ND and purdue recruit different types of players based on their coach's style of play. ND has usually recruited option Qbs, and Purdue has usually recruited pro style Qbs. ND likes to run, and purdue likes to pass. That hasn't changed in over 50 years. brohm likes to recruit in state and down in SEC country. ND has a more national recruiting base.
in the past ND would recruit better and bigger linemen, whereas Purdue would recruit smaller sized linemen and hoped they would get bigger and better through red shirting and conditioning and weight training. brohm is finally starting to recruit bigger offensive linemen. Hartwig was probably purdue's best offensive lineman recruit in the past decade. and this year's offensive linemen recruits all look improved and bigge than the type of linemen purdue recruited in the past.
it should be noted that purdue is one of the hardest schools in the BIG 10 to gain admittance. and the players Purdue has recruited have a lot of intelligence. there have bee n a few players who did not meet purdue's entrance requirements.
Something i give brohm credit for. he is always looking for talent. he looks at high schools, JCs, transfer portals, grad transfers and even overseas for talent.
as for Gk, i remember painter was once one of the prime recruiters of that basketball player who ended up being the #1 recruit and went to gonzaga. Even though purdue didn't make his final 5, Purdue did actively recruit him. and its' the same for GK. ND tried to recruit him, but he decllared very early in the recruiting process, so they admitted defeat, and looked elsewhere. Yanni was similar.. UW and other schools tried to recruit him. just because a player shows no interest in your school doesn't mean your school didn't try to recruit him.
I wonder about the guy who got away - Spegal. I heard ND was at one time considering recruiting him. He would have made a great sequel to Rudy.