the end. Unfortunately for Notre Dame, the Irish were unable to close on either of them in another all too familiar story of Notre Dame coming up just short in a heated recruiting battle for an elite prospect on Signing Day.
With Davis, Notre Dame was barely in the race until Autry Denson convinced him to visit Notre Dame. Following the visit, Notre Dame was firmly in the race up until the end, but just couldn’t overcome Alabama where Davis’s father not only played but left the program as their all-time leading tackler.
Notre Dame was in a similar situation with Caleb Kelly a month earlier. Prior to his December visit for the Echoes Awards Banquet weekend, Notre Dame was an afterthought in his recruiting. By mid January, not only was Notre Dame firmly in the race, but they were considered the leaders before an in-home visit with Oklahoma swing the momentum back in their favor.
In both cases, Notre Dame lost out to a playoff team who has played much better defense than the Irish the last few seasons. Notre Dame’s defensive struggles, while not specifically mentioned by either recruit, could not have helped the Irish in either case as they went head to head with football powerhouses not necessarily known for their rigors academic demands on their football players.
That’s not sour grapes either. It’s reality. Combine subpar defensive performances with the academic rigors of Notre Dame and the Irish will continue to struggle to win recruiting battles such as these.
Not all was lost for Notre Dame on Signing Day, however, the addition of Jonathan Jones is a really, really good pick up for the Irish. If Jones were an inch or two taller, he’d be a consensus 4-star recruit easily. What he lacks in height he makes up for with football instincts and toughness though and he has the potential to be a really good starting linebacker for Notre Dame in a few years.
Even with Jones’s addition though, it will be tough for Notre Dame fans not to feel the disappointment of another Signing Day in which Notre Dame was a bridesmaid, more than it was a bride. Such has been the case for Notre Dame more often than not over the years with last being the exception after the Irish picked up Dexter Williams and Equanimeous St Brown on Signing Day 2015.
If there is a silver lining in this year’s Signing Day its the work of some of Notre Dame’s newest additions to the coaching staff – Mike Sanford, Autry Denson, and Keith Gilmore. Despite getting a late start working the class of 2016 for Notre Dame, all three did a heck of a job – Denson specifically. All of them will have two full years of working the class of 2017 under their belts heading into by this time next year. Will it be enough for the Irish to finally one of these high profile recruiting battles? We won’t know that for another 365 days.
In between, it certainly won’t hurt Notre Dame’s chances of landing some more elite prospects in the class of 2017 if they play some better defense during the 2016 season.
Notre Dame has everything in place to attract 5 STARS athletes, except a celebrity coach and a diverse campus.
Notre Dame has become college football’s JOKE, because Kelly is a JOKE whom chase away every 5 STARS and 4 STARS athlete. America wish to see Notre Dame compete in the top 10 tier … NOT by fraud … BUT by merit.
Notre Dame requires a celebrity coach ( Joe Montana, Lawrence Taylor, Jerry Rice ) to attract 5 STARS athletes.
Give BVG another year.
Personally I think the haul was good for ND. As far as the defense is concerned, this another year for BVG to get his type of players that fit his scheme. I’m not necessarily worried about not having a 5 star recruit this cycle. Look at Clemson’s recruiting class rank history, and I see they still played for a natty this past year.
Also, check out Boston College recruiting class ranking, and they sill had a heck of a defense this year. Good enough to slow down the Irish offense. So, all that is to say, BVG better do a better job of coaching these guys up or will not matter if we have 5 star recruits or 2 star, they will still be poorly coached.
I thought this was a good haul for ND. Not a great haul, but a good one. I’d grade it at a B to B+.
You just keep telling yourself that, Joe
Fire Kelly hire Brey
You build the team on the three and four star recruits, the loyal overachievers. Don’t chase the five stars. They’re like the belle of the ball, high maintenance and pampered.
They commit here, change their mind, then commit there. For every one that works out, four don’t. You want the MaryAnns, not the Gingers.
Great point, Canada. For ND, Jaylon Smith is a once-in-a-lifetime player. For Alabama he’s a dime a dozen. Hence the 2012 NC massacre.
Whether or not Lou literally spoke to Gary or not is irrelevant . Lou’s presence alone at that Michigan recruiting event/party is heresy enough for me.
*no luck whatsoever
Totally agree with matteo. Knocking on the door recruiting-wise will leave us knocking on the door natty-wise.
For a championship to happen, you need great talent, great coaching, a little luck (esp. on the injury front), and a schedule that can get you there. I think we, recently, have had almost-great talent, good-to-great coaching (except some game-day tactics), no such whatsoever and fine schedules. Real key is getting more Jaylon Smith types ( BTW why must we expect his type only once in awhile? Bama gets that level yearly).
* First sentence should have read: “Recruiting leading to national championships is critical, but being a top ten team isn’t totally reliant on being a top 10 team in recruiting.”
BTW: latest twitter rumor: Tom Brady helped close the deal in securing #1 recruit and DT Rashan Gary for Michigan, assisted by a call from, of all people, St. Lou Holtz.
I gotta believe that’s B.S.
If not, Lou loses his football sainthood status as far as I’m concerned.
Recruiting leading to national championships is critical, but being a top ten team isn’t totally reliant on being a top 10 team.
Interesting info from coachingsearch.com re: recruiting since 2012. Alabama has been rated #1 in recruiting since 2012, and has won 4 of the last seven national championships. And the Ohio State U. has been #s 5,2,3,7, and 4 these last five years in recruiting. Clemson has been rated between 9-15 each of those years. No surprises. Then we have Mich. St. that averaged 28.8, as did Baylor; TCU: 37.5; Underachievers re: recruiting? Florida averaged 9.3, Florida State 5.3, LSU averaged 7th. Over-achievers were Stanford averaging 23.8, Utah at 36th, Oregon at 17.3, Wisconsin at 44th as recruiting average since 2012. Notre Dame recruiting since 2012 placed 18,5,11,13, and this year 15th, averaging 11.8, which matches their final ranking at 10-3 this season.
Takeaways? The past four national champions averaged a top six class from 2012-15; Florida State’s 2013 class being the only one outside of the top 10. This year, 19 out of the top 25 outperformed their averages, and four of the top 9 this year didn’t put together a top 20 recruiting class in the previous four years.
“Up until signing day, our attitude is we win with talent; after signing day, the attitude has to be we win with coaching.”
(Lou Holtz)
Better rethink it….. in basketball it was called the “4-corners” and the clock kept running.
In football the clock stops for a penalty.
The game would take like 6 hours… way past your bed time.
I think if the defense were offsides on every play they could give up less than 690 points in two years. Sorta like the old acc basketball games where they just held the ball to keep the score down. Lefty Driesel for DC.
Ingenious strategy but his execution might be a little off
BJ doesn’t post here anymore. That’s actually BVG trying to rally us in his favor. Well played BVG… Well played…
BJ appears to be quite torn. My guess is that his incertitude has led to many a sleepless night.
Does anyone else feel like bj is being cryptic with his thoughts on NDs defensive coordinator?
Wow. Just doing a little cruising on the web because I love football. I love the history of college football, the traditions, the real true powerhouses (Notre Dame, USC, Bama, OSU, Oklahoma, Texas, etc.). I’m a Sooner Fan and I’ve lived thru 53 years of CFB.
I was shocked by the comments I’m seeing from Notre Dame fans. Tougher to coach???? The rest of the CFB world has been jealous of the appeal ND has to kids nationwide forever! And to say that if Caleb Kelly picks OU he doesn’t care about his education??? Seriously? How conceited are you people? I know that Oklahoma lead the country in many scholar programs for the last 10 years. That does NOT make me think that if a kid picks somewhere other than OU “They must not care about their education”.
You HAVE managed to completely change my opinion of Notre Dame fans. “Poor, poor us. We have to study too much to be good at defense!” Not sour grapes my a$$!
Fire bvg
Defensive coaching is not up to par and is dragging ND recruiting down with it. It always starts at the top and unless the top changes the defensive performance will suffer.
The lack of communication of the defensive backfield was an embarrassment during the last two seasons the common denominator has been the coaching scheme on defense. It will probably take another sub par performance on defense for a coaching change to be made and that is a shame for the team and all it’s followers.
Mike Vahey
As I seat here on the west coast(near Clovis) and watch NSD with all its glory, and I see all these big fish swim away from ND, it shocks me. But, reality is most these kids can not get into ND, PERIOD! ND is far more than just football. When you have a kid pick the Sooners over the Irish, education is not on the top of his list.
It puzzles me to see top kids in the mid west, especially Indiana, who grew up watching ND sign else where. Again, you can have the biggest Fathead Irish Helmet on your wall but, if your not a student who feels education is more important, than the Irish is not for you.
I think its going to be more and more difficult to compete in recruiting.
This is why Urban Meyer himself spurned the ND coaching job and took OSU. He knew he would not have the success that he had at Florida and with the Buckeyes.
I am very thankful to have Brian Kelly because coaching the Irish is one of the toughest jobs.
I am very happy with the boys that challenged themselves and signed with ND.
It comes down to coaching and our staff is one of the best in the country.
GOD, COUNTRY, NOTRE DAME!!!
This is a perfect example of way ND is really not up there with the elite top 5. Lack of being able to get the 5 star football players has been a problem for them. Hey, they had some fine seasons without them
but games like Stanford, Alabama are tough ones to win without that elite player(s). Unlike the previous email on this page, ND can and still does compete with just about every big bully on the block. It just makes it a whole lot easier if you have those studs on the roster. They went 10-3 and just missed out being one of the top 4. That doesn’t put them that far away from the title game. The question is how do they get there? Kelly and crew will have to find out, hopefully sooner than later! Go ND!
“We didn’t want him anyway”
“Just develop the 3 star talent”
“Kids don’t care about their education if they don’t pick ND”
“ND can’t compete with the big boys in recruiting or on the field”
I think that covers it all
We need to stop prostrating ourselves for the 5-star recruits that milk the limelight by waiting until signing day. Grown men fawning on these kids is embarrassing enough, and then losing the battle everytime makes it worse. It tarnishes the ND brand. You either fall in love with ND or you don’t. And if you fall in love with it you commit before signing day. Even the rare sigining day victories we have don’t pan out. I know there are exceptions, but most of the 5-star players that come to ND and succeed commit before signing day. Also, how does the ridiculous treatment of these signing day guys look to the recruits that already committed? They didn’t get that kind of treatment and they really want to be at ND. If it’s going to take that kind of treatment to get those guys to ND, they aren’t RKGs.
I agree with the post above, get the RKGs in the program and develop them. You can recruit really hard without all the drama of the past week, IMO.
You mean our new 5 star linebacker has had multiple surgeries?
And still rates as a 5 star player?
WOW! He really must be something special !
Got that going for us, which is nice.
Well at least our only 5 star recruit isn’t coming off a bunch of shoulder surgeries.
https://n.rivals.com/news/tide-win-another-recruiting-title
All that is true. ND has to show improvement in defense next year. Now, I’m not on the fire BVG bandwagon yet. But he needs to make adjustments. That much is obvious. That much ND has control over. Show our defense can be potent, some of these battles can go our way.
Academic rigors, not much can be done about that. I have no desire to see ND become an NFL factory like Alabama, LSU or USC. ND is special because it graduates most of its athletes, and it should be proud of that. That’s not to say there aren’t things they can look at, like making sure it’s athletes have everything they need to be successful in the classroom.
But if a recruit is going to choose a school because they want to coast through classes in some general studies-like curriculum on their way to the NFL–in that case, ND is not the place for that recruit.
” In both cases (Caleb Kelly & Ben Davis), Notre Dame lost out to a playoff team who has played much better defense than the Irish the last few seasons. Notre Dame’s defensive struggles, while not specifically mentioned by either recruit, could not have helped the Irish in either case as they went head to head with football powerhouses not necessarily known for their rigors academic demands on their football players.That’s not sour grapes either. It’s reality. Combine subpar defensive performances with the academic rigors of Notre Dame and the Irish will continue to struggle to win recruiting battles such as these.”
Exactly.
I’ve seen this class rated just outside the top ten to 15th or so. And if WR Robertson is waiting to see if Stanford will qualify him as a recruit, how interested could he be in ND? If Stanford says “no”, Georgia won’t. So let’s hope the other WRs taken can develop like Fuller, not an elite recruit when he arrived, did. Only 6 of the potential NFL draftees from Team 127 were top 250 HS recruits; C.J. Prosise, Romeo Okwara, Nick Martin, and Chris Brown weren’t- and all have a good chance at being drafted.
RKGs + player development is what ND will rely on- a Jaylon Smith ain’t happening every year.
Build more winning and they will come.