Rocco Spindler is a must for the 2021 recruiting class

2/3 of the current OL class is lower-rated players, what the recruiting sites call “3 stars.”

At the bottom of this post is a list of Kelly’s OL recruits, in order by national ranking. You’ll notice Nick Martin stands out as the only 3-star recruit that was an impact player at ND and was drafted by the NFL.

I took a look at some of the other programs that traditionally have strong OL’s to see if ND's low hit-rate was an outlier.

In the last 6 NFL drafts (Martin’s draft class + the 5 ensuing drafts), here is how 3-star OL have fared:

Alabama – 0
ND – 1 (Martin)
Iowa – 0
Wisconsin – 1 (Ramczyk)
Michigan – 1 (Runyan)
Ohio State – 1 (Elflein)

So 6 programs, 6 years of data.
36 total years/seasons, 4 total draftees = 1 every 9 years.

#26 Kraemer
#51 Fisher
#56 Hegarty
#61 Nelson
#80 Eichenberg
#84 Hainsey
#89 Hoge
#95 Correll
#97 Bivin
#99 Baker
#109 Bars
#115 Elmer
#118 Carroll
#120 Lugg
#129 Stanley
#145 Carmody
#166 Banks
#172 McGlinchey
#183 Kristofic
#185 Olmstead
#193 McGovern
#225 Mustipher
#311 Byrne
#369 Patterson
#374 Gibbons
#403 Boudreaux
#462 Ruhland
#488 Harrell
#515 Dirksen
#516 Jones
#529 N. Martin
#563 Coogan
#627 Alt
#716 Mabry
#817 Hanratty