Well, today is national signing day. While we thought we were going to get 21 in this class, losing three players (Greg and Chris Little and Justin Trattou) in the last month left us with 18. It hurt to lose those three, particularly Greg Little and Justin Trattou, but it is still a solid class. On the offensive side of the ball, it is pretty dang stellar, on the defensive side of the ball, it leaves a lot to be desired. Some will point to the fact that we only got one five star player but I don't buy into those rankings as much as looking at which schools recruited the kids we inked. The fact that we lost three players is indication enough to me that they were all very coveted and that other schools wouldn't stop recruiting them.
To be honest I thought we needed more like 23-25 kids in this class. We lack bodies and depth, especially on the defensive side of the ball, and that will show in the next couple of years (Weis addressed this in his press conference but he also said that he thought we were very close to being where we should be in terms of scholarships and numbers. Perhaps he is more optimistic than I, perhaps he is presenting a unified front of confidence as he always does, or perhaps I am just plain wrong.). That said, if a kid wavers or decommits I don't want him. That is especially true of Greg and Chris Little who essentially changed their minds at the last minute. At a place like ND I feel that they have to be completely on board, totally committed, and really want to be a part of the excellent football and academic tradition we offer. Someone who can't keep their word doesn't fall into that category in my book. Weis even said it in his press conference: "But when it's all said and done, at the end of the day, you want guys that want to be here. You don't want guys that don't want to be here. You want guys that want to be part of Notre Dame. I'd rather have 18 guys that want to be members of the Fighting Irish than 20 of them that two are walking in the door saying, I don't know if I made the right decision or not." Seems like a direct reference to the Little's.
One thing that really stuck out to me reading Weis' press conference was how many coaches he seems to know and how many of his former players he uses as connections. Weis' seems to really be trying to get through to these young players via their coaches and using his extensive network and coaching links to not only learn about players who are legitimately good but to also get them interested in ND football and his program. He repeatedly thanked the high school coaches in helping get the players to come to us. I'm quite impressed by his effort in this area.
I'll talk about the offense in general, address each player, the defense in general, address each player, and then have some general comments below.
Offense
On offense we really racked up some good prospects. Losing Greg Little hurt because he had the potential to be a game changer but we have quite a few bodies at wide receiver and I have to think he noticed that and it played into his decision. We, for the most part, filled our needs. We let two very good wide receivers get away (Little and Benn) but that is about the only place we came up short. Here is what I think about each of the recruits.
Armando Allen
This kid is a game changer. He can flat out fly. Weis said it in his press conference and mentioned possibly using him as a receiver. At the Army All-American Combine he made the other premier offensive and defensive skill players in the country look slow by torching everyone's 40 time. He is legitimately fast, he has surprising strength for his size, he is shifty, and he seems to be genuinely interested in helping bring ND back to the elite in football. Go search on his name at YouTube and you can spend an entire afternoon watching his highlight real. Bottom line is that he is a gamebreaker. He didn't play last year due to a broken fibula but all reports are that he is progressing well in his rehab and will be available for spring practice.
Jimmy Clausen
Well, the Golden Boy lived up to the hype at the Army All-American game and practices. Many times I fear these kids aren't as good as advertised because of the talent they play with and the level of competition they play against. In Clausen's case that doesn't seem to be true. Even though his high school team is loaded with talent and he never lost a game, he is still the real deal. He has a super quick release, great accuracy, the ability to create, throws excellent on the run, is competitive as hell, and is a born leader. I'm not going to predict two Heisman's (Beano) but he is going to be good. I'd like to see Demetrius get the start over him this year just because of his athleticism but I have a feeling it is going to be difficult to keep Clausen off the field.
Taylor Dever
Even though he is rated as a three star offensive line prospect I think he will be better than advertised. This kid has a huge upside and the list of other schools recruiting him was a veritable who's who. He can play guard or tackle and I think he will be able to play early.
Robert Hughes
This may be my favorite recruit in this class. He has excellent hands receiving out of the backfield, is as strong as an ox, and loves to run over people. I think he is of the Ray Zellars mold. That doesn't mean he can't make people miss or get to the corner, but his specialty is just running over folks. Statements like "I take it personally when a single person brings me down." and "It's just my attitude, I don't like to get tackled, I punish people." is enough for me to love him. Watching film of this guy makes me want to go hit someone. I think he will be great near the goal line, be great in pass protection, and be a nice compliment to Allen. With Hughes and Allen in this class and Prince and Aldridge in last year's, we have hauled in two consecutive classes of running backs that have speed and power. That kind of depth development should not go unnoticed.
Duval Kamara
When you're compared to Dwayne Jarrett that can't be a bad thing. Kamara has the size to be a big time receiver. Combine that with surprising quickness and speed and it spells nightmares for defenses. He is definitely of the Stovall mold. I think Kamara can contribute immediately in our receiving corps.
Andrew Nuss and Emeka Nwankwo
I think both of these offensive lineman recruits are going to start on the defensive side of the ball. Both are big bodies, both played defense in high school, and we have a glaring need along our defensive line. To be honest, I really don't know that much about these two except that they are versatile and Weis targeted them both due to their versatility to play on both sides of the ball. Both also prefer to play defense first.
Mike Ragone
Ragone is John Carlson all over again...but with more speed. The kid can really run. His ability to stretch the field is perfect for Weis' offensive system. He is the second straight top TE recruit in the country we have nabbed due in no small part to Carlson and Fasano's success. In this offense having tight ends like Reuland and Ragone who can line up in the slot and spread the field are invaluable. I think he is going to be really, really good. There was even a rumor out there that he ran over one of the current USC safeties when they played in high school last year. When asked about it Ragone said he didn't run over him, he ran around him. He was recruited very hard by USC right up until the end but stayed loyal.
Matt Romine
Romine is going to be very, very good. He is a prototypical left tackle who can play opposite Young (although some have speculated Young will move to left tackle) and provide great protection to our QB's. He was consistently rated as the best offensive lineman at the Army All-American game practices all week this year and that speaks volumes. He was also selected as a captain by his teammates. He is a very solid addition to our offensive line class from last year and I think he has the ability to play early.
Golden Tate
I don't know much about Tate except that he is a great athlete. Weis even said he is as good of an athlete as he has seen. If anything is true in football it is that good coaches take great athletes and make them into good football players. Let's see if Weis and his staff can do this. I believe we will use him at wideout and his speed will be very valuable. He is a little on the small side but he makes up for it with his speed and quickness. The great thing about him that Weis noted was that he is the perfect complement to Kamara. Duval is more of the down the field, Maurice Stovall, possession receiver while Tate is more of the shifty, arrow route, get the ball in his hands in open field type.
Brandon Walker
I don't know all that much about Walker either. Weis said he wouldn't have brought him in if he didn't think he could compete immediately. He was committed to Louisville but opened up his search after Petrino left. Seems to have a lively leg (can we get some touchbacks please?) and should push Burkhart for playing time. It's astonishing to me that we can't get a good, consistent kicker to come to ND.
Defense
To be perfectly honest, I think our defensive recruiting class was a near disaster. While we got a handful of guys I think can contribute, we missed out on a lot of big time targets, didn't fill needs, and really didn't help ourselves in a lot of places. A Wilson, Austin, Barksdale, Blackwell, Donald, Edwards and/or Peters would have gone a long way to help us. (That said, I do think Weis and the staff have continued to bring in people that can get after the passer). I don't really understand why we can't get these top players to come to ND given the fact that most of them could play early. It isn't due to a lack of effort, Weis recruited them all hard and he's not afraid to try, I think they just want to go to a program with proven defensive success. While Weis can turn offensive players into first round draft picks we don't have a history of it on the other side of the ball.
All indications point to Corwin Brown really being able to address this in the future as he is a supposed to be a great recruiter. Hopefully he will be a great coach and address the disparity between our offensive and defensive draft success noted above. But the lack of defensive talent and depth will continue to show itself against top offensive teams. It is really a too little too late type of thing. This is the second most concerning thing to me about this recruiting class (the first will be discussed below).
Gary Gray
Perhaps the most impressive recruit on defense, Gray is of the McNeil and Walls mold. He is a lock-down corner with great coverage skills and excellent speed. The three of them should really, really help in our secondary in the coming years. Having a great man coverage corner is invaluable and all three fit the bill on paper.
Aaron Nagel
Nagel could be the second surprise of this defensive class (the first being Kerry Neal). He is a tough kid, loves to hit, and plays with a very high motor. He has the size and speed to really be effective on the inside of a 3-4 (Which, by the way, isn't really what Corwin is going to run. To set the record straight we are running a 4-3 under/over defense which is essentially a 4-3 with 3 lineman and 4 linebackers. This is an attempt to get more speed and athleticism on the field. Instead of having the smaller, quicker outside linebackers the outside linebackers are bigger and more able to create an outside pass rush. The inside linebackers become the ones that run to the ball as they are covered from the offensive line and fullback on isolation plays via the defensive down lineman. The downside is a lack of size that can show up against a more physical, power running game. The upside is that nearly no one these days runs a physical, power running game as the primary component of their offense.) and is also very intelligent. I see him being a blue-collar player for us and someone that could significantly contribute down the road.
Kerry Neal
The word on Neal is that he is a sleeper. The kid is being touted as the definitive answer to our outside pass rush need. He is quick as hell off the ball and has tons of upside. I look forward to seeing him play on the weak side of the line. He could also play in the linebacking corps although I don't see him being moved from the defensive line (even though Weis mentioned it) where we have so little depth. The great thing about Neal is that after we nabbed him people started taking a closer look and realizing how good he really could/will be. Then the other offers and continued recruiting from other schools started. According to Weis, he never wavered.
Steve Paskorz
Paskorz is another blue-collar kid of the Nagel mold. He doesn't have the speed of Nagel, or the size really, but he is definitely tough. I don't really know where he will line up for the Irish but his toughness will not go unnoticed.
Brian Smith
Smith is kind of a unique recruit. We stole him away from Iowa. I guess Minter didn't think he had it but Brown does. It is probably more accurate to say that Minter didn't feel he fit into the 4-3 while Brown feels he does fit into his system. He started out being a fairly low rated recruit but as this year progressed people got higher and higher on him. It isn't hard to see why watching film of him. The kid can run, especially for someone his size. And I think he is a great fit at outside linebacker for the 3-4-ish type system Brown is going to run. Even though we lost out on a lot of top defensive linebacker recruits, Smith is an admirable replacement. His father also played at ND.
Harrison Smith
I think Harrison Smith has the potential to be a gold mine. I wasn't that high on him initially but after watching film of him and reading some more the kid is a great center fielder for the defense. He has very good speed (in the 4.3-ish 40 range), very good instincts, and the height to be able to compete for the long ball against tall receivers. I think he is a great steal from the heart of Volunteer country.
Ian Williams
The fact that Florida wouldn't let Williams off their radar right up to the last minute tells me he can play. In fact, he may be able to play right away. He is the perfect NT for the 3-4, big, strong, explosive, and quick off the ball. I think he will surprise quite a few people with his pure athletic ability even though he wasn't rated extremely high by most recruiting services.
General Comments
I have to make some general comments because the state of college football recruiting really got to me this year. This is really my primary concern as stated above. Schools and coaches don't honor verbal commitments and keep going after kids right up until the last minute. And what is worse, they are applauded for it. I bet you can find ten articles saying how great Pete Carroll, Urban Meyer, Butch Davis, et. al. are as recruiters to one concerned about their ethics employed in the recruiting process. We are turning 17 and 18 year old kids into icons and adding to the confusion associated with this whole process. It's tough enough to make a decision about where to go to college without having the added pressure of these coaches calling and texting all the time. We fuel the egotistical nature of many of these recruits and then get upset when they change their minds on some nationally televised press-conference.
I'm not just saying this because it hurt us this year. And I think we are partially guilty of it too (in the case of Brian Smith and perhaps by Vaas link here). I just think that a little more moral culpability would go a long way. I don't want to be viewed as a school who goes behind peoples' backs to steal a kid away from them. I don't want a football player who was committed to another school to come to ND. Our students and athletes need to be on board 100% from the get-go. Weis even talked about this in his press conference. He said he is going to make a more concerted effort next year to let everyone involved understand much more what a "commitment" means: no talking to other schools, no taking more unofficial visits, no silent commits or soft verbals. In fact, what I want is summed up perfectly below in an excerpt from Rivals.
I've been reading a lot of the posts about commitments, visits, etc. I just wanted to share things from our experience and our perspective a bit. I personally think it's a shame that college coaches continue to go after kids once they've committed. If you send your sons to a program, you certainly hope that that program will instill character and values into your boy as much as they develop them as a football player. It may be the way most programs do things these days, but it's difficult for me to understand how you can respect the integrity of a program who from the beginning encourages, entices, and even pressures an 18-year old to violate his word.
With that said, XXX was recruited by a lot of schools and has been contacted by schools since committing to XXX. For example, just this past week, XXX offered him a scholarship and called me at home and came by the school the next day to try and get him to visit that weekend. His response to these programs has been, "I'm sorry, but I am committed to XXX and that is a commitment I intend to keep. No thanks!"
There were a lot of things that XXX and my wife and I liked about XXX, but the one thing that made them stand out above every other program was the staff's emphasis on character and integrity. It was very clearly at the forefront of every facet of the program. There was no pressure, no hard sell--everything was presented very straightforward--the good, the bad, and the ugly--with the attitude of, "These are the things that our program is all about. If you think this is what you're looking for, then we'd love to have you. If not, then we wish you the very best of luck wherever you go."
It took the first evening with the coaches and players for XXX to decide that he was going to commit to XXX and he didn't care what other programs offered. When we were in the office with Coach XXX one-on-one and XXX told him that if the offer was on the table, then he wanted was ready to commit.
Coach XXX responded, very patiently, that he should be absolutely certain that he was ready to commit before doing so because he was giving his word to the team and it had ramifications for a lot of other recruits, players, etc. He told him that a commitment meant that he was removing himself from the recruiting process--no more visits or shopping yourself around--and that his position was no longer available to other recruits. He told him that in exchange, XXX's commitment to him could be considered in stone; they did not pull the rug out from under committed recruits (like I know some other programs do). On the other hand, if he decided to make other visits after committing to XXX, then his scholarship would once again be available and they would look for a replacement.
My point here is that Coach XXX, a man who I only dealt with for three days but gained tremendous respect for, went out of his way to make sure that XXX was ready to commit before doing so. I'm sure that all recruits are treated similarly.
The exclamation point to all of this is that Coach XXX also pointed out that his program has not and never will go after committed players. I think, and so did XXX obviously, that this foundation of integrity is what will make XXX a (XXX Conference) champion soon. Coach XXX summarized it very well when he told us, "I'm here to build a program, not a team." I believe that he understands that a kid who is committed from the beginning will demonstrate that same commitment during his four or five years with that program. It may be painful to watch a talented kid move on to a more high-profile program or see him replaced by someone with "fewer stars," but in the end that approach is going to pay off for this program in the form of dedicated athletes who are committed to XXX and committed to winning.
These are just my thoughts on the whole issue I see coming up a lot on the boards about the recruiting/commitment.
That is how I want ND football to be characterized. Another good example is here.
Make no mistake about it, I believe Weis genuinely cares about these kids, developing them as young men, and their ability to contribute to society when football is no longer there for them. I also think that he needs to learn from this recruiting season to stick with them until the very end to make sure we get them to sign on the dotted line. That, along with playing it smarter, are areas he needs to improve. And I think he will as it seems that he took what happened this time around personally. But I pray and hope that we don't follow in the footsteps of Carroll, Meyer, and (Butch) Davis. I would never want my son playing for someone who encouraged them to break their word to another school to come to theirs and I don't want ND to be mentioned in the same sentence as other schools and coaching staffs who have little or no moral compass. And the excuse that it is acceptable to do it since other schools are doesn't sit with me.
