Nice write up.
A 30% draft rate is pretty great for a transition class and would traditionally be good for any class, though that may not be the case in the NIL era.
Now that we can look back at the program’s ascension (‘21 -> ‘23) with the full benefit of hindsight, the transition class was a pretty key part of the roster building success in that period alongside development of the inherited RB and defensive depth chart, the 2022 OL haul (kudos and thanks to those involved), and a really high hit rate on 5 stars (Sanders, Campbell, Banks, Manning, Hill, Baxter being the 5 stars in the 21-23 classes).
Compare those elements to others that were either overrated or just bad. The portal only gave us 3-5 meaningful contributors those years depending on how you want to define that (Keilan Robinson, Watts, Ewers, Sanborn, AD Mitchell). The non-OL in the ‘22 class mostly busted. And the offensive roster that Sark inherited only produced a couple non-OL that were any good for us: Whittington, Majors, and Christian Jones.
This thing could have very easily never gotten off the ground if it weren’t for the transition class, the ‘22 OLs, Bijan and Roschon, and the DTs.
That also speaks to how good all the non-roster parts of the program were under Sark (culture, continuity, scheme, etc.)
Small thing about Jamier Johnson - he apparently left the Indiana program this offseason. There’s no info about him being in the portal or joining another team. Just a news article that he left and now he isn’t listed on the roster