For the first time since 2013, Notre Dame has a football recruiting class that finished in Rivals’ top 10 during the February National Signing Day.
With the addition of Louisiana three-star running back Logan Diggs, the 27-man haul was rated No. 10 with one five-star player (offensive lineman Blake Fisher ), 11 four-stars, 14 three-stars, and two-star kicker Josh Bryan — who gets a lower ranking as a specialist but is the No. 1 kicker (“a six star”) per Chris Sailer Kicking.
Beyond the 2021 ranking, Notre Dame recruiting coordinator Brian Polian and the Notre Dame staff did a comprehensive overview of the last three to five classes from 2016-20 and found that the aggregate ranking was also exactly at No. 10.
A certain school like USC might have a dramatic fluctuation of a No. 3 rating in in 2018 and a mind-numbing 71st in 2020, whereas Notre Dame generally has been steadily consistent in the 11 through 15 range from 2016-21.
More importantly, those rankings on paper have been matched or surpassed on the field. The highlights in the last four seasons under head coach Brian Kelly are a 43-8 overall record, two top-five finishes in the Associated Press poll and one of only five schools to advance to the four-team College Football Playoff twice.
“There are schools that are ranked above us in the composite rankings over the last five years in terms of recruiting that have not equaled the production on the field,” Polian said.
“One of the things we are most proud of is we feel like we are recruiting at a good clip — we can always be better. And then under Coach Kelly’s leadership, our staff, our development within the program is translating to wins on the field. We feel like that is a very positive marker for our program right now.”
Some schools, namely Alabama, recruit at a consistent No. 1-3 level and have six national titles to show for it the past 12 years.
Others such as Florida State — ranked No. 2, No. 4, No. 10 and No. 17 in recruiting from 2016-19 — have excelled in the paper chase with recruiting, but have been 21-26 on the field the past four years, including 3-6 in 2020.
“If you asked Coach [Kelly] … would we rather be a consistently top-five recruiting team, or a team that’s consistently in the top five of the polls — which we have been at the end of the season in two of the last three years — I think we would choose the latter,” Polian summarized.
Why not both, though? In December 2019 during preparations for the Camping World Bowl, Kelly himself acknowledged that he perhaps had sold himself and the staff short of Notre Dame’s capabilities to recruit a top 5 class, having previously viewed top 10 as the ceiling because of the school's distinctions, specifically to academic and citizenship requirements from the student-athletes.
Polian said to raise the bar to the top-five level first requires early identification of an elite prospect — current sophomore safety Kyle Hamilton as the prototype — who fits the Notre Dame culture.
Per associate head coach/defensive line coach Mike Elston, who has been with Kelly the past 17 years, in a given year Notre Dame is able to recruit about “less than half” of the nation’s top 100 prospects (by whatever outlet).
“Part of the process too has been the conviction to walk away from an elite player that you know in your heart is not interested in what we have to offer or may not fit here, so that we can then be more efficient in terms of where we dedicate our resources — to the guys that do fit our profile,” Polian said.
“Player development is always going to be part of the process here, but I think ultimately in order for us to keep climbing those rankings is to not allow anybody to tell us, ‘Hey, you can’t get this guy.’ If we feel like it’s a match, we’re going to go all in and fight those battles, and then at the same time have the common sense not to dedicate resources to guys that clearly are not interested in what it is we have to offer.”
In recent years, anecdotes have been highlighted about how Kelly’s own efforts on the recruiting trail are lacking when compared to head coaches such as Alabama’s Nick Saban, or many others.
Last year, the South Bend Tribune highlighted that a couple of top-100 prospects in wide receiver Jalen McMillen and safety Lathan Ransom, chose Washington and Ohio State, respectively, over Notre Dame because they never heard from Kelly, compared to other head coaches.
Recently in The Athletic, 2022 four-star defensive end prospect Tyson Ford from St. Louis revealed he chose Notre Dame even though he had spoken with Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley at least a half-dozen times as opposed to none with Kelly, although new Irish defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman did leave a powerful impression on him.
“Some of the anecdotal stuff I truly believe is not fair,” said Polian of the perception that Kelly gets outworked on the recruiting trail.
Polian pointed out that as a national school that had 31 different states represented on the previous year’s roster, there is a chain of command and extensive vetting process that first involves geographical assignments for assistants and support staff, then getting the position coach involved, then the coordinators (including Polian and Elston) and finally Kelly.
“If we waited too long to get [Kelly] involved strategically, then that’s back on us,” Polian said. “Every time I’ve gone to Coach Kelly and said, ‘This is where we are in the process, and here’s what we’re asking from you in order to get this thing over the top or keep us moving forward, he’s always been there. And he’s always been energetic and enthusiastic about it.
“It’s unfair to think that as we begin to vet our board that Coach Kelly is going to text every recruit on our board six times. It’s just not reasonable — not with the amount of ground we have to cover. When you compare other places where you’re going to build a roster out of two states and they’re not vetting the way we are, I just think it’s a little bit different.”
During the ’21 recruiting cycle that was virtually (literally and figuratively) digital, Polian said Kelly was at his finest.
“The amount of work that Coach Kelly did with this group via Zoom, phone calls and text messages, he was unbelievable,” Polian said. “There was a daily ‘hit’ list: ‘Coach, we’d like you to do X, Y, Z,’ and he was phenomenal.”
“In the end, the anecdotal stuff will be out there. … I think sometimes it’s a little sensationalized, but it’s the world that we live in. I thought he killed it in this class.”
----
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, Blue & Gold Illustrated.
• Watch our videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
• Sign up for Blue & Gold's news alerts and daily newsletter.
• Subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts.
• Follow us on Twitter: @BGINews, @BGI_LouSomogyi, @Rivals_Singer, @PatrickEngel_, @MasonPlummer_ and @AndrewMentock.
• Like us on Facebook.
