6 Thoughts on a Thursday

It’s been five years since Notre Dame signed a recruiting class in 2019 that was led by Kyle Hamilton.

That class didn’t generate the buzz that many thought it could have. Notre Dame went to the College Football Playoff in 2018 the year after winning 10 games and it was assumed it would lead to a boost in recruiting.

That wasn’t the case. They finished 16th in the team rankings that year and that wouldn’t be considered elite by anyone.

But five years adds a lot of perspective. That class turned out much better than it originally looked on paper.

Hamilton, Kyren Williams, and Isaiah Foskey are already in the NFL. Senior Bowl participants Cam Hart, Marist Liufau, and JD Bertrand are likely to join them. Howard Cross was a second team All-American this past season and Jack Kiser has been a key contributor over the past three seasons.

When all is said and done, it looks like that group will have more players selected by the NFL than Notre Dame’s 2013 class (5) and that class was ranked in the top-five.

Oregon had a top-10 class that cycle and they’re going to end up with fewer NFL players from that class than Notre Dame’s. Oklahoma had a top-10 class and LSU and Texas had a top-five class. All of them will have fewer NFL Draft picks than Notre Dame’s 2019 class.

There were highly ranked classes that hit big. Georgia’s class ended up being fantastic and helped them win back to back championships. Michigan’s top-10 class produced several studs who have been key pieces to their success (on the field, not with the sign stealing).

They don’t all hit big and we’ve seen Notre Dame sign a top-10 class in 2018 that ended up much worse than the lower ranked class in the next cycle.

So much of ranking a recruiting class is just looking at raw talent. That’s a pretty inexact way of doing it, which is why those team rankings can look a lot like NFL Draft grades the day after teams pick. It doesn’t take into account program/roster fit, who is doing the evaluating, and who is doing the developing of those players.

A talented player can go into the wrong situation and that can lead to them leaving or never realizing their potential. Talented players can also be a bad fit off the field and that doesn’t get accounted for enough.

LSU signed three 5-stars in the ‘19 cycle. One became a first round pick, one had problems staying academically eligible, and the other didn’t last at LSU much like he never lasted at any high school in Texas he attended (Marcel Brooks). Their class also could have ended up a lot better if they didn’t have two future NFL picks transfer.

I like the class Notre Dame signed yesterday. Right now it’s sitting in the top-10 and that’s the way it’s likely going to end up with most of the top prospects already signed.

Not all of them from this class are going to hit. If half of them do, that’s about as good as anyone could expect. Four or five years from now we’ll be able to say how good it truly is. Right now it’s more about what they could be.

2. What’s truly remarkable about that ‘19 class for Notre Dame is that they did that well without much success at two positions they’ve had the most success with in recent years.

None of the four offensive linemen who they signed are going to end up in the NFL. Only one was a multi-year starter (Zeke Correll) and he’s pretty much being pushed out rather than returning from a sixth season.

They also didn’t take a tight end in that class and that’s about as close to an automatic impact player/NFL Draft pick as you can get in a Notre Dame recruiting class.

The Irish went from having eight offensive linemen drafted from the 2011-2017 recruiting classes to only one in the 2018-2020 classes (Jarrett Patterson). Things are turning around with a couple who will go off the board from the 2021 class (Joe Alt and Blake Fisher) and the subsequent classes have shown promise as well, but to only have one drafted and two multi-year starters out of three classes is shocking for a program who likes to be called “O-line U”.

Notre Dame is getting better and deeper at receiver and quarterback. They are about to hire a new offensive coordinator as well. They won’t win like they need to unless they start getting back what they were doing before on the offensive line.

3. That's a nice transition into the most interesting development coming from practices in preparation for the Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl.

Charles Jagusah getting the start at left tackle in this game is going to be interesting to watch. To go from redshirting to starting a bowl game isn’t exactly typical, though it may start to be with how many players opt-out in this day and age.

I know Oregon State has a lot of opt-outs in this game, but edge Andrew Chatfield is not one of them. He had nine sacks and feasted against bad offensive tackles with 21 of his 40 pressures this season coming against Stanford, Colorado, and Utah.

Jagusah might be the next great left tackle for Notre Dame, but he will get tested in this game. With two new starting tackles for the Irish, I’d expect Oregon State to throw plenty of stunts their direction as well.

No one should get down on Jagusah if he has a tough outing considering the circumstances, but if he goes out there and looks great, then that would be a very good sign for him and the offensive line heading into the offseason.

4. I was legitimately surprised by Thomas Harper electing to opt-out of the bowl game.

For players who are likely to play at the next level, I totally understand it in this type of game. With Harper, I’m not 100% sure if this wouldn’t have been his last competitive game of football.

I’m not pointing that out to degrade him in any way. He played well for Notre Dame this season and they were a better defense because they had him in the nickel. I’m just being realistic with his injury history, lack of size, and how difficult it can be for players like him to get opportunities in pro football.

TaRiq Bracy couldn’t get an invite to the NFL Combine and didn’t get a chance in an NFL training camp. I think it could be very similar for Harper.

I don’t believe Harper owes the program to stay one more game or even owes his teammates anything when others have already chosen to not play. I just thought that with nothing close to a guarantee at an NFL future, he’d want to be on the field.

5. I posted from my five favorite players from Notre Dame’s 2024 class yesterday, which is something I have done almost every year for ISD.

I don’t know if I just forgot to do it in 2020, but I did it in every other year from 2019 to now. For the record, my 2020 favorites would have been Michael Mayer, Chris Tyree, Jordan Botelho, Xavier Watts, and Clarence Lewis. I did say this about Watts when I listed him as the most underrated prospect in the class.

If he was from a different state, more people would have taken notice of his talent. He's an explosive athlete who can play on either side of the ball for the Irish.

Four of my favorites in 2019 ended up doing really well at Notre Dame (Hamilton, Kyren Williams, Howard Cross, and Marist Liufau).

It is still TBD for my five in 2022 of Josh Burnham, Aamil Wagner, JD Price, Eli Raridon, and Jaden Mickey, but I have high hopes for all of them in 2024. Early returns on my 2023 favorites with Jaden Greathouse and Jeremiyah Love have been promising and we’ll see what happens with Ben Minich and Sam Pendleton. It was a tough break for all involved with Brandyn Hillman, though.

2021 didn’t exactly turn out how I thought it would with my five. Lorenzo Styles and Prince Kollie are no longer with the program. A knee injury to Gabriel Rubio ruined any chance at a breakout season for him. I’d say it went better than good for Joe Alt, though.

My other favorite prospect from Notre Dame’s 2021 class has been away from the program for two years. I’m excited to see where things go with Kahuna Kia once he returns to campus in January because he’s basically a bonus recruit in this ‘24 class.

I don’t know what to expect from someone who has been away from football for that period of time, but he has four years of eligibility left, so his impact doesn’t have to be immediate. I do think he was going to be someone who would have competed to be in the rotation at Vyper in 2022 if he had not taken a mission.

It’s not out of the question that he might hit the ground running and the competition at that spot is a lot more interesting with him joining the mix.

6. Go back to transfer portal rankings in 2022 and future Heisman winner Jayden Daniels sticks out like a sore thumb.

247Sports had him as the 11th transfer quarterback behind names we all know and remember like Connor Bazelk and Levi Williams. Just to give an idea of how Daniels was viewed at the time, Kedon Slovis was ranked higher than him.

Somehow it’s been made into a thing by some that LSU offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock inherited this can’t-miss weapon in Daniels and that anyone could thrive with the talent LSU has on offense. That ignores that Daniels definitely wasn’t doing anything close to what he was doing at LSU when he was at Arizona State. He also didn’t walk into LSU as the starter. He had to win the job from Myles Brennan.

Denbrock didn’t walk into a situation where LSU was coming off of being the best offense in the history of college football. They dropped to 39th and 53rd in OF+ (combined FEI and SP+ rankings) the next two seasons. They climbed to 10th and then 1st this past season with Denbrock.

A lot of the people saying Denbrock rode Daniels’ coattails might also point out how the Notre Dame offense in 2015 was loaded, so of course it would be the best the Irish had under Brian Kelly (7th in OF+). I guess no one remembers that DeShone Kizer had to take over in game two and that Kizer wasn’t exactly someone people had much confidence in when that happened.

If a coordinator has his offense play great when they have great talent, why is that somehow turned into a negative? Isn’t that exactly what a good coach is supposed to do?

We’ll see what happens with Notre Dame and their offensive coordinator opening, but if Denbrock ended up returning to South Bend, I don’t know how anyone could be upset with that scenario.

If someone coordinating an offense that was the top offense in the country with a quarterback who just won a Heisman was to get hired by any program, I think it would be crazy for fans not to be excited about that.

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