Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly and his coaching staff displayed a vigilant and tireless work ethic along the recruiting trail during their first two years in South Bend. Will it be enough to help Notre Dame attract the level of talent necessary to become a perennial power again?
I offer the following judgments about Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly and the current coaching staff’s philosophy and style along the recruiting trail. Hard to argue with the work ethic displayed thus far.
Making the (Early Offer) Leap
One of the biggest hurdles Notre Dame struggled with prior to coach Kelly’s arrival at Notre Dame stemmed from the admissions process. Understandably, the Notre Dame Admissions department preferred transcripts from the conclusion of recruits’ junior years before offers went out. That’s fine and dandy, but when the vast majority of other schools made offers months and sometimes a full year in advance of when Notre Dame could offer, that policy hindered Notre Dame’s recruiting efforts a great deal. Times have changed. The Notre Dame Administration now allows for more of a level playing field for its coaching staff. Coach Kelly and his staff now make verbal offers to underclassmen all the way down to the sophomore and freshmen level (well, if you believe some of these kids the Irish coaches do). Making these offers early might sound silly to some, but it’s truly paramount for a few vital reasons:
1) Recruiting is often times about building relationships over a long, long time frame. The earlier Notre Dame offers, the more likely a recruit (and his parents/guardians) will aggressively search out information about Notre Dame. Considering how many elite players come from backgrounds with little to knowledge about Notre Dame beyond a few clips on ESPN (probably negative clips, mind you), and the move Rudy, Notre Dame needs more time to build relationships with recruits than the local “State U.” that the recruit likely grew up watching and rooting for as a child.
2) Unofficial visits and camps help Notre Dame land elite players. With early offers the likelihood of a recruit visiting Notre Dame prior to his senior year goes up significantly because the recruit becomes intrigued with the fact Notre Dame offered. What’s the campus like? How well will I like the coaches? What’s my position coach like? These types of questions are better answered during one-on-one settings. Combined with an official visit, unofficial visits really help Notre Dame recruiting. The more trips to Notre Dame, the more probable it will be for a recruit to sign with the Irish.
3) Relationships with high schools and key geographical areas cannot be oversold. Each time coach Kelly extends an offer to a prospect at any high school the news will spread. Every time the words “Notre Dame” are uttered amongst a prospect or his coach at a high school and/or geographical area it’s a form of public relations for Notre Dame. This is especially important in cities like Dallas, TX, Miami, FL, Chicago, IL, and Charlotte, NC where Notre Dame will continually recruit each year. Take note that this situation is especially important with the high school coaches. Many of them have huge egos and enjoy trumpeting the fact that Notre Dame offered their star freshman, sophomore, or junior. Within this scenario the coach will be more likely to promote Notre Dame to the recruit when decision time comes. Make no mistake, this angle of recruiting is a major power play that can make or break the decision of seventeen-year olds. Take a look at the Stephon Tuitt situation last year. The Notre Dame coaching staff was working against the head coach at Tuitt’s high school who desperately wanted Tuitt to attend Georgia Tech. That’s recruiting. If it was not for that coach Notre Dame probably would have received Tuitt’s commitment at a much earlier date and with much less headache. On the flip side, Notre Dame certainly utilized coaches (for decades) that helped land recruits for the Irish. It’s a give and take situation. The goal remains the same, and that goal continues to be placing as many high school coaches on Notre Dame’s side as possible.
Overall, I believe that Notre Dame did a good job with building relationships with high school coaches during the past two years. Notre Dame became a major player for prospects across Dixie, including the ability to start a pipeline from the state of North Carolina which never happened with Notre Dame before (more about that subject below). The building blocks are there for Notre Dame to earn the residual rewards of the hard work that’s been completed. With that said, a couple of coaches really caught my attention.
I give special props to two coaches that might surprise some: Mike Denbrock and Kerry Cooks. Why? These two coaches recruit California and Texas, the home states of Southern California and Texas, two powerhouse programs that are very hard to recruit against. Both of these men helped promote the Notre Dame name to several high school coaches that paid off already (Troy Niklas, Cam McDaniel, Jalen Brown, George Atkinson III & Josh Atkinson, etc.). As a rule, it generally takes about three years for an Irish assistant to make significant inroads in California or Texas. While Denbrock recruited California before, his ability to attract top-notch prospects from California to Notre Dame really exceeds traditional expectations. Coach Denbrock deserves kudos for his efforts. Coach Cooks recruits the Dallas Metroplex. That’s a thankless job.
While it might be a slow process, Notre Dame should begin to earn more commitments now that coach Cooks established the Notre Dame brand name with several Dallas area coaches. While many of those coaches knew coach Cooks, that does not mean they trusted (or liked) Notre Dame. Landing five-star recruits from Dallas and Texas in general will be very hard moving forward, but Notre Dame is now in position to land athletes that would not give Notre Dame any consideration before coach Cooks arrived. With Texas being down two seasons in a row and Mack Brown being on the hot seat, it would not be surprising if Notre Dame landed its first recruiting victory over Texas in a long time February of 2013. Then again, it’s still “Texas!” to recruits down in the Lone Star State, so it’s hard to predict.
New Territory
North Carolina? Since when did Notre Dame successfully mine the state of North Carolina? It did not, in fact, and that’s big news. Dixie holds few areas that Irish assistant coaches will walk into a high school and be popular with the locals in the process (being kind). Charlotte, NC and its suburbs, however, do provide several strong academic schools that will probably provide a little more leeway for the Irish. Further, many transplanted New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania residents now live in the greater Charlotte area. In short, there are more Notre Dame-like high schools and people in this particular area of North Carolina than most other parts of Dixie. Credit coach Mike Elston for making those inroads. He’s done a great job. The question becomes can coach Elston continue the evolution of recruiting North Carolina? With prospects such as wide receiver Uriah LeMay from Butler High School just outside Charlotte as a possible option for the class of 2013, no doubt coach Elston will be busy hitting Charlotte again. Expanding further, will coach Elston and the Irish staff be able to successfully recruit other regions of North Carolina as well as Charlotte? A prime run-pass quarterback target in the class of 2013 could be Carlis Parker from Statesville, NC, as just one example.
While premature to call North Carolina a focal point for Irish recruiting, coach Elston’s due diligence provided the ground work for a long-term relationship between Notre Dame and the state of North Carolina (Charlotte in particular).
Florida Focus
With coach Tony Alford and coach Tim Hinton cross-recruiting with several other Irish assistant coaches in Florida, Notre Dame really made an effort in this state during the past few years. No reason to believe this trend will not continue considering the numerous scholarship offers extended to class of 2013 Floridians. It’s a smart move. Coach Alford does the yeoman’s work with many recruits in central and south Florida while coach Hinton does the same in the northern section of the state. In my opinion, coach Alford is literally worth 1M per year. I mean that. You just cannot place a value on a recruit such as Aaron Lynch with how much he will do on the field in combination with how much momentum his name garners with other recruits. Who essentially convinced Lynch to attend Notre Dame? Coach Alford. The same thing happened the year before with Louis Nix. Coach Alford is truly an elite recruiter. For Notre Dame to a BCS team it will need to continue to land studs from Florida. I love the way Notre Dame cross-recruits this state and recruits the best of the best. It’s awesome!
Recruit For Skill; Recruit For Fit
Mike Frank brought up a good point about a year ago. He mentioned (paraphrasing here) “You can have too many superstars on your roster.” He pointed to Florida’s roster of malcontents as a prime example. Look at the attrition the Gators are going through. It’s interesting to say the least. Notre Dame needs more talent, yes, but balancing the unique fit of on and off the field requirements of being a Notre Dame Football player must be considered when coach Kelly makes an offer to a prospective student-athlete.
I questioned the offers of a handful of coach Kelly’s recruits during his initial recruiting class. He called them the “right kind of guys” (RKG) and I called them borderline BCS players and risky recruiting decisions. In the end, perhaps coach Kelly was right. Time will tell, but combining Mike’s thoughts above with coach Kelly’s recruiting method might allow more valuable data to be included into the discussion as the Notre Dame Football program takes steps to become an elite program once again.
Notre Dame requires kids that actually go to class (novel concept) and graduate. On the gridiron, coach Kelly wants players that grow into a true college team concept and check their egos at the door. Whether a player is a bona fide star or a likely role player, that player needs to buy into the team chemistry, the team mentality, and conform to the expectations of the coaching staff. The transformation continued this year. How should Irish fans know? After the outcry of “Twittergate” about the players coach Kelly recruited and which ones he did not recruit, Manti Te’o decided to return to Notre Dame. Now, would Te’o really come back to Notre Dame if he did not buy into coach Kelly’s overall philosophy? Te’o’s decision speaks volumes about the growth the program went through this year. It’s really interesting. The final piece to the puzzle also coincides with recruits similar to Te’o.
With the RKG’s in place, Notre Dame needs a few more difference-makers on both sides of the football. Yes, they need to go to class, et cetera, but they also need to be elite players in between the chalk lines on Saturdays. Finding this mix of role players with elite talent is still an experiment for any team, Notre Dame included, but I do like how the Irish roster took shape thus far. I reserve the right to change my mind if Notre Dame flounders down the recruiting stretch this year and/or in subsequent years, but for now Notre Dame does appear to be mixing and matching elite players with role players quite well. Now, landing a few elite prospects such as Nelson Agholor and Josh Garnett could elevate Notre Dame to a BCS team.
Recruit Until They Sign
I always screamed in anger when former Notre Dame coaches would passively recruit (if at all) players that committed to other schools. This is recruiting! Coach Kelly and his staff go after players committed to other schools. Recruiting is not a gentlemen’s process. From start to finish, Notre Dame must recruit players that already committed to other schools, as well as recruit players that tell Notre Dame “No” before signing day and continue to go after them. Sometimes kids change their minds. Okay, seventeen-year olds often times change their minds. Keep recruiting!
Coach Kelly and his staff do this better than any Irish staff that covered to date. It’s not even close. This aggressive nature will serve Notre Dame well for years to come.
Final Thoughts
With this recruiting campaign far from over, no need to offer a hasty final analysis. Still, I like the way this coaching staff goes after the best recruits regardless of the region the recruits live. Making inroads in North Carolina, making Florida a priority, rebuilding relationships in California and Texas, and recruiting the best players regardless of the state deserve high praise. The final piece to the puzzle comes with the ability to land a few more stars. We will all know come national signing day this coming February and during the next few national signing days.
