Why? Washington failed. Combs is a good recruiter. Full stop. He was terrible as a DC. Is that who you want as an analyst? When you have a full staff, analysts don't recruit.
Ultimately, what was ND offering Heacock? - Same pay Iowa State would offer - Way loss autonomy in scheme, given a young defensive minded head coach - No autonomy in immediate hires (other than DL, which I’m not sure was known at that point) - A better, more prestigious program…though that comes with higher expectations For a guy his age and experience level, I totally get why he would turn that down. The only way to really entice someone at that point is with major bags of money…and even still I’m not sure he’d settle on lesser autonomy.
I think you're underselling the enticement factor of going from ISU to an ND team that has been in the playoff a couple of times recently. But your downsides are spot on, not to mention the offenses on the schedule the next few years... yikes
That piece is huge, absolutely. But I think it’s actually less huge for a guy his age who already has established roots in the Ames community. For someone earlier in their career who is super ambitious, I think program prestige plays a bigger role. Ultimately though, we talk about these concepts as generalities in a vacuum. It’s an individual decision and every individual is different.
Tressel is good. Washington is a good DL coach more so than LB. Good recruiter. Familiarity with Tressell and Freeman. Combs is a guy everyone in industry loves/respects. He can be a helping hand who has done a little bit of everything and is connected to some key spots.
Not as bad, more Quinnish. I guess my point is, familiarity should not be a major deciding factor. For Washington specifically, people keep saying he's a better DL coach. He was a full time DL coach for one year at Cincinnati. A year they went 4-8. They were 93rd in total defense that year. His one year as ST/DL coach at BC, they were a so-so 44th. Those are his two seasons as D1 DL coach, yet everybody keeps pushing him as some great candidate.
Wouldn’t shock me. He was notorious for finding lower ranked kids with the right frame, body types, and measurables, and then molding them into NFL prospects. He was a master evaluator of upside and developer.
I can't think of anyone- I always was kind of baffled by his recruiting. He seemed to always take the first kids that would say yes for example the Mustipher vs Jamion Franklin take- Franklin jumps at the ND offer in June so Elston just says ehh f it and takes the committment instead of trying for a Mustipher. Even this last class all the DL committed first, ND loses Agu but never really tried to replace him. Just always was kind of a weird recruiter- I think it would've been exposed this year badly if the twins and foskey didnt return because the depth behind them is not good.
He was good at what he did. We've had a lot of guys overperform their high school evaluation over the years, but there really haven't been many guys that had 1st round type of potential. The current veteran guys on the roster and incoming classes kind of give a little bit of recency bias.
I don't think Elston leaving 2-3 years ago would have caused that much uproar. It's just we have a big time senior group coming back and our best DL recruit in a long time signing in 11 months (for now).
Agreed. Once he started identifying the long, lean body types that needed time to develop, he hit a stride. Vernon and Keeley would have been his first top guys I remember. Rochell was 111 on 247sports and Daelin was ranked higher but finished at 133.
Board bet. What the stakes are, I don't know. One of the biggest fan freak outs is over losing Keeley. My bet is IF he signs anywhere but ND next year, it won't be with Michigan, so it won't be because of Elston.
I dont think thats logically sound. He could not want to go to ND because of Elston going to Michigan but not wanting to go to michigan because fuck michigan
I understand his ranking is super high, but the kid has all the signs of being a flake (ie. making a big deal over other offers on social media, committing then stating he wants to take all his visits, etc). If you haven’t learned to not give a shit about these types of kids until Signing Day, you haven’t been following recruiting long enough. If he signs with ND, awesome. If he doesn’t, I hope we have a good contingency plan. Otherwise, not worth even following the inevitable twists and turns his recruitment will take over the next 11 months.
Honestly Ishaq still feels like a place next to a sunglass hut where you buy refurbished apple products
That doesn't happen often. Usually when a kid decommits specifically because of a coach leaving, they follow that coach. If Elston was the one thread tying him to ND, it's not a very solid reason and he was probably not going to be around, anyway.
This is 99% of recruits… I read some of these twitter bios… “5⭐️ / #1 player in state / Top 5 position / Top 100 player in US / HS AA “ and want to vomit.
I don’t necessarily blame the kids for it anymore, especially in an NIL world. I’m just not going to get invested in that type of behavior until they’re at ND. If a kid is committed to ND and not taking visits elsewhere, awesome. I’ll be excited over him and watch some film. If a kid is committed and still taking visits, let me know where he enrolls. Until then, whatever.
I mean, Cooper Flanagan made a big deal about posting his Alabama offer a week or so ago. That's just the nature of recruiting now where these kids are treated like demi-gods and have dozens of fans commenting on everything they post. I wouldn't necessarily say that's flaky, just being a top 100 recruit. I wouldn't say he's a flake, but Elston leaving shouldn't have much of an impact this far in advance. One thing if Elston left in October, but Freeman will have a chance to keep him on-board, and if he's unsuccessful I don't think he would have stayed even with Elston.
Keeley is apparently visiting Bama later this month, by the way. That visit would have happened with or without Elston.
I think the differentiator with Keeley is that he always planned on visiting other schools, even directly after committing to ND. At no point was he ever solid. Not saying he can’t/won’t be and that we shouldn’t continue recruiting him. Far from it. I’d like the kid at ND and hope Freeman keeps him onboard. I’m just not going to get gray hair over a kid like him. His recruitment was always going to be a long, drawn out fiasco.
The kind of kid we would usually lose 9/10 because our hc wouldn’t call him probably 50/50 with Elston and worse now but whatever
But I don’t remember him getting a lot of credit for these recruits, it was more about diaco back then….which is incredible to think about now
And kelly which is crazy. He personally went down to the aa bowl I think to land lynch for like the 3rd time. That class was the only time I thought he was grinding on the trail. D basically said for the past 8-9 years the staff just decided to not challenge admissions anymore and take what they could get
Yup, either D3 is playing the game and putting out what ND wants out, or, our freak outs have been unfounded. Sounds like Stuckey was incredibly good in his interview.
I’m starting to feel like the sources for the beat guys have left or are drying up- it’s incredible how little info these guys seem to have after Polian left
Whoever said that Driskell is getting stuff from Powlus is looking more and more correct. I did laugh at D3 whining on the radio today because Loy got credit for breaking the Elston story when, I guess, he had tweeted it 1 minute before Tom.