Maybe it's all just one big coincidence

by KGB, Belly o. the Beast, Thursday, April 30, 2026, 03:58 (25 days ago) @ Jeremy (WeIsND)

but it seems like the ND staff is finally starting to flex a bit, at DL in particular, after having spent the past 12+ months slowly cultivating a deep and talented collection of options to fill out its 2027 recruiting class.

I'll add to the information you provided one other nugget: Brayden Parks, top-200 Chicago DL prospect with a number of ND connections, stated in an interview yesterday that he'll most likely commit in the next several weeks. Parks has long favored ND but also entertained many other schools throughout the process, getting chummy with Oregon in particular. The expectation was that this battle would roll into June, with Parks taking OVs to both of those programs as well as OSU, but now he suggests that he'll commit before then and only visit his chosen school. Is it possible that ND may have continued courting other recruits who have visited campus over the past month and also expressed a strong interest in coming to ND and taking Parks' seat on the bus? Maybe even someone like, I dunno, Xavier Muhammad, a DL from Houston who was only recently offered but is even more highly-rated (by the services, anyway) than Parks?

We saw this at running back a month ago where ND went from "OMG we don't have any RBs" to "OMG we are full at RB" in the blink of an eye. It won't be quite the same at DL given more generous numbers, but it's likely that a wave is coming over the next several weeks and the staff suddenly finds itself in the enviable position of only taking on additional prospects who are too goddamn good for practically any school to turn away.