Notre Dame and Texas A&M have a very interesting recruiting comparison. Bryan and Trevor dive into how the Irish stack up against the Aggies from a recruiting standpoint.
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That's bluenile.com to find the perfect jewelry gift for any occasion, bluenile.com. Part two of today's show, Trevor, is we're going to talk a little bit about the week. I caught a little bit of an audible this morning because we were going to do a stats breakdown comparing Notre Dame's numbers last year to Texas A&M's numbers. Then we sat and thought about it, and we're like, this doesn't really make a lot of sense, because you'd almost have to compare other team stats. You've got three new coordinators for these teams. You've got a new decordinator and offensive coordinator at Texas A&M, and then Notre Dame's got a new offensive coordinator. Am I going to say, okay, Notre Dame's stats to use are LSU's. And so we're going to compare the Jayden Daniels, Malik Neighbors, Brian Thomas stats to what Duke's stats last year, and then we can compare Texas A&M's, Kansas State's offensive stats to Notre Dame's. Just didn't make a lot of sense to be completely honest with you. So we decided to call a little audible here, and so we'll dive into some of those specifics about the new coaches and the players and the new fits and all that in the next section. But when I was putting together the recruiting comparison article, and we've done this for years at Irish Breakdown, and it is a fun look because I'm not someone who is a recruiting rankings kind of guy. Recruiting rankings serve their purpose, but once you get to college, it's about what you do on the field, but there's still this perception that goes into Notre Dame doesn't recruit the same way, and they have all these better recruits. And in some ways, that's true, and in other ways, it's not accurate. And so I wanted to bring that up, but this is the thing to start with, Trevor. We'll look at the Notre Dame offense against the Texas A&M defense. And I thought this was a very fascinating comparison to compare these two. And then the next one's even more so. So when you look at Notre Dame, this is using the on three consensus rankings of what guys were. You look at it, Texas A&M, three five stars in your starting lineup, all three on the defensive line. And then, of course, you bring a couple of five stars, then the rotation, another defensive lineman, one's a linebacker or cornerback who transferred from Alabama. And then on Notre Dame, no five stars, but Notre Dame has seven three stars, or excuse me, four stars in the starting lineup, and they have two three three stars and one unranked player. But as you can see from these lists, the Texas A&M has two three stars and two unranked players, but obviously will lead transfer to Kansas State to go football player, clearly outplayed his ranking. Torrin York, who's one of the better players to Texas A&M, is ranked as a number eight 37 player. He's outplayed his ranking just like Riley Leonard has and and Ashton Craig has to a degree. So but it was an interesting look at this matchup because from a recruiting standpoint, where Texas A&M is strong Trevor plays right into the perceived biggest weakness for Notre Dame heading into the season, which is the offensive line. So I think this right here is where a lot of the angst understandably comes from for Notre Dame fans is looking at that at that ranking. You've got three five stars starting. You've got another one coming off the bench. You've got a four star guy that's a stud on the outside at edge. You've got another four star coming off the bench. And then you look at Notre Dame and there's no outside of a meal wagner. There's nobody that's like blows you away from a recruiting ranking standpoint that makes you think that guy's going to be a stud like a Charles Jagasol. Because if Charles Jagasol was playing in this game just for context purposes Trevor, so we can get an idea of the difference. If Charles Jagasol is playing in this game at left tackle instead of having a guy that ranks as a four star number 265, you'd have a guy that ranks as a four star number 53. And now you'd have two top hundred guys in the D line and there's just this perception of, okay, now you're better prepared to handle that really talented offensive line because you have a talented offensive line. And that's what makes this recruiting comparison kind of interesting because when you look at A&M it's some really good at the top and then a big drop off some really low rankings to the bottom where Notre Dame is more of like everybody except for Faison's kind of in the top 500 area. And I thought this part was it's not as fascinating as what we're going to see on the other side. But I thought this ranking was kind of interesting to look at. Prize picks is America's number one daily fantasy sports app with over five million active members. 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You've had Wendy's nugs dipped in sauce but have you had them covered in sauce? Wendy's new saucy nugs takes the crispy and spicy nugs that you love and turn them up to 11. Choose between flavors like buffalo, honey barbecue, garlic parm, or if you're a real heat seeker, try spicy ghost pepper only on Wendy's signature spicy nugs. I dare you. That's seven delicious ways to try the nugs you already love. Pick a flavor, grab some extra napkins and prepare to nug like you've never nugged before. For a whole new way to nug, it's got to be Wendy's at participating US Wendy's. I'm happy that you pulled this up, especially coming off of our talk about perception. I might not be the best person to talk to when it comes to recruiting. I have a little bit of a different lens that I look through when I look at four stars, five stars. I don't think, and this could be wrong, but the way that I look at it is I don't take a five star recruit and automatically think that throughout his collegiate career, he's going to be better than any three or four star. The way that I look at recruiting stars, I view it as they are more ready to play quicker when they get to campus. I guess if that makes sense. That's how I evaluate stars in recruiting. It might not be the most popular thing, but that's what I look at the most. And it gets bogged down so much of Notre Dame's recruiting, not as many five stars or not as recruiting, you know, not enough star power that we have. Well, I mean, if you go and you look at our, the Notre Dame teams that have happened since 2017, really, they're not loaded with five star talent, and Notre Dame has had two undefeated seasons during that time with not loaded up with five star talent. I'm happy that you pull this up. And I do think that this would be something that would be interesting to revisit on Monday, Sunday night, and see how this all shakes out because, again, it is perceived that if you have more five stars, you will just be the better team. Right. Now, obviously coaching and development plays a huge factor into the results that happen on the field. But if I'm looking at these two teams, especially the starting lineups, and I'm looking at how many five stars Texas A&M has versus the zero that Notre Dame have in their starting offensive lineup, I wouldn't believe you if you told me that the team on the right has gone 500 the last two years. Yeah. Right. I mean, actually 12 and 13, I believe is their record the last two years, right? Now, the interesting thing too is of the three five stars in the starting lineup, all of them were on the roster last year. They also had LT over 10 on the roster last year as a five star kid. They also had Walter Nolan on the roster last year as a five star kid. So that is interesting. Now, when you look at how they play, I'd say that one of their four stars has played like a five star Nick Skeleton. And then Shamar Turner has not played like a five star, but he certainly flashed five star potential. DJ Hicks is still a young guy. He was in the rotation last year as a young guy. Shamar Stewart has not played like a five star player. But on the flip side, a guy like Tori New York has certainly played like a top 150 caliber player without question is a true freshman last year at Texas A&M. And it just makes it interesting where I find it, it also fascinating is that you look at the skill player matchup and that's where Notre Dame actually has a significant recruiting advantage. If we're just looking at recruiting ranking. So obviously you have both Collins, who's a top hunter to recruit, Jay in great houses, borderline top 150 guy Jordan Faison was not, you know, but and then you're going to look at at Mitchell Evans, who was a four star recruit, and then you compare that to Texas A&M who's two starting projected started course. So I went with their nickel because that's what they do. They play a lot of nickel. My uncle's a nickel guy and they listed to Tyreke Chapel as a starting nickel and starting corner. So I projected a little bit put him at nickel and then put their next two guys in there at the outside corner back in the spots. And so those are two unranked guys who were good players where they came from. Obviously Will Lee came from Kansas State will dive more into him later. But as a from a recruiting standpoint, certainly not a knock your socks off kind of guy. And then BJ Mayes who transferred it from UAB. And we'll talk more about them later. Not a knock knock your socks off kind of guy. The the matchup between Notre Dame's top 100 to 200 receivers and their top 100 running back is more of a mismatch on paper than what the Notre Dame O line against the Texas A&M D line is on paper. Because you're talking about guys to not be ranked. That means you're not even the top 1500 minimum to not even be ranked. And you know Notre Dame's offensive line they've got some guys that are ranking the four or five hundreds. They got to one other guy that's top three under player. Two other guys are top 150 players against A&M's highly ranked guys. Notre Dame's highly ranked four star players and and all five of Notre Dame's running backs were four star players. All five of them. And two of them were top hundred recruits because I could have thrown Devon Ford on here and really skewed the numbers a little bit. I could have thrown Cam Williams on here as a top 50 receiver. If I wanted to skew the numbers a little bit but I'm trying to focus on who's going to play. And Notre Dame obviously is going to throw a lot of force former four star recruits at a secondary that doesn't have a lot of former four star recruits and it's starting lineup. Now you have some coming off the bench potentially but in the starting lineup there appears to be a recruiting mismatch which is again why you don't look at recruiting in that standpoint but it does make it very interesting for all the people focusing on the recruiting mismatch up front. There's just as big of one if not more so on the other side. Light it. Hey Irish breakdown listeners it's Urban Meyer. This fall the game changes. Join me. Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram and broadcaster Rob Stone as we bring you a new perspective on football and culture every week. We will be joined by the biggest name in sports and talk about everything inside and outside of the lines. Let us guide you through a new era of college football. Watch triple option on YouTube or listen on Apple podcast Spotify or wherever you get podcasts. Paints almost a completely different picture than in previous years which I find fascinating. Yes you mean it used to be Notre Dame stacked up on the trenches but they were at a disadvantage on the perimeter. If you were to go out and ask anybody who would have a better match up Notre Dame wide receiver corps versus an SEC secondary I'm pretty sure it'd be the resounding SEC secondary but based on what is on paper here it's a little different. Now same question if somebody would ask Notre Dame is oh line you who do you think stacks up better Notre Dame offensive line or a you know 500 level SEC team answer probably be Notre Dame and in this instance they're wrong too. Well I actually think the answer to that would be it's going to be close because even middle of the road SEC teams recruit high level defensive line but I mean it's like Mississippi remember that year Jim Mississippi had like Jeffrey Simmons and Martez sweat on the same line it's kind of like everybody in the SEC's trot now NFL defensive lineman. The perception however would be but Notre Dame is going to stack up because they're going to have a bunch of future first round draft picks on the offensive line from a recruiting ranking standpoint well that hasn't been the case and that's always been true. I mean you know Ronnie Stanley was not a top hunter recruit Mike McGlinty was not a top hunter recruit. Zach Martin wasn't a top hunter recruit you've had some Robert Haynes he was a top hunter recruit Quentin Nelson except for ESPN was a top hunter recruit you know Tommy Kramer was Lee and Mike and Burke but for the most part it hasn't been that way but that's what the perception would be which makes this a very interesting very interesting matchup. Let's go to the other one and look at this from the other side of the ball here and focus on the Notre Dame defense against the Texas A&M offense because this one is a mismatch as well on the other side so on paper I do think you give the advantage to A&M more five stars same number of non four five stars right four to four both three or lower and then obviously A&M has more top hunter players in their starting lineup which is four to three it's not the big advanced people think four to three but they have three five stars to none for Notre Dame. Defensively Notre Dame has the advantage from a recruiting standpoint so Notre Dame has nine four star players in their starting lineup Notre Dame's defensive line throws all but two players I believe at teams that were four star players and and I didn't even include Bryce Young who was a borderline top 50 recruit who will play in this game because I kind of ran out of room to be honest with you and so and then one of your three stars is a guy with 20 plus career tackles for loss and 14 and a half career sacks and RJ Oben and your other three star guy and Jack Kaiser is going to be a four-year starter at Notre Dame and you're throwing that against that so and then you look at Texas A&M and they have a five-star quarterback Notre Dame is a three-star quarterback that'll be interesting to discuss they have three top hunter recruits overall both two of them in the backfield and then you have Chase Basantas at left guard outside of that they have more they have as many players that rank outside the top actually let me put it this way they have more starters in their starting lineup that rank outside the top 900 then they have that rank inside the top 500 and they're starting lineup which is very fascinating where Notre Dame doesn't have any starters outside of RJ Oben that rank outside the top 500 and they've only got two that rank out to the top 400 and so that that makes it very interesting then but then you look at the the depth chart and there are some four-star receivers that come off the bench but they're not in the starting lineup so this one is on the opposite side which is this is an advantage for Notre Dame A&M again has more top 100 players but Notre Dame has way more of the overall depth of talent A&M better to top Notre Dame more depth of talent and A&M has more guys in the bottom of the starting lineup so I thought this one was very interesting and then again it's the same thing the match up up front is Notre Dame advantage but not by a ton the on-paper advantage for Notre Dame is skill players once again it's skill players because all of all of Notre Dame's projected starting lineup the second or four-star recruits and obviously Benjamin Morrison and Xavier Watts have far out performed there they're non three hundred top three hundred recruiting rankings coming out there but that that's another interesting aspect of this matchup too I agree and one of the things that gets me the most excited strictly just looking at this Notre Dame side you're two lowest start ranking players in the starting lineup are two of the oldest guys talk about depth and you talk about recruiting and building up the pipeline some of the youngest players are some of the highly recruited players that we have on defense coming off the bench which is crazy right I think that when you look at the star rankings and and and where everybody is ranked in terms of top 400 top 300 and where they've been at in college football it makes a lot of sense why Notre Dame's defense has been so good one of the things that they get a lot of praise on is they're consistent especially last year they were very consistent defense for the most part and it kind of correlates with how many four stars we have in the starting lineup nine and I like that I think it is crazy to look and see that our secondary looks on paper and I do believe will outperform the star caliber of what Texas A&M has I think the D line and the O line will be somewhat of a wash but I'm gonna give the edge to Notre Dame strictly due to experience and the depth at the defensive line and the players I don't have as much experience are freak athletes insert your Bryce Young here Buba Carr Josh Burnham who has good amount of experience but not as much as uh Riley Mills or Howard Cross so I do think that looking at these comparing apples to apples here I think it paints an interesting narrative that a lot of people especially nationally wouldn't think of unless they broke it down and literally looked at this graphic that's up right now so let's uh let's land the plane a little bit and here's some conclusions from the starting lineups so if you look at the two teams together and you combine them together I'm gonna pull this up because I believe I had this in my breakdown Texas A&M has more starting more top 100 players and their starting lineup six to four Notre Dame has more top 150 so that includes 100 plus 150 players eight to seven Notre Dame has more top 250 players 10 to 7 so Notre Dame's starting lineup has let's see nine and let's see nine and seven so that's 16 four star players and that would be let's see here I believe five three star players and one unranked player and then A&M has what's it four five stars and starting lineup correct and then they have um five four stars so that's nine four star or five star players and starting lineup am I doing that math correctly five on offense I'm not doing that math correctly five on offense and seven on defense so 12 four or five star players compared to 16 for Notre Dame so it speaks to what carries the day is it the perceived if if they play let's just say the game plate they play to their recruiting rankings to some degree does the five star top of the line talent outplay the team that has the more depth of talent that's what makes this match up so fascinating it also points to where I do believe Notre Dame needs to continue to get better from a recruiting standpoint is more of those elite high level players but sometimes they come in the form of you know you look at at Shamar Turner and a guy that is a five star number 13 player in the country sometimes they come in the form of a guy like Benjamin Morrison that was a top 342 player or Xavier Watts who's the number 341 player which I ranked both the top under players I'm just saying but you know that that's going to be the fascinating standpoint is is from a recruiting ranking standpoint this game is very comparable very comparable in some areas A&M has an advantage and some areas Notre Dame has the advantage on offense no name's offense versus A&M's defense I think you have to give a slight nod to A&M because of the five star level players the top hunter guys the other side of the ball I think is advantage Notre Dame which makes this very fascinating and kind of fits too honestly to some degree Trevor kind of how we perceive the game from a practicality standpoint both defenses have the edge over the other team's offense on paper not recruiting wise but just on paper hanging this game which makes this this this match up very fascinating in my opinion Trevor for the recruiting trail for Notre Dame it has to be an A&M to get back to the point that you were talking about earlier I agree Notre Dame needs more star power and they need to go get those guys that we can look at the Texas A&M roster and say that they have right but it's an A&M it that doesn't mean don't go and stop hunting after the you know four star three hundred and forty second rank recruiting Ben Morrison because look where he turned out to be he's one of if not the best corner in college football this year right doesn't mean don't go after the Xavier Watts of the world so yes I agree landing landing more five star recruits is going to be what also continues to change the narrative for Notre Dame but for this matchup specifically I think it's going to be interesting to see how that plays out for sure for Notre Dame it's can there non five stars who have played like five stars so far play like five stars Mitchell Evans Benjamin Morrison Xavier Watts Howard Cross to a degree you know perhaps some Riley Mills type of guy breaks out and then for A&M can their actual five stars live up to their status as five stars like that's that's going to be the very interesting part of this matchup and and what's going to be fascinating as you said it's going to be interesting to look back on this after the fact and and like one of the features I'm going to do this year is I'm going to have my stacking up the stats article Notre Dame run game verse in who has the advantage on paper and then I'll do a follow-up article kind of like okay how it actually played out you know sort of a revisited type of thing which always makes it interesting because the on paper matchup doesn't always play so about on Saturdays which is a why you play the games and don't make decisions based off what Vegas is saying or what recruiting rankings say or whatever else you play the games the second part is this is why I love this game because more like I feel like in certain sports the team with far more talent usually wins but in football it's like yeah there's a lot of things to go into it when you talk about a team where you're playing 40 dudes every every weekend and and that's something I'm looking forward to with this game so it's it's going to be a lot of fun so we're going to get into a more of a detailed breakdown of Texas A&M and the matchup against their name next but I thought this would be fun to kind of go through Trevor so so hold on a second we're going to get to that part next before you we go hit that like button folks hit the subscribe but hit the notification bell share this podcast give us a five-star review and if you have not done so head over to boards@rspekdown.com when the show's over or even in between this next segment and make sure you sign up for what we got going on at boards we're going to put out this season only for that community including some videos that we're going to record and put out only for that community so that is you want to say what's the true insider part of our breakdown it's that obviously this is a big part of our community but that's where you really really really are an insider and going to get some stuff that we just don't get anywhere else so check that out at boards.rspekdown.com so so so so a king supers pharmacy care is making it easy to get vaccinated care is helping you stay protected 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