Perhaps the most important paragraph:

by ReginaldVelJohnson , Monday, February 23, 2009, 15:07 (6077 days ago) @ Pat (Moco)

An SI study of 2004-08 recruiting data for the 65 BCS-conference schools and Notre Dame revealed that programs which draw at least 50 percent of their>players from within 200 miles or from within their home state stand a far better chance of winning consistently than those that did not. Of the nine schools that won 50 or more games from 2004-08, seven signed more than half their recruits during that span from within their state or from within 200 miles of campus: Texas (93.2% from in-state, 71.8 percent from within 200 miles), USC (72.0, 61.0), Georgia (63.6, 70.1), Florida (62.3, 47.9), Ohio State (55.8, 66.3), Virginia Tech (54.3, 44.0) and LSU (50.4, 56.5). Oklahoma barely missed the cut, with 49.1 percent from within 200 miles.

ND's average distance for recruits? 650 miles. That puts us with many schools that you would consider "good but not great". This is not to say that ND can't succeed in this type of recruiting climate (I think our recruiting success under Weis says that it can be done), but it's certainly something that makes the job even more difficult.