Recruiting Perspective: 2002-2008

Notre Dame’s class this year is the highest ranked class from either Scout or Rivals – #2 in both rankings – in the last 7 years. Here’s a look at how this year’s class with an average star rating of 3.96/recruit stacks up with the previous six years.

• This year’s class has continued the upward trend that began with Charlie Weis’s first full recruiting class.
• The four 5-star recruits according to Scout.com and the three 5-star guys according to Rivals.com are as many as Weis and staff had reeled in the previous two classes combined.
• This year’s crop of 5-star talent also surpasses the total number of five star recruits that the previous coaching staff had brought in during their entire tenure at Notre Dame.
• ND’s 3.96 rating was the highest of any school this year on either Scout or Rivals.  USC and Ohio State both had an average of 3.84 in Scout for second best while USC held second place alone in Rivals at 3.89. (Florida was third in Rivals at 3.82).

When considering that Weis and staff produced a 3-9 season in 2007, this improvement in the overall quality of the recruiting class is a very encouraging sign.  It shows that despite the decline in on the field performance, recruits have not lost any confidence in Weis and his abilities as a head coach.

USC is as good as there because they simply reload every year and that is the point that we are getting to as well.  In 2006, our class was big on numbers, but the overall average rating per recruit was the lowest of the last three classes.   Last year, numbers were down but the average rating per recruit went up.  This year both the overall numbers and quality increased.

With Weis finally getting the Irish back towards the 85 scholarship limit after inheriting an absurdly thin roster in December 2004, it’s likely that our recruiting quality will continue to be the same as it was in 2008 as the staff will need to focus less on numbers and more on quality.  If you look at USC this year, their overall class rating falls somewhere between 5-10 depending where you look, but they had the second best averag rating/recruit in both services because they didn’t need the numbers this year (they signed just 18 recruits).  Moving forward, we could see more of that here as long as Weis improves the on the field product to the level he had previously achieved in 2005 and 2006.