Teams did to us given we don’t have any DBs at all on the roster right now outside of some freshman and a mix of converted 3 stars as Sophomores.

Lea came in and inherited some great players that graduated or went pro early. He inherited no young CB recruits. He also inherited the DB coach - who sucked at recruiting. To his credit he managed to do well this year with a middling school grad transfer and a guy with 3 major leg injuries as his only experienced options. He then changed DB coaches and the recruiting for that position this class is acceptable. 3 four star players signed.

It is akin to Brey constantly leaving holes at forward on the basketball team. This season and next one have to bridge a 2 year recruiting void at the position.

"Given the coaching staff's terrible recruiting, the coaching staff did really well last night."

And why was Hinish having to play? How many DTs does ND have on the roster? Elston's recruiting and player development need to be questioned. Or we can just keep getting blown off the field by good offenses.

Is there any doubt Lea would look like an excellent recruiter in the same role at Alabama? He is working with the hand he is dealt, and doing it well.

at ND?

As the Defensive Coordinator?
as the Linebackers Coach?

How does accountability for recruiting results work at ND? Curious to see what you know.

Or are you saying he SHOULDN'T be held accountable as a coordinator, and as a position coach?

Recruits. Juniors are his recruits - but he was not DC that year, he was LB coach and we do indeed have a lot of LBs on our roster and many 4 star ones.

His first class at ND that he was DC and in charge of recruiting are current sophomores. We don’t have a lot of star quality there. However, he changed the DB coach as part of fixing that issue. The next class he was in charge of was this freshman class. Again not a brilliant class - but better than the previous one. Then there is his third and final class - the one just signed that had 3 four star CBs in it, including a flip on signing day of a top 250 one.

So, if you are holding him accountable you would give him a raise in this area actually - because he has transformed the recruiting for the position into one loaded up with 4 stars at this point in time.

Now - Elko and that first class. Well - that’s on the heels of BVG being on National TV every single game with the story being told repeatedly that it was impossible for our 5 star safety to be able to learn and execute the defense. No DB in their right mind would come to Nd until after proven that the new DC was worth a shit. Hence the 1 year total void we now have as our top missing class of players. Even there, Lea recruited the NC state transfer to help stop the bleeding. As bad as we were, who the hell was playing if we didn’t have #4 this year?

I don't think the LBs are very good, other than JOK. The productivity at one of the positions in particular is laughable.

I do not consider the DB recruiting this year to be transformational. The best player ND signed is in the mid 200s. Not a single elite recruit.

Only 1 4 star across all the DB recruits. That single player is similarly ranked as the 2019 DBs - Rutherford, Wallace, Avajon. Everyone else is a 3-star, ranked from #391 to #702.

Not impressed with DB recruiting this year from Mickens/Joseph.

From what I’ve read- BK is the reason our recruiting is top 15, not top 5. Basically, even if Lea wanted to recruit at an elite level, BK’s system wouldn’t allow it. So with that in mind, Lea does an excellent job given the talent issues.

that I'm trying to make. I have a strong suspicion that:

1) Recruiting at an elite level is not an area of emphasis for the program. Kelly is not held accountable to it by Swarbrick and thus does not hold his coordinators and position coaches accountable. There is no chain-of-command accountability to get great results.

2) Recruiting prowess is not considered a critical skill when interviewing and hiring new coaches. Whether Clark Lea had ever proven himself to be a strong recruiter, or Mike Mickens, et al. is just not part of the equation for new hires.

Failures and holes exist on both sides of the ball. Ultimately and particularly the HC is responsible.