It hasn't changed a bit. ND fans and writers have said this stuff for a few years. It even set off a firestorm in the athletic department when the Atlantic's ND writer called BK's recruiting effort into question and even quoted a couple named recruits about their lack of contact with him versus other head coaches. Not arguing here on this one. I promise we didn't just make this narrative up. If you've read this board closely the last few years, you'd see it.
This thread began in 2016, if you want to check and see how long we’ve been calling BK a lazy recruiter.
so literally no one in the know within the program Kelly had his assistants feed that BS to national and local media. Local media knew that wasn't close to the case, he is just a lazy recruiter
Oh, you’re right about the ND media. They are definitely bashing BK for things they spent 12 years defending him from. But that was predictable.
See? National press doesn't have time to watch each program closely. They see results, and BK has built a consistent 10+ win program out of the wreckage of the Davie/Wiingham/Weis era. His reputation is justifiably strong. But even some of the best coaches have weak spots. That's BK's. And the national media has bought into his talk about "ceiling." Why shouldn't they? He's a very successful coach. But if they followed closely and were willing to see it from another angle, they'd see a lot of that ceiling is self inflicted. But, to be fair, the floor is now a lot higher than a decade ago. Bk absolutely deserves much of the credit for that.
Okay, I’ll accept that the national media was duped/wrong when it came to Kelly at ND. Anyone want to dispel the higher academic standards at ND getting in the way of recruiting, or is that accurate?
it is accurate but not to the extent that they will make you think. It should not be a reason for nd not being able to compete for championships every few years there is plenty of great football players that value academics enough to make it at nd
Being a small catholic school in Indiana is a bigger recruiting obstacle. We get burned on academics with a few prospects here and there, but there are very few high end prospects who can’t get in that would actually want to sign with us if they could. And for those that can get in, it’s a differentiator. Academics is a huge issue with transfers and keeping kids eligible though. That’s very real. We have an embarrassingly bad WR depth chart this year. It would have been very easy for another top 10 program to fix that via the transfer portal but we couldn’t.
Honestly for every kid that ND might lose because of academics, they get an advantage with a kid that values academics. That should never be an excuse and CMF is proving that
Somewhere in the middle. No, ND can't accept every top 100 player. But the percentage isn't as low as the perception. And that perception was literally built by coaches talking about it repeatedly at signing day press conferences. They called it "shopping down a different aisle." Well, the current staff looks like they found a way to get their carts to fit up those other aisles. And I won't say the press was completely duped on BK. We keep saying it. He's a good coach. They just don't follow close enough to realize the entire story.
It’s harder to recruit to ND and the pool we have to choose from is smaller, but it’s not impossible and there’s more than enough really high end football players that can and do work at ND. We also have a much harder time in the transfer portal, which is really hurting us right now, but hopefully that will be figured out in the coming months and years. It literally took nearly a month to confirm that we could accept a kid from northwestern to ND as an undergraduate transfer. That should not even be a question. we also don’t make it as easy on current students. We don’t have the same online options, so people actually are on campus and in classes (that was the whole overblown dust up between freeman and Osu a couple of weeks ago), but do provide plenty of academic support where if there player is willing and able to put in the work, he’ll be just fine. It’s not Stanford or something like that, but it’s definitely not (no offense) Rutgers. so to answer your question (which likely has been answered numerous times by now), it’s more nuanced than what many outside would believe (or what many inside will promote)
Sort of. Kelly would lose kids we wanted to Stanford and nw consistently though so it didn’t apply to him
To be fair, according to Dodd we’re still waiting on Luke to make the decision on leaving Cincinnati for ND
In the way of recruiting? Not really. Toward the end of Kelly’s tenure, he was the one deciding to pass on kids due to academics and not the University himself. After getting burned on a few low academic kids getting into ND and then having issues once they got there, he stopped recruiting those types of players entirely.
everyone realizes we just lost 5* Kadyn Proctor to Iowa because of academics, right? Kid legit wants ND but ND had to stop recruiting him Academics are a legit issue but BK made it THE issue and that was the story he spun to anyone who would listen the undergrad transfer portal is a real issue though as others have pointed out
Also, while it’s correct ND pretty much has to choose a conference affiliation at this point, doing so immediately technically isn’t true. They hold the leverage here and will dictate their own timeline. The SEC and B1G will be recruiting them above any others regardless of timing.
It is absolutely an issue, but the numbers aren't as dire as the staff has tended to let on. But yeah, transfers are the next hurdle. Then again, so was mid-year enrollees once upon a time.
Just as an fyi, RU has difficulty getting transfers in academically too. Not nearly to the same degree, but since RU doesn’t have a physical education major (and one or two more that a popular with players that I can’t name off the top) and thus credits don’t transfer. JUCOs are also largely ineligible for the same reason. Stanford andCal having similar issues with transfer portal and Stanford additionally being adversely effected by earlier recruiting calendar/commits.
Conferences, and more importantly the networks/content providers, aren’t going to wait forever. Or very long for that matter. It gets done before the season starts. That I’d bet on.
Yeah, it seems some programs have unique challenges. Oddly enough, it's easier to transfer into ND early (first year) or late (post grad). It's those middle years that get sticky as our admissions has strict controls over what progress and specific credits are acceptable. It's like they prefer a blank canvas.
Exactly right. General rule of thumb - get your GenEd type classes out of the way early because those are easier to transfer over. And your major classes likely won’t. Curriculum matters almost more so than grades because they care about the ability to still graduate in 4 years.
Good work guys, glad to see we are all in agreement that we are too good for the B1G and we will do what we want because we are Notre Dame and we can. And Rutgers sucks, like, not just on the field, I assume the whole place is like BC level shitty. Now is the time to start the long rumored "airplane" conference.
I just watched Micah Bell's film again, he is RIDICULOUS fast i kind of wish he'd play offense just to get the ball into his hands but i guess KO returns will have to do He is a game changer for the entire team speedwise