In reply to: National Championship aspirations posted by vivaflanner
Forget who the messenger is for a moment and just take the facts for what they are. ND will not be elite until it recruits consistently as such.
Guys,” Smart said before a brief pause. “If you don’t recruit, there’s no coach out there who can out-coach recruiting. I don’t care who you are. The best coach to ever (coach) the game better be a good recruiter because no coaching is going to out-coach players. Anyone will tell you our defense is good because we’ve got good players.
I think that shitty coaching can make a talented team play like crap, but I agree with smart, you cant take a bunch of average players and turn them into a great team.
I think it came up during the debate if an NFL or NCAA job is more attractive to a top coach, with the NFL jobs allowing them to focus on coaching vs. pitching the school to 17-18 year olds, the various rules (pre-NIL), no booster groups, etc. Saban mentioned something to the effect that at Miami he would get 1 first round pick a year and that was inversely correlated to the team's success, but in college, he could get the equivalent (4-5 stars) of 15-20 a year if he did his job well and that winning would in turn lead to further recruiting success. Fit and money are of course major issues too, and it is likely easier for a Belicheck to succeed in the NFL and Mack Brown in college, but just the playoff era alone seems to show the concentration of talent, especially with OSU and OU having first time coaches yet thriving.
As for ND, Saban casts a giant shadow that no one is matching, and the roster situation is something other schools have mentioned both with 5 stars backing up 5 stars, practices being as tough as most games, and the scholarship competition, but I also don't think we are that far off from everyone else (hopefully UGA is more like LSU than Alabama, but I fear they'll stay...). IMO, if our QBs (recruiting, development and scheme are a different thread altogether!) move from good to elite, we get the Hamiltons/JOKs on defense and Williams/Tyrees on offense at least every other year, and keep our traditional OL/TE strengths, we should be right there, although I'd still of course like to see us move more toward the top 5 rather than top 15 range.
I wonder how much longer Saban will stay as his retirement alone should help with recruiting parity, and of the rest:
-Alabama itself: no idea who they'd hire, but would assume recruiting would still be elite, even if anyone else will be a step down
-UGA: They look primed to potentially go on a Clemson-type run, especially building the sort of depth where a great QB could elevate them even more. Smart seems to be cleaning up in a talent-laden state and then picking up top guys elsewhere, that defense is monstrous, and at the very least they're in the OSU/Clemson grouping.
- Clemson had comparable aggregate classes to us when they went on their run, but also had elite QBs with Watson/Lawrence and at least 2-3 elite playmakers on both sides of the ball, and Swinney seems like a natural recruiter who will keep it going
-OSU has recruited lights out and if I recall Day kept a very good staff even if he's young
-A&M could be an intriguing one with Fisher, local talent + a weakened UT, unlimited money, and a statement win like Alabama where recruits may want to be part of the class that takes the next step
-OU's offense will sell itself under Riley, and curious to see if he might try the NFL route + how they'll recruit in the SEC
-UF, PSU & UM are hard to get a read on, but seems like they'll be in that 5-15 range with us
-USC, Texas, and LSU (FSU and Miami to a lesser extent given the in-state competition) should never have a bad class with their advantages, but all seem to be in various states of disarray
-Oregon is a major wildcard, as Cristobal seems like a charismatic guy who's building a good program, they should be able to capitalize on USC's stumbles (I think they were still pulling some good players out of L.A. even during Carroll's run), and Nike as a major NIL factor