Agreed with you and BG04; OFD had a good post on this

In summary, while the overall rankings may be similar, Clemson had 12 5 stars to our zero, and guys like Lawrence, Wilkins, Hyatt, and Higgins happened to be some of the guys who made a difference (the speedster Ross was a 4-star they plucked from Alabama's back yard and had an excellent "recruiting cohort" for what that is worth) against us. Our recruiting has returned to an acceptable level after the Davie/Weis/WIllingham years, but we also aren't getting the very top guys consistently like Alabama, Clemson, UGA (not sold on him as a coach yet) or OSU (same) are. BleedsGreen04 had good points about Clemson's consistency, scheme continuity, depth such that practice matters, and closing teams out early to get the young guys playing time, all of which I agree with completely, and while FB is a little different than basketball, a superstar like Cameron Newton or Tebow/Harvin can open up the game against a talented foe. As for ND, our overall depth is getting better and I think we should be able to win most games on raw talent even if we lag the very top few, we should be able to have elite OL/TE/QB depth, and guys like Tyree & Johnson (not sure if we have the elite DL TCIrish03 alluded to) should open things on offense.

Edit - what I wouldn't give for those old Lou & Vinny Cerrato teams, and I can never forgive Monk for what he did to ND football. Man, those teams were loaded with talent, and while times have changed for the worse, I'd love to see one more run like that again!

Click here for link at https://www.onefootdown.com/2019/6/28/18760209/college-footb