Rockne's Roundtable

There are at least 7 spots still available with 9 potential spots.

QB - Done
RB - 1(maybe a 2nd slot/rb hybrid)
WR - At least 3 and could take the hybrid slot/rb
TE - Done(especially with guys like Matuska and Mattingly offering Big Skill versatility if needed)
OL - Done
DL - 3 potentially 4
LB - 4 - They want at least 7 spots in the Front 7 but could go up to 8-9
CB - At least 3 likely 4
S - They will take 1 if he is elite or if he offers versatility like a LJ Moore(but he could be considered elite)

Some seem to think we will take a Punter this cycle but I'm not convinced of that just yet. Brindza is a punter and many expected him to push Turk last season. Tausch if he secures the FG's job could conceivably be back for a 5th year and thus Brindza could focus on punting next season with Turk's departure.

CB and WR were the Top 2 targets entering this recruiting cycle.

Discussed remaining positions of need on "The Irish Huddle" with Tony Roberts & Lou Somogyi last week.

Link to segment:

Both seem good to me. But yes WR and BC were our main priorities coming in to this class, still need to do some work on those.

Top end speed at WR. We are ridiculously slow at WR for a team that runs the spread. Woohoo we get to trot out Goodman, Jones, Toma, and Riddick, none of which are deep threats.

Think about how slow we will be at WR this year.

so we have ONE and he will be a true freshman? If he doesn't work out or gets moved to CB?

We, as ND fans, complain when the "experts" talk about how slow ND is but to some extent, they are spot on.

I do like Kelly and the fact he is focusing on speed and has upgraded team speed imo but if you ask me, the priority should be more speed at WR right now.

if you think TJ Jones has the necessary speed to stretch a D consistently, I just do not know what to say. Couldn't be further from the truth.

I just gave my opinion, as a collective group we need more speed at WR to stretch teams vertically. Sorry not a Goodman fan although I respect that he bust his butt for the team I follow.

Other than Daniels, who hasn't put it together yet, the rest of the guys are freshman, with one of them being discussed as a move to DB?

Like I said, I like the direction Kelly is taking this team in regards to team speed. He has upgraded it. But it is young. And you can't have too much speed at WR. Look at our WR commits this year, one guy with decent speed and two possession receivers.

Give me speed at WR and this team will be rocking offensively in the near future. Kelly has done a great job recruiting defensively but stud WRs have been lacking.

If you were an elite WR would you want to come play with Tommy Rees? I think once we get the QB situation squared away this year with my guy Golson or even Hendrix and we have the future looking bright with Golson and Kiel and then Malik Zaire you will see WR's start looking at this offense again.

But I agree and stated as such above that WR along with CB were the 2 biggest priorities in this class. Kelly needs at least 7 quality WR's to fully run his offense as he wants it to be ran and they need quality depth there.