Notre Dame Recruiting Notebook | Mike Elston
Defensive line coach Mike Elston spoke on Wednesday about some of the evaluation process for Notre Dame.
On tracking recruiting success:
"It's awesome and exciting for fan bases and really coaches to track and players to track, where the signing classes finish on a day like signing day. We are built on an evaluation process throughout the recruiting process.
"The development Coach Kelly has had that I've been with him over the last 17 years has been focused strictly on a day like today, really just the final piece to put it all together of our evaluation process.
"What we've done over the last month has been quality control. Looking at what the 2016, 2017 and 2018 class - what that rating looked like from the signing class and then also on the field production.
"Nobody really knows on signing day if you have a top 10 class or a Top 5 class or a Top 3 class until you see the fruition on the football field. Let's face it, you're going to put them through a developmental process within your program and then you're going to find out what kind of class you signed. So you're not going to know what that class looks like until they go through your process. We believe here at Notre Dame, Coach Kelly has developed a developmental process with the support staff and with our coaching staff that is second to none. Our guys understand the process and that's where we're evaluating our recruiting cycles and how we're doing.
"When we look at our evaluation process that we go through in recruiting, there's the component that the national sites use to evaluate a football player, which is the simple stuff, which is flip on a football film. Evaluate how they run, evaluate how they tackle, how they throw, how they catch.
"There's the evaluation of going to a practice, a game and an in-person visit. We do all of that stuff that the national media does, but here at Notre Dame, we have to dive deeper. We can't just go off what the 247 ratings say; this is a four-star prospect. There's more to it for us in this evaluation process and Coach Kelly's evaluation process.
"For example, those things are a young man's academic foundation, his academic core curriculum. Does he have the support system to be successful at Notre Dame? There's a rating on that for our football staff that Coach Kelly's put together. Is he a good citizen? What's his citizenship? Does he make great decisions? Is he a leader? Does he have great leadership qualities? So we put ratings on all of that stuff. Work ethic and we're talking to people that are around them on a daily basis. What's missed inside the national rankings if Notre Dame finishes in the top 10 or the 10th and 247 or Rivals ranking - what's missing is those components that we put a lot of that Coach Kelly and the staff put a lot of onus on in terms of our evaluation process.”
On the success of a recruiting class:
"To decide whether we're having success in the recruiting and the rating system that we have. For example, we just finished the 2020 season and Notre Dame in the AP Poll finished No. 5.
"What we're evaluating and our rating is going to be looked at for the 2017, 2018 recruiting class. So if you take the 247 composite rankings of those two classes, They were top 10 classes. They were No. 10 in the country both seasons. As they went through Coach Kelly's development program, we've translated that top those two Top 10 classes into a Top 5 team because we just finished top five in the country.
"So we're built on those types of rankings and ratings. We put so much ownership on that and Coach Kelly over the last 17 years that I worked with him has put together a system of checks and balances that we continue to improve.
"Now, obviously, we can continue to evaluate that as we do every year and improve it."
On how many Top 100 kids Notre Dame can actually recruit:
"The first part of your question, the top 100 - that varies per season, right? It varies per recruiting cycle based on the fit of a young man and the things that I talked about. You're asking the question based on Notre Dame and I would say less than half are guys that we can target and go after and for one reason or another.”
On seeing the potential of the 2016 DE class:
"I felt strongly during that time that we evaluated, like for example, Julian Okwara. I can remember flying down to North Carolina and I wasn't going to go watch him play on that Friday night. I was going to go out and watch a running back play. It was more important to evaluate him at that time and then he sprained his ankle the night before the game. I detoured and I decided to go watch Julian play.
"We hadn't offered him yet. Didn't really know much about him other than that he was Romeo's brother. He ran down on every kickoff and made the tackle. He blocked the punt, he had three sacks. He had an interception for a touchdown and we offered him the very next day. Saw with my own eyes that he was 195 pounds. He was out of profile for what we were doing in terms of fit of size, but he was electric and he was going to be a guy that we could develop inside of Coach Kelly's program to be one heck of a pass rusher.
"Then same thing with Ade (Ogundeji). Raw player in high school, too skinny to do a lot of the jobs, but knew that with work ethic, talking to people that know him and how hard he was going to work and train. He was on the top of Matt Balis' board every single year with being hungry and starving for more work.
"I believe strongly that the evaluation process that Coach Kelly has developed allows for a player like Ade and Julian, who we're not four prospects to come in and develop and then have an opportunity to further their career in the NFL. Then it allows for a guy like Daelin Hayes, who's a five-star, to be in the right position and to develop and hopefully reach his potential."
On what they're looking for in a big end and Vyper:
"The big end for us is specifically a defensive end. He's going to have his hand in the ground. He's going to be in a three-point stance and he's going to be block destruction versus the run and then he's going to be pass rushing and getting on the edge and doing stunting and moving around, playing a three-technique on third down as you've seen us do with Ade and Khalid (Kareem) and those guys. The difference will be, they won't drop into coverage and play a tight end man to man or a running back.
"The Vyper positions going to always be standing up in a two-point stance. They're going to be involved in coverage, maybe 15- 20% of the game where they're going to cover a tight end man to man or cover a running back. We'll move them back to the second level at times off the ball and blitzed them from there and hit them in B-gap or do different things with them. We'll play on third down with more Vypers in the game than defensive ends because there's some coverage components and things like that.
“We want them to be a little bit more athletic in moving in space and coverage, but both of them need to be elite pass rushers. We want them to be as fast as they can be. The Vyper typically is faster of the two. Although Ade would tell you he was the fastest defensive end in the building. But we want our Vypers to be really fast and we want them to be great pass rushers."
On the 2021 defensive line class:
"So starting inside Gabriel Rubio, who I built a relationship back when he was a freshman. Very excited for him. He comes from a family of football and Angel, his father, who's the defensive line coach there at the high school and a fireman. Just a phenomenal family work ethic through the roof.
Gabriel's the most respectful young man you could ever recruit and coach.
"I gave Gabriel a challenge. We gave him a challenge of we need to see your academics go up before we can offer you a scholarship. And it was a risk that we took because Gabriel was getting 15-20 offers from top 10 programs and he held steadfast to what he was looking for. Once he got his GPA up to where we needed it to be, we offered him a scholarship and he turned around and he committed. Building an incredible connection with him and his family and super excited for where he's coming and thankful that he's here this spring.
"The next young man would be Jason Onye. He jumped in next and Jason is going to be a big end for us. Right now, he's 275-280 pounds. He's going to be a huge end, as we call it right now. He gives us some good position flexibility. Maybe he goes in and play some three-technique. But we're excited for Jason's development.
"He's super tall, long, athletic and twitchy enough to give us great pass rush. He's going to be on the edge to start and see how he goes. But he's not here this spring."
Then the next young man that jumped in was Will Schweitzer. He's going to be a Vyper. We're excited for him. He's long and he's tall. He's an incredible worker. He's played linebacker. So he's got coverage ability, which we're excited about for that Vyper position.
"Then you have Devin (Aupiu). Devin was the last to jump on board and super excited for him. Same as Will, a very long athletic player that's played in a two point stance. The great thing about Devin is that he's a football junkie.
"When we talked during the recruiting process, it wasn't about the glitz and the glamour. He wanted to talk football. He wanted to know why Daelin is in a two-point stance with his outside foot up and his inside foot back? I think I'll feel more comfortable with my inside foot up. Then I see you're playing three Vypers and they're moving all over the place. What are you telling him when he's over the guard? He's just a football junkie, which I'm excited about. That's going to be fun to have those guys in the room this spring.
"We have Will, Devin and we have Gabriel on campus. Jason will join us in the summer and they're going to be great additions. The guys have already taken them under their wings and it's going to be an awesome group."
On finding guys with a high ceiling that might need a little more development:
"We're a developmental program, as we've stated. All those guys from Daelin, Ade, Julian, Khalid and Jamir Jones - we are and will be a developmental program. Whether it's a guy that's got a high rating or a low rating, we're looking for a young man that has a high ceiling. We want his best days of football to be ahead of him. We certainly don't want them to be peaked out in high school.
“We've had to play freshmen in the past and that's not a lot of fun when you have to play them. It's great when you can play them, which we have been doing over the last three seasons, four seasons. It's fun to put them in the cooker a little bit and let them develop and then play them - like Coach Freeman, we were watching some video and watching some of the freshmen - like he had a chance to see Aiden Keanaaina and Jordan Botelho play some at the defensive line. That's fun when they don't have to. They are in there because we can and we've been very fortunate with that and hopefully, we can continue to build that depth and allow those guys to be in the cooker a little bit. Go down a scout team, cut their teeth some and then learn the system so they can go in there and really play productive football and have a great season."
On Marcus Freeman recruiting:
"I've really enjoyed my time with Marcus. He and I, our paths have crossed quite often in recruiting at other schools. I hadn't had a chance to build a relationship with him and from day one, it's been awesome.
"One thing that I'll tell you is that he's a tiger and I love that. I love working with other coaches that attack in the recruiting cycle and build relationships and challenge me as a position coach to do the same. At the end of every cycle, you're talking about where you can always get better and improve.
"For me, I'm always trying to look inward to find out how I can improve and watching him build relationships and communicate and collaboration with the staff. That's been really fun. And I'd say energy and just the way he attacks it, this is something that we've really enjoyed and that I've enjoyed and that I've learned from."