Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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98 MARCH 2017 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED T he ultimate bittersweet ex- perience for Notre Dame football the past 20 years was the 42-14 loss to Alabama in the BCS National Champi- onship Game following the 2012 regular season. Getting to that game under third-year head coach Brian Kelly had a surreal rapture after nearly two decades of wandering the college football wilderness, yet the disparity between the two teams that night was sobering. Thereaf- ter, the predominant singular theme in the Fighting Irish football office was to continue to "close the gap" against the Crimson Tide — more like a red tsunami — because all roads to the national title had to go through Nick Saban and probably Ohio State's Urban Meyer, too. A month following the loss, Kelly said when he studied the tape more in depth, he recognized that while Alabama remained superior, "the gap is not as big as I thought it was." It would be only a matter of a few more recruiting classes and some more time for player development before Notre Dame could be at a sim- ilar level. Four years later on National Sign- ing Day 2017, Kelly basically gave a concession speech about how the Fighting Irish will not be able to match Alabama's level of talent on a football field. There's no great shame there, because only a handful of other programs have come somewhat close to rivaling them. "Since I've been here, if you look at the average [recruiting] rankings, we're anywhere from [No.] 5 to 15," Kelly said on Feb. 1 after 21 new re- cruits signed with the Irish. "We're going to fall somewhere in that range because there's a line there we can't get over based upon what our dis- tinctions are here. That line is going to keep us between [No.] 5 and 15. "We know where we're going to fall. We're going to continue to re- cruit the right kind of kids here." That "line" generally speaks mainly to academic distinctions, which ring more hollow after losing your most recent meetings to Stan- ford (six of the last eight overall), Duke, Northwestern and Navy. One month after that loss to Ala- bama, Kelly and his staff went be- yond the No. 5 to 15 range on the recruiting circuit when Rivals ranked the Irish class No. 3. The Crimson Tide signed four five-star players — but so did Notre Dame (linebacker Jaylon Smith, safety Max Redfield, running back Greg Bryant and de- fensive lineman Eddie Vanderdoes). Alabama reeled in 13 four-star play- ers — but Notre Dame added 14. Unfortunately, some of the "dis- tinctions" caught up with that 2013 Irish class. Vanderdoes never showed up and opted for in-state UCLA. Redfield was dismissed for off-the- field issues, and Bryant transferred after becoming academically ineli- gible before tragically losing his life last May. Since then, in the four recruiting classes signed from 2014-17, Ala- bama has inked 22 Rivals five-star players (seven this year), while Notre Dame has two (guard Quenton Nel- son in 2014 and defensive end Daelin Hayes in 2016). During that same stretch, 2016 national champion Clemson signed 10, 2013 champion Florida State 13 (four this year) and 2014 national champ Ohio State inked six alone this year, nearly matching Alabama's seven. In the last four years, there are only four programs that have placed in the top 10 of Rivals' team rankings each season: Alabama (No. 1 ev- ery year except 2015, when it was No. 2 to USC), Ohio State, Florida State and LSU. Notre Dame was No. 11 in 2014 and 2015, and No. 13 in 2016 and 2017, fitting that No. 5 to 15 area. This year it was quite an extraordinary feat af- ter posting a 4-8 record and bringing in eight new major hires on the staff during De- cember and January. The moral of the story is while Notre Dame won't match Alabama (at least as long as Saban is there), there is no reason why the Irish cannot at least be a consistent 10-win program during 13-game seasons — and zero alibis for the dumpster fire that was 2016. In 2017, the only two teams on the schedule that recruited better on pa- per are Georgia (No. 7, No. 6, No. 11 and No. 3 the past four years accord- ing to Rivals, with eight total five- stars) and USC (No. 10, No. 1, No. 12 and No. 6, with eight five-stars, two of who have since turned pro) — and both are at home. Why not an upset — sort of like what Duke, Northwestern, South Florida, Navy and others have pulled versus Notre Dame? "Aspirational peer" Stanford has been No. 14, No. 18, No. 19 and No. 19 in the same rankings the past four years, but whereas the Cardinal are 41-13 in that time, Notre Dame is 31-20. Closing the gap at Notre Dame these days means at least getting to 10-win seasons consistently, no mat- ter what the lines or distinctions are with recruiting. ✦ 'Closing The Gap' Begins With 10-Win Seasons THE FIFTH QUARTER LOU SOMOGYI Senior Editor Lou Somogyi has been at Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 1985. He can be reached at lsomogyi@blueandgold.com Senior guard Quenton Nelson is one of just two five-star recruits the Irish have landed in the four recruiting classes signed from 2014-17. PHOTO BY JOE RAYMOND