Elijah Hood decommits from ND
Per the Twitter world, RB Elijah Hood has decommitted from Notre Dame.
JC Shurburtt @jcshurburtt 20m
Elijah Hood de-commits from #Irish per @TomLoy247 http://bit.ly/14YsT5G
August 20th, 2013 at 2:44 PM ^
August 20th, 2013 at 3:37 PM ^
August 20th, 2013 at 4:44 PM ^
...or the scaffolding.
/downvotes self.
August 21st, 2013 at 3:08 AM ^
Another five-star bites the dust.
August 20th, 2013 at 2:45 PM ^
August 20th, 2013 at 3:13 PM ^
August 20th, 2013 at 4:53 PM ^
August 20th, 2013 at 5:30 PM ^
August 20th, 2013 at 6:12 PM ^
August 20th, 2013 at 7:40 PM ^
I'd say give it some time. Alabama has a not-insignificant history of NCAA violations. Saban is a really good coach, but the SEC has a reputation of its member institutions that is only protected because the NCAA simply does not have the ability/desire to look in much deeper.
August 20th, 2013 at 10:21 PM ^
August 20th, 2013 at 11:19 PM ^
August 23rd, 2013 at 11:51 AM ^
I agree and have made similar comments like this before. Unless someone leaves a paper trail or a player or former player feels he was wronged, it is borderline impossible to prove that an institution was paying a player.
August 20th, 2013 at 5:43 PM ^
August 20th, 2013 at 5:01 PM ^
Depends on a number of factors: height of the scaffolding, windspeed and the amount of gear he lugged up the tower are just a few things that affect his landing spot.
I hate myself.
August 20th, 2013 at 2:46 PM ^
Before the inevitable questions come forth, do not expect #Michigan to pursue recent ND decommit Elijah Hood.
Per Steve Lorenz on Twitter
August 20th, 2013 at 2:46 PM ^
I had thought UNC was quite high on his list as well as close. It will be interesting to see where he ends up now. I remember he originally was talking about trying to stay relatively close to home.
August 21st, 2013 at 3:09 AM ^
I heard it was ILLINOIS!!
#NEWERA
August 20th, 2013 at 2:47 PM ^
Didn't he play Frodo?
August 20th, 2013 at 3:13 PM ^
no, Brian Kelly
August 20th, 2013 at 4:00 PM ^
August 21st, 2013 at 12:27 PM ^
...missed what I did there
August 20th, 2013 at 2:53 PM ^
That was made to be a big thing for him before suddenly back-tracking and committing to ND. Gotta think he stays close to home now.
August 20th, 2013 at 3:49 PM ^
I think Mom won...sounded like he was open to being further from home in past interviews.
August 20th, 2013 at 2:58 PM ^
He's going to Bama. He is really sorry for flushing those letters down the turlet.
August 20th, 2013 at 2:59 PM ^
August 20th, 2013 at 3:02 PM ^
Do they pressure kids too much to commit, even when they are not sure? Do other coaches undermine the commitments in some way? Are parents pushing the kids to commit to ND early? Some decommits are to be expected, but yeah, as you say, ND sure seems to get a ton of them--and they tend to be pretty high profile guys, too.
August 20th, 2013 at 3:12 PM ^
"The question is why?"
Someone has never been to South Bend...
Seriously, it's brutal.
August 20th, 2013 at 3:17 PM ^
Was there for the 98 game - vowed to never go back.
August 20th, 2013 at 3:35 PM ^
I was there for a wedding and it was even on the same night as the HoF inductee ceremony (I guess it's a big deal) and it was still so boring I could puke. I can't imagine living there.
The campus is actually very nice though, but outside of that South Bend is a boring goblin-hole. Just an awful town.
August 20th, 2013 at 3:41 PM ^
Sounds about right
August 20th, 2013 at 5:39 PM ^
August 20th, 2013 at 8:43 PM ^
last week, to and fro, and the freeway system was designed by someone unfamiliar with cars, signage, speed limits, and the impact of construction on same.
August 21st, 2013 at 7:11 AM ^
I used ot be on the road doing service work and one of the places I had to hit was SB. It's not designed well period. Its one of those places that you can see where you have to go, but you can't actually get there.
August 20th, 2013 at 4:15 PM ^
I remember my first trip to South Bend for the 1994 game. Remy Hamilton saw to it that the ride home was pretty pleasant, but I remember pre-game; wandering around, looking for a place to grab a bite to eat or grab a beer only to find nothing. After a couple of hours of aimless wandering, my comrades and I came to the collective observation of, "why would ANYBODY want to go to school here?"
August 20th, 2013 at 3:12 PM ^
Maybe they just get to know Brian Kelly better? :-)
ND doesn't strike me as a high-pressure pitch to commit so it's likely something else.
August 20th, 2013 at 3:59 PM ^
1. ND has no recruiting homebase, and the expansion of the Big Ten has squeezed them out of the Midwest. I think this is one area where their national schedule hurts them. Prospects from your home territory are much more likely to stick to their commitments, and it is now much harder for ND to pull recruits from Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania because they are not in the Big Ten and get less exposure in the Midwest (especially now with cable and the BTN). After Penn State joined the Big Ten, PA recruiting became much more friendly to the Big Ten and further isolated ND. Even in Chicago, most top recruits do not lean ND anymore as it has become more a Big Ten city than an ND city. With the addition of Rutgers and Maryland, this could cause even more harm to ND as Big Ten powers will get more exposure in those areas. You can already see it with the way Michigan and Ohio State are recruiting New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia. Without a homebase, recruiting is difficult.
2. It has become harder and harder to pull recruits from California, Florida, and Texas especially to a place like South Bend, IN that is a 2 hour drive from a major airport. The rise of the SEC and the renaissance of USC and Texas/Texas A&M in the last 10 years has also made it hard as well.
If ND is not a superpower on the field, they will be forced to adapt the way Nebraska is having to after leaving the Big 12. Nebraska can no longer recruit Texas and Oklahoma as effectively because they don't have the same exposure there anymore.
August 20th, 2013 at 4:48 PM ^
I read this and agree with almost everything in it. Is it that much more impressive how well Kelly is recruiting the last couple of years or is likely the high-water mark and it will get increasingly more difficult for Notre Dame to get such highly ranked recruiting classes?
August 20th, 2013 at 7:32 PM ^
ND's "home base" is the Catholic school pipeline, which reliably produces ample top-notch talent year-in and year-out. On top of that, ND is a national brand and has enjoyed recent success. I don't see any reason to believe they won't continue to recruit at a very high level--even if South Bend is a dump.
August 20th, 2013 at 8:48 PM ^
August 20th, 2013 at 10:16 PM ^
August 20th, 2013 at 10:24 PM ^
August 20th, 2013 at 5:29 PM ^
It wears off if they don't administer the right dosage. Also, if the kid stops eating Lucky Charms, then a decommit is inevitable.
August 21st, 2013 at 3:15 AM ^
Maybe it has something to do with the way Kelly runs his program?
The fact that ND built a statue of Kelly and wrote "2013 BCS National Champions" on it and planned to unveil it on Jan. 7?
The fact that ND sold copies of the 2012 season on DVD and also sold reserved copies of the BCS national championship to be sent out immediately following ND's victory?
The question is why, indeed.
August 20th, 2013 at 3:00 PM ^
Our decommittment list is the best recruiting class ever.
August 20th, 2013 at 3:09 PM ^
This made my afternoon. Luckily for us, I have to agree!