blackout

Why does 247 show that he visited this past weekend?

No, losing out on one recruit isn't going to make or break a class - unless you have absolutely no one on the roster at a particular position and so recruiting that particular position was a MUST. In the grand scheme of things, no one recruit is such a sure lock at being a game-changer that you can declare a recruiting class as a success or a bust based on just one guy. No one, not Saban, Osborne, Bear Bryant, Pete Carroll, Urban Meyer - not one of those guys can say with 100% certainty that recruit X will be the next Suh or Vince Young or Tommie Frazier or Ahman Green or Rimington. So, it really isn't worth getting extremely worked up over losing out on ONE highly ranked recruit at the last minute... BUT, in the bigger picture, every piece adds up to a class that can make or break a program for a run at a championship. You have to win a majority of those individual battles for those recruits to aggregate into a great class. As the tweet above mentioned, each of the last 10 national champions had a top-5 class within 2 years of winning it all. Clemson has been pulling in top-5/10 classes pretty much every year for the last 4 years and they nearly won it all this year. That's not an accident. They have a lot of momentum right now and aren't going away for a while. For NU to have the talent to compete on a national level like this, you have to win almost all of those recruiting battles so that you have that class that can make a difference. That means that NU needs to win the battles for Fitz AND Farniok AND Chase Allen AND Isaiah Simmons AND Lamar Jackson AND Terry Wilson AND Royce Newman AND Alaric Jackson. Even if NU won 100% of those battles, we probably still wouldn't have had a top-5 class. No, no one will win 100% of those battles, not even Saban, but you have to win 75% of those battles, not 25%, year in and year out, for your recruiting to help you break into the national championship picture. We hit 1 of 3 of our top OT, when we really needed 2 in this class. The coaches obviously wanted 2 QBs, and got 1 (for the sake of argument, I am not counting Tanner Lee because he was more of an after-thought/insurance). NU obviously wanted 2 TEs, and was in the running for 3 and only hit on 1 (Stoll, Bubak, Allen). So, missing out on Fitz is a bummer, but it is the aggregate that is more concerning and I think we should be more concerned with the % of the big targets that we aren't closing on. Now, I still think that this is a decent class, and can be a little more special with the addition of Isaiah Simmons and Lamar Jackson. Heck, I'll be pretty happy if we hit on those 2 to close out this class. But, as others have pointed out, MR was hired because the previous guy wasn't good enough. 9/10 wins and 4 losses wasn't good enough. The 2nd recruiting class for a new coaching staff is supposed to be the "Regime Change" class. So far, this class is very much par for the course for what NU has been recruiting for 8 years now. Not much different. This class was expected to be around, what, 24, 25 recruits? If we hit on our last 2 targets, that will get us to 21. I knew going into the last week that NU was in the running for about 6 very high quality guys. We've hit on 1 and missed on about 3. 2 to go. I didn't expect to hit on more than about 50% of these guys, but NU simply needs to hit on more of them. Also, while this staff deserves some credit for keeping the Davis Twins in the fold, they have yet to lure 1 new DT commit on their own. We lose 2 potential NFL DTs this year, but no new DT recruits. We have the room in this class, but nada. And no, this isn't meant to be all doom and gloom. But, to get to the top NU needs EVERY advantage it can get. You can't really legitimately throw away top-10 recruiting classes as if they don't matter and expect to make it up with elite development. Very few programs have shown the ability to do that. I really hope that MR and crew can be one of those places, because right now we aren't competing in recruiting like we need to to get over the hump. Heck, teams like Oregon, LSU, Auburn, Florida St, etc have been bringing in top-level recruiting classes nearly every year for years and none of them are consistently playing for national championships. It is just too competitive. I am just venting a little, and I will be fine. I will still be excited for NU and it's new recruits. I am just tired of seeing NU be in the top 2-3 schools for so many top recruits over the last years and miss on a majority of them - regardless of it is on NSD or 6 months earlier. It is kind of like the turnover issue. NU for so many years has overachieved when compared to the average team with the kind of turnover margin that we have, and you can see that NU so many years could have won 2-3 more games based on turnover margin alone. Yet, we continually shoot ourselves in the foot. And, yes, I am jealous of the kind of luck Michigan is having in recruiting. No, I do not want to be the butt of Tickle Me Jimbo jokes, I don't want to compromise our ethics. But, Michigan essentially has the problem of having so many good recruits that their biggest problem right now is figuring out who to turn away while not losing too much face in the process. Good problem to have. And yet, Michigan and NU made coaching changes at the same time, and Michigan was a dumpster fire before their hire. NU made a change to try to attain something better - making a change from a position of strength as opposed to weakness, like Michigan. Yet, Michigan swings for the fences and got the splash hire, and NU took a nose dive with their record. Michigan's problem is that they can't take all the recruits that want in, while NU is struggling to fill its class. I think its time some took off the rose colored glasses and called a spade a spade. Do I support this staff, yes. Do I like Mike Riley, YES! But for so many of the people stating how much better recruiting would be b/c of their organization, etc I'm not seeing it. I was encouraged in July, now i'm more so complacent. This is the EXACT same as in years past. We have a couple decisions, guys we've been working on much longer/harder than others, and they choose elsewhere. How, if we have 24 spots available are we not filling each and every one!!?? Doesn't this seem familiar? It sure seems familiar to me. Again, I'm not discouraged or jumping off the deep end but lets not act like this doesn't hurt and isn't an indication of things to come, do people still believe we'll get Simmons and Jackson too? Obviously I am on a rant, just venting a little. I'll be fine. I love Mike Riley and his staff, and will root for them always. Just had to get some of this out of my system.

It's never OK to miss out on this caliber of player, especially when we were his leader just a few days ago.

That would be really disappointing, since all three were considered to be on board a week ago.

Will be a huge letdown if we let him slip away this late in the recruiting game

Doesn't sound good

If I were POB, I'd be a little perturbed that they brought in another guy though...

Can someone explain why my name is censored? Why is it so controversial here?

I'd say that losing him at this point would be a huge letdown/disappointment

Feeling very enthusiastic and optimistic about next year's class -- if we can land KJ Jr. and his clique, it could really be the start of something big

Yeah, I doubt we get Simmons. I'll be happy with 2 out of the 3, though. Missing out on Jackson would be a punch in the gut.

So we have just 3 targets left on our board, correct?