I'm as pessimistic as anyone about the quality of depth we have at DT this year, and I think it could really handicap the defense. But I wanted to look at the 'data' to see what Elko is used to working with, versus what he's working with. The 'data' is simply taking a recruit's rankings from 247 at face value, so take it for what it's worth.

Elko coached at WF for the 2014, 2015, and 2016 season. This means that the recruiting classes that impacted his 3 seasons would be 2011-2015. Disclaimer I have no idea if WF took in Juco's during that time, so if they took in stud DT's, then that is something I did not factor in. Same can be said for transfers in.
Anyways, here is how his talent at DT looked during his 3 seasons at WF. I've included all DE's signed in case they ended up playing DT. I'll denote when a player was a DT.

2011: No DT signed. DE = 84
2012: 80, 81, 81(DE)
2013: 84, 82(DE), 83(DE)
2014: 84, 81(DE), 84(DE)
2015: 80, 84, 84(DE)

Overall, that's 13 DL with an average rating of 82. If you look specifically at DTs, it's 6 DT's signed for an average score of 82.

Here is what he's working with at ND this year for backup DTs:
86(Tiassum), 83( Mokwuah), 86(MDT), 89(Taylor)

That's an average score of 86, and I'm not including Kareem or Jay Hayes who may play some inside, and drive up that score significantly. Also of note, for the WF calculations, 'starters' were included. I'm not including starters at ND, which would be Bonner(86) and Tillery (95).

Now, I don't think there's much difference between 86 and an 82 rating. But the point is, WF played real competition during Elko's time at WF, and he had defenses we would gladly take at ND during that time.

Our backups at DT are higher rated (albeit slightly) that what he was working with top to bottom at WF, and keep in mind, our talent surrounding our DT's are WAY better than he ever had to work with at WF (Mike Elko signed ONE 4-star recruit on defense during his time at WF).

Just a little Thursday dish to keep us foolishly optimistic!