Is this the normal ND tanking, or something different? Some of these guys seem like STUDS and get rave reviews at camps, from national guys, etc. The optics are no bueno
They have a stable stronghold on the nd fan base who will stick around no matter what the class looks like. Rivals is dead. On3 is garbage and there are smaller weird contingents with isd and coach d. There is literally no reason for them to hype nds class. nd is also the single most hated school in the country by a mile with a generally passive fan base who doesn’t really care when this stuff happens. nd doesn’t play in a conference so there is also less fanbases who care about nds recruiting. There are exactly two - usc and Michigan.
It’s possible that there is no conspiracy and the people who think about these things just decided that they aren’t that good.
It’s beyond stupid. Guys put up crazy numbers and the final rankings come from a week of practice and an all star star game? I think all the services are pathetic and I really never pay them any mind, but it’s weird that every year the fact that an SEC offer automatically makes you better. FOH.
I don't think it's a conspiracy against any particular team. I think it's a reflection of whose recruitments were more public and interesting down the stretch. They're a business for themselves, not a service sold to coaches for real evaluation. Guys who don't get clicks are simply out of mind and may naturally fall.
To be honest the all star events are the best time to see everyone vs elite competition. If you play scrubs it's harder to evaluate. If you play other guys your size and similar in talent you can see who really stands out. As for Greathouse he's the only one I'm a bit perplexed on. Considering he plays at the highest levels of Texas Football. He as a JR set the state title game WR record beating Ryan Yaties and Younger Bowen brother time after time including a rep in which he made Bowen fall after putting a move on him.
There is certainly some manufactured drama, moreso now than pre-NIL, but at the end of the day the guys that get clicks are the guys who are being recruited by the teams with the biggest fan bases. Those are also the best teams, for the most part. We had a few guys who were being aggressively pursued by other big programs. They all decommitted, and we are left with a good class filled with a lot of guys who picked ND over one 2nd or 3rd tier program. Just like most of Kelly's classes. And it's ranked that way.
Lol you guys are such Debbie downers. The vast majority of the class had committable offers from tier one schools.
Micah Bell: High 55, Now 237 Boubacar Tralee: High 62, Now 141 Brenon Vernon: High 9, Now Unranked Cooper Flanagan: High 93, Now 180 Christian Gray: High 78, Now 103 Drayk Bowen: High 23, Now 105 Jaden Greathouse: High 49, Now Unranked Braylon James: High 67, Now 131 Jaiden Ausberry: High 30, Now 170 All guys who became uninteresting after committing to a school everyone loves to hate. I am not saying they are all 5 stars but the drops are silly
It's easy to forget how massive our fan base is. If it were about that, we'd sit pretty every year. Hell, there's no coincidence that Tom Lemming was one of the first big industry names and he was always ND centric, even as a national evaluator. And this class is not like Kelly's the playmakers on offense are deeper and have more upside than BK brought in. This. But the guys who stuck had been here a long time with no drama and no clicks, hence the drops. Look who a couple of the risers were....Minchey and Hillman, two guys who committed later. Activity breeds attention breeds ascension.
Again, I think all recruiting services are blood-sucking leeches, but I'd be interested to see where the biggest risers ended up committing. I'm not stressing it, but of the final 4 QBs in the playoffs, 3 were three star recruits. The greatest QB ever was a mid level recruit at Michigan, the best RB in my lifetime went to Jackson St and the GOAT WR went to Mississippi Valley.
He'd be a fool to listen. Miami is a tire fire right now and Rees should finally have the tools to run the offense he wants.
Our fanbase has numbers but the "everybody loves to hate us" thing is way overblown, especially in the context of recruiting buzz. We don't play the five star NIL game and our independence isolates us. Our class rankings will go up when we join the Big 10.
But seriously, I think we will be a more attractive school when we join the Big 10 and will actually sign better players. Plus, the fake ratings bump which you are referring to.
NDs best player is a three star TE that will one day be an all pro. These dudes are hacks and they should be treated as such. It’s a projection game and where you commit. It’s silly to take any of this seriously.
He came from the Ivy League, right? There's a good chance he has something lined up that pays as well as a rookie punter.
the All Star games mean so little now, i'm not even sure how much the kids care tbh. I think they are just there for the free trip and gear. I remember I used to follow all the practice reports and such (especially when it was just the AAA game so everyone was in one place) but now, I'm not sure I read a single report and I didn't watch the game As for rankings, those are really meaningless except to be able to brag to other guys you are recruiting that you can join the top class in the country which is something Sampson brought up on a podcast and something ND was able to say when they still had Keeley and Peyton Bowen in the class in early summer...the end rankings don't mean squat because virtually all the kids are committed by then Someone said it earlier in the thread, but I'll reiterate - there were a ton of ND commits that got offers from Bama/OSU/UGA after they committed to ND...those are the ones that matter even more IMO because it would be much easier for the top schools to just go after uncommitted guys, instead they went after ND commits. Shuler got a late offer from OSU. Micah Bell got a UGA offer where his brother is. Cooper Flanagan was recruited hard by Bama. I'm sure there are a ton of other examples as well. Those coaches are recruiting w/ their jobs on the lines, recruiting websites do it for clicks. I know who I'm going to trust.
What an amazing guy Bryant Young is and what an incredibly impressive family...Bryce Young is a legit 6'5.5 and 240 lbs now and it sounds like he's going to be our SDE Spoiler After a top-notch college career at Notre Dame during Lou Holtz’s glory days with the Irish in the early 1990s, Bryant Young – the Chicago Bloom High School product – was the seventh overall pick of the San Francisco 49ers in the 1994 NFL draft. Over the next 14 seasons, Young forged a Hall-of-Fame career with the 49ers. He was inducted in Canton, Ohio in 2022 with 89½ sacks and 605 tackles. He would go on to a brief coaching career in college and then the NFL with the Falcons after returning to his alma mater for a year (2009) to serve as a graduate assistant under head coach Charlie Weis. When Notre Dame held its Junior Day for members of the Class of 2024 a couple of weeks ago, Young was back in South Bend with his son, Bryce Young, who is a fast-rising defensive end prospect with offers from Notre Dame, USC, Penn State, Tennessee and others. He is rated as a four-star prospect and the No. 199 composite prospect in the country out of Charlotte (N.C.) Christian High School https://247sports.com/college/notre-dame/Article/In-The-Film-Room-Bryce-Young-203192700/ “It was great to be back and get (Bryce) out there to see all that he needs to see,” said Young in an interview with Irish Illustrated earlier this week. Young serves as the defensive line coach at Charlotte Christian. TIM PRISTER: For those that knew you during your undergraduate days at Notre Dame, we knew you to be a grounded, down to earth, and a nose-to-the-grindstone kind of guy. How would you describe Bryce’s personality and demeanor? BRYANT YOUNG: He’s even-keel. I think it’s exciting for him. I’ve always told him to be humble and keep it in perspective. He’s done a great job with that. Also, just doing his homework and making sure he’s getting the information. He sees it. Bryce is a very observant kid. He’ll ask questions and I’ll give him questions to ponder and think about. He does a good job of being able to decipher. TP: If Bryce is even-keeled and humble, he learned that from the best. BY: Yeah, well, I hope I didn’t screw him up too badly. TP: I was hoping I could get BY (Bryant) to talk about BY’s (Bryce’s) game a little bit. He’s already longer than you, isn’t he? BY: Yeah, he’s way longer than me. He’s pushing closer to 6-foot-6. He’s a little over six-five-and-a-half right now. TP: What I see on film is a kid with length, a beautiful long stride coming around the edge, he’s instinctual, he loves to play, he’s around the football, and he really hasn’t played a whole lot of football yet, has he? BY: He hasn’t, and I’m very careful of this because he’s my son and when I coached and evaluated talent (professionally), I learned, especially the high school kids, are not always going to have everything together. They show traits and flashes and things that they do consistently that’s part of their game and their style. For him, he has a lot of things he needs to work on and he’s always working to get better. There are some things that jump out on tape that are who he is and that’s a part of his game, but he’s always looking to improve those other areas. I’m being careful that I don’t promote him and advocate and then be biased. I don’t want to be that dad that oversells, and I’m not doing that at all. I’ll praise him and congratulate him and maybe respond to a tweet or re-tweet, just like any dad would. But in terms of reaching out to other people and saying, ‘Hey, man, go check out my kid,’ I want it to be more organic in how things happen over the course of time. There’s a process to it so I’m just very careful. I know my son. I see it. I just don’t want to over-evaluate and push him on somebody else that isn’t ready to see some of the qualities he offers. I think he’s got a ton of upside and I think his best football is in front of him for sure. He’s only played two years of real football. He didn’t play his freshman year because of COVID. He played one game and basically practiced for eight weeks. He got a ton of reps his sophomore year and got better. Then he made a step forward his junior year. So he still has some work to do for sure. TP: With his size, I see strongside defensive end. With the way he’s growing, how do you see him fitting position-wise? BY: The projection is right in terms of playing a strongside defensive end. Maybe coming from a three-point stance more. He worked out of a two-point stance a lot last year. For Bryce, it’s understanding growth-wise, you have to be consistent in what you eat. He trains hard, but he gets busy, you have a lot of schoolwork, you have long hours and you can sometimes not eat properly. So he’s adamant and has been really intentional about eating the right way and getting the right amount of calories to be able to grow without getting too heavy too fast but grow at a good pace. And so the way he’s putting on the weight and getting bigger, stronger and faster, he’s doing it the right way and he’s able to hold it and move around. I think he’ll probably be close to 260 before he leaves high school. Maybe more or less, but somewhere around 260. He’s about 240, 245 right now. TP: When evaluating high school prospects, I look for a lot of things, including body language. He seems to love to work at it, do what it takes to get to the football…Is it accurate that his body language says he loves to play the game? BY: Yeah, he has a definite care and passion for the game. I have to be careful about educating him in terms of, ‘Hey, if you want this, it’s yours, it’s not mine. Don’t do it for me. Don’t do it for your mom. You do it because you love to do it and you want to carve your own path. You have to take ownership of whatever you want to achieve and go where you want to go.’ He’s doing that. I’m just trying to be an encourager and help him develop without being an overly pushy dad and making him do things that he’s not ready to do. I know as a coach, that’s kind of our job. But in terms of being so excited about his path that it becomes more important to me than him, I’ve tried to avoid that. TP: Has he said to you, ‘Dad, you’re pushing me too much’ or anything along those lines? BY: No, that hasn’t happened, and quite frankly, I was cautious about being his coach and I asked questions of friends of mine who coached their kids. I didn’t want to harm our father-son relationship. I had to learn – not that I was over the top, always giving him information in the home -- but I had to be very strategic to make sure I gave him room to grow. I never want to be that dad or that coach that would give information that he’d hear but would tune out. I’m just really careful about drawing healthy boundaries. I think that’s worked for us. TP: You said there’s a bunch of stuff he has to work on. Does Bryce agree with that and specifically, what are we talking about? BY: Bryce has toughness. As a matter of fact, he won’t complain unless it’s obvious he has a broken bone and he has to do something about it. He’ll push through the tiredness and aches and bumps and bruises. He broke his wrist last season and he hated that he had to go out of the game and miss a couple of weeks. But he was so eager to get back and play. He missed two games, we had a bye, maybe three games or so. The rest of the season, he played with a cast and really showed his toughness. He broke his wrist the second game, so in all the games you see him after that, he played with a cast. My point is his hand usage needs to improve. Being accurate with his hands, shooting them on the run, doing a better job of engaging and getting off blocks. The fact that he played with a cast and was trying to do that, he was playing with one hand at times. I know he’s going to be better this year, so hand placement needs to be better. Pad level and strike. Just continue to pursue to the ball. I think he does a good job of IDing the ball. When I look at guys that play the game, there are guys who are strong at the point of contact and do everything you tell them to do but they can’t really find the ball. I think there’s another level for Bryce to go to from a technique standpoint, but the fact he’s able to find the ball tells me the instincts are there. There are some instincts (needed) to be able to find the ball, to gap-and-a-half, to have the awareness to get to the ball and anticipate where it may be. Pass rushing, he needs to improve that. Just coming off and making sure that he’s not wasting steps off his get-off from a two- or three-point stance. Just being efficient on his rushes and taking advantage of his opportunities when he gets a chance to rush the quarterback. TP: Can you get them to rush him more out of a three-point stance this fall? A lot of the film I’ve seen had him coming from a two-point stance from a nine-technique. BY: I’m going to do that this year. I wanted to do that last year, but I leaned more toward what was comfortable for him because he was playing with a club on his arm for most of the season. Definitely, we’ll have him coming more from a three-point stance. TP: So you’re coaching the defensive line at Charlotte Catholic. I can’t imagine a kid going home and saying, ‘Hey, dad, I’ve got a new d-line coach. His name’s Bryant Young. Do you know anything about him?’ BY: (Laughing) They’re respectful but they take in as much as they can absorb without overwhelming them. They’re great. They’re fun to coach and they do it the best they can. TP: You mentioned Bryce’s pad level. I didn’t see that as a problem in evaluating his film. In fact, I thought he showed really good knee bend. BY: No, I don’t think that’s a problem either. There were just times where engaging blocks and maintaining pad level to power through…For a tall guy, he has good knee bend and he’ll stay up-under a block. I think he’s doing a good job of that. But just getting better and being consistent in his approach each time. TP: Notre Dame fans would be on me if I didn’t ask you, ‘What do you think Notre Dame’s chances are?’ You said he had a big day recently with offers from USC and Penn State after his visit to Notre Dame. You said you don’t want to put too much pressure on him with the football-playing part of it. I’m sure you want him to make his own choice. How will you handle that? BY: For any parent, if you had success at a certain school, you would love for your kid to follow in your footsteps. But I have to be fair to my son as well as we are to our other kids. It’s important to understand this is a great opportunity and there are other schools out there that are great opportunities. We look at Notre Dame like, ‘Is it for you? Is it the best fit for you? You know what they offer so educate yourself in getting all the information and understand what it’s really about.’ He’s doing that and he’s seeing it for himself. The process and how he’s being recruited, I think Notre Dame is doing a great job. He’s doing a good job of taking in all the information and he’s seeing it and understanding it as opposed to being caught up from being around it a little bit growing up. We didn’t get back to Notre Dame as much as we’d like but he understands it and is familiar with it because of his mom (Kristin) and I went there. And so it has to make sense for him. We know the great opportunities and the things that it offers. But is it for you? We’re going through that process. I think he’s doing a great job of taking it all in and understanding what’s available to him and the opportunity he has. TP: I don’t know how much you watched Notre Dame football as a family. Did he grow up thinking and loving Notre Dame football? Was he a fan? BY: Yes, he grew up a Notre Dame fan. TP: Just on the surface, do you think he’s a good fit for Notre Dame and what kind of feedback did he give to you coming out of the visit? BY: I think he is a Notre Dame fit. We know when guys are being recruited, that’s the first thing they try to identify. Understanding the makeup of the kid and then seeing it. I would say yes, he is a Notre Dame fit and they obviously see it that way as well. I think they did an excellent job by not having a lot of kids in for Junior Day. It offered (Notre Dame) an opportunity to spend more quality time with the guys. It felt rich. It almost felt like an official visit because of the number of guys they had and the amount of time they were able to spend with those guys. Just the pace of it, there was a good flow to it. There was great information that he was able to absorb and understand. That’s what he needed to really understand it. His feedback was he really likes Notre Dame. He was excited after the visit and felt like he definitely saw himself there as a Notre Dame student-athlete. I’ve always told him that whether it’s Notre Dame or any other place, when you look at the school, whether it’s a coaching change or God forbid you can’t play anymore, if there’s no football, do you see yourself at that university? You have to answer that and you have to see it and visualize it. You have to feel that. I think he sees that at Notre Dame where he can answer those questions going through the process. Now, when you have those other opportunities elsewhere, you answer those same questions. TP: What were his and your impressions of Marcus Freeman, Al Golden and Al Washington, who would be the central figures in his football life were he to choose Notre Dame? BY: He loves the staff and the other coaches as well. He had a lot of interaction with them. He had a chance to talk with Coach (Harry) Hiestand. I had admired Coach Hiestand from afar and had a really good conversation with him, too. But Bryce had a chance to meet him and talk to him extensively. He loves the staff, loves Coach Freeman. They’re doing a great job. Al Golden and Al Washington are doing a great job of recruiting him and developing a relationship. TP: You know, I’ve seen both of them up close on the practice field and there’s a great correlation between Coach Hiestand and the legendary Joe Moore, who was at Notre Dame when you were playing there. BY: Yeah, I played against a few of the lines Coach Hiestand had in Chicago. He’s definitely from the same cloth (as Moore). I hadn’t been around him much in terms of his style, but the more people I talk to, they’ll say the same thing. He’s a reflection of Joe Moore. I’m glad he’s back at Notre Dame because what he did in his first tour there, he did an incredible job with those guys. TP: Did Bryce get an opportunity to interact with any of the current players? BY: They were just getting back to school (for the start of the semester). It was a Saturday and school was starting back up on Tuesday, so he didn’t get a chance to meet any of the current guys. But he got a chance to see some of the mid-year guys. TP: And did the verbally-committed guys in the Class of 2024 try to recruit him? BY: Yeah, they’re talking, they’re communicating. He’s met a few of the guys and he’s building a relationship with them. I would say they’re doing a good job like any class would in trying to bring those guys on board that they like. They’re in touch. TP: I’m selfish, BY. I hope Notre Dame wins. BY: (Laughing) Yeah, I do too. I’m with you. But I just want what’s best for him. I had a daughter that played volleyball and graduated from Virginia Tech. She loved Notre Dame and wanted to go there, but they didn’t recruit her. A lot of schools came in late and Notre Dame just wasn’t one of them. So that was a missed opp. Then our second college student, she’s at USC. She liked Notre Dame but she saw other schools… She’s on the academic side. She’s not a student-athlete. That’s not to say student-athletes aren’t on the academic side, but she didn’t participate in sports. USC had what she wanted. She wanted to study occupational therapy and spend her time at a good school that could offer so many other things and that’s where she went. Actually, it came down to Yale and USC. (Laughing) I said. ‘I’d rather write a check to Yale than USC!’ But that’s a good fit for her. Bryce is more about Notre Dame. My worst fear is that years down the line, I don’t want Bryce to regret about his decision. I don’t want him saying, ‘Man, I wish I coulda, shoulda, woulda.’ So we’ll just go about it the right way. it's long but a great read
Dude has been exceptional at just about everything he’s done. Just an incredibly impressive and likeable person.
This is why I actually like D3 on the recruiting beat. He’s willing to be objective when grading kids, and calls out areas of concern/growth needed. Granted, he probably still skews overly positive overall. But there’s a willingness to actually highlight potential worries, which is good objective analysis.
He has also worked for these sites and knows the behind the scenes that goes on with rankings. He's been calling out the rankings for a long time re moving kids up or down based on how much traffic it will bring
that's actually a really good point on D3...his hatred for Rivals is off the charts to his credit, he was far and away the highest guy on Ben Morrison, had him in his top 100 from the get go, but he wasn't nearly as high on Alt as he should have been...that projection just wasn't that hard to make considering the bloodlines