Notre Dame’s wide receiver recruiting fell off the rails in July. A disastrous month for new wide receivers coach Mike Brown, offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock, and head coach Marcus Freeman finally cratered on Saturday when Derek Meadows selected LSU over Notre Dame despite the Irish being rumored to be his leader for the better part of a year until recently. It was the third such swing and miss for the Irish recruiting machine this month alone. Reversing course has little to do with Notre Dame’s recruiting aparatus, however, and everything to do with what Notre Dame’s offense does on the field this fall.
Could Notre Dame have done something different over the last year to be in a better position than they are right now after Meadows, Tanook Hines, and Dylan Robinson spurred the Irish over the last two weeks? Sure, no staff is perfect. Did they do anything so wrong, however, that they need to rethink who they are targetting or how they are targeting? Probably not, unless they start aiming lower and taking more projects at the position.
An argument could also be made that their receiver board should have been larger as well, but right now, receiver is the only position the Irish are struggling in as much as they are. The staff will now be forced to expand its board as it looks to fill the class of 2025.
No one should be surprised that Notre Dame isn’t landing elite receivers based on the production – or lack thereof – at the position over the last few years. I wrote about Notre Dame’s lack of receiver production last week in previewing what projects to be a deeper and more talented receiver room this year. Notre Dame simply has not been producing elite wide receivers frequently enough to get the attention of elite receiver recruits. This isn’t just a Marcus Freeman problem, either. Brian Kelly left wide receiver recruiting in absolute shambles when he left town in the cover of night for LSU. Since then, recruiting has been up and down at receiver, but the production on the field just hasn’t been there.
Even with Notre Dame being more aggressive in NIL, it’s hard to compete with a program like LSU, which just produced two first-round draft picks at receiver a few months ago. Yes, the offensive coordinator who produced those draft picks is now in South Bend, but LSU has the historical pedigree of producing NFL receivers, just like Notre Dame has with offensive linemen and tight ends.
Until Mike Denbrock’s offenses at Notre Dame start highlighting the receiver position and putting receivers in a position to hear their names called in the early rounds of the NFL Drafts, this is a challenge the Irish will continue to have. Denbrock did that in his last stint at Notre Dame with the likes of Will Fuller, so Notre Dame fans should have every reason to expect that he’ll do it again, but recruits don’t have the luxury of hoping as fans do. While NIL money is nice, NFL money is a lot nicer, and Notre Dame just hasn’t put receivers in a position to earn NFL money recently.
Notre Dame’s staff will continue to try to flip the recruits they lost this month, but without tangible results to point to on the field, it’s tough to imagine them having much success in those efforts. Now, if the Irish offense comes out strong against Texas A&M, which is installing a new defense under new head coach Mike Elko, they might have a chance. After that opener against A&M, Notre Dame has a string of games that should allow the Irish offense to be successful.
If Notre Dame’s leading wide receiver has less than 500 yards again this year as it did last year, it will have to rely on taking risks in recruiting and testing its luck in the portal again. Notre Dame did very well in the portal at receiver this cycle with Kris Mitchell, Beaux Collins, and Jayden Harrison, so even if the Irish miss out on elite receivers in this cycle, it won’t be detrimental long-term because of the portal.
For the long-term success of this program, though, Notre Dame needs to fix its receiver recruiting. That won’t happen without fixing the on-field production. The good news is that Notre Dame has many options on the roster getting ready for training camp who can help change that narrative.
I agree. If you follow recruiting these elite 5 stars look at who can develop me to become great so I can then go to the NFL and be a 1st round draft pick. All the other things may matter to a degree to these kids but they don’t matter as much as playing for a team that will develop me for the NFL along with being a yearly national championship contender. The other things being education, the social life, the weather, the school culture ,etc. This is the reason Meadows picked LSU. His dad pretty much said so.
ND has to abandon the run, run, tight end offense they have had for years. With a mobile QB pass is a great first down play and keeps defenses honest. It has been obvious since BK came to ND that in tight games against ranked teams the offensive strategy was “don’t do anything to lose the game”.
So we open up the second half against GA team with the lead and consistently run two plays inside the tackles and throw to the tight end on third and long. Rees and Parker just continued what was done before them because they were afraid of making a mistake.
If Denbrook was able to get BK to open up his offense, he should have the confidence to do the same at ND.
ESPN highlights of completed bombs will fix recruiting. Remember what one circus catch did for Boykin’s NFL prospects. Receivers crave highlight footage.