Typically, recruiting is a bit of a lagging indicator; it may take a cycle or two before the success of a given season bears fruit on the recruiting trail, particularly where that success followed coaching transitions or prior disappointments.
Dave Aranda’s staff does not have time for all that. At the beginning of June 2022, the Bears’ 2023 recruiting class had nine (9) commitments and was ranked somewhere in the upper teens by 247’s Composite team rankings, although it’s hard to know exactly where since we can’t look back in time. Over the ensuing five weeks of camps and official visits, the Bears went on one of the greatest recruiting runs in recent memory, adding fourteen (14) more verbal commitments while losing just one (1).