ND Recruiting is back - Five 5-stars (3 DEs)
ND got the pledge of a 5-star DE from Georgia yesterday. That gives them five 5-stars in this class and essentially locks them into a top-3 class
http://recruiting.scout.com/a.z?s=73&p=9&c=8&toinid=704&yr=2011
Obviously, at least one of these large DEs will slide to DT, you are looking at a future line with three 5-star recruits.
Defense first in South Bend.
January 21st, 2011 at 1:15 AM ^
Not to bring back repressed memories, but we probably would have landed Frost and Hart this class had RR stayed and both are 5 stars.
January 20th, 2011 at 9:40 AM ^
Why would any big time recruit go to ND? If you want great academics go to Michigan. If you want to live in the middle of nowhere go to Alabama or Auburn, at least then you don't have to freeze your ass off. I understand ND has a name but they have not been relevant for the majority of these kids lives. This is a program that lost to Navy (again) and Tulsa. You can't tell me all these kids are Catholic. Not to mention the program seems to be run by some shady characters.
January 20th, 2011 at 9:52 AM ^
This might be a little bit of a simplified view. There are many great academic institutions around, including Notre Dame. Hell, we all laughed (or at least I did) when Myron Rolle chose FSU for their academics and he ended up a Rhodes Scholar
January 20th, 2011 at 10:26 AM ^
i'm obviously not an elite recruit, but some of the things that recruits mention:
1. academics. not just in the sense of the school's academic reputation, but in the sense that football players are well educated and leave the place with a degree.
2. post-graduation opportunities. nd almuni are a famously close bunch and tend to take care of their own. nd does very well in the national rankings (ie: us news) largely because a huge chunk of the alumni give money to the place and give a lot of it, for example.
3. religion. not catholocism per se, but its important to some guys that the school has a strong religious identity.
4. parents. this one is often very important. but, through a combination of 1-3 and a general sense that their kid is less likely to get into serious trouble at nd, its often the case that the kid wants to go to good-weather-hot-chicks school and the parent wants them to go to nd, stay out of trouble, go to church and graduate.
5. exposure. the magnitude of this benefit has diminished over time, but there is still a relevant advantage. there is no such thing as a hugely successful player at nd that isn't well known nationally.
6. new coaches. this is the one upside of changing coaches every 3 years. you can always pitch kids on a narrative that things are going in the right direction and that they can get in on the ground floor, get early playing time etc.
January 20th, 2011 at 11:12 AM ^
January 20th, 2011 at 11:15 AM ^
the Ty W. years. Frontal Ass always had great success at recruiting; he simply didn't know what to do with it. Anyone that can pull a 5* Samoan into SB has to be considered a great recruiter, but that's a small example. His speciality was somehow getting the top ranked qb for his offense every year, and the 5* rbs and OLmen didn't hurt either.
The one real thing that has returned to ND is a coach.
January 20th, 2011 at 11:52 AM ^
I'm pretty sure ND graduates a much higher percentage of their football players than UM does.
January 20th, 2011 at 5:25 PM ^
yeah, can you bold the "much" for me?
January 20th, 2011 at 10:52 AM ^
I'm going to have to emphatically disagree here. People go to ND because it has national recognition. They have the NBC contract which guarantees they are on television every week. If they play away, ABC or ESPN almost always picks up the game.
On top of that, despite the fact that they have not been in the national hunt for some time, they get talked about based on talent almost every year. They still send plenty of players to the NFL.
Combine those points with a top notch education (perhaps even better than U of M's depending on the field) and you are talking about an all-around great collegiate experience.
Don't get me wrong, I hope we stomp them into the ground. I'm just saying...
January 20th, 2011 at 3:59 PM ^
Not all of the f-ball players are Catholics. Manti Teo is of the Mormon creed.
January 20th, 2011 at 9:40 AM ^
It was weird how the Stephon Tuitt thing played out. Kid was a ND commit until a few days ago when he switched to GT, now hes back with the Domers 2 days later. I feel like Kelly told him that Jesus wouldnt love him if he went to Georgia Tech...
January 20th, 2011 at 10:25 AM ^
Iv'e heard that everytime someone decommits from ND a kitten dies.
January 20th, 2011 at 5:28 PM ^
lets just say there was a certain HS coach that wanted a certain job at GT and there may have been a best friend, who was offered for being the best friend
January 20th, 2011 at 9:41 AM ^
Look at Fat Charlie's classes. They were always highly ranked, and look at what happened.
January 20th, 2011 at 6:45 PM ^
Nothing wrong with the offenses, the defenses were terrible. Sounds kinda familiar.
January 20th, 2011 at 9:41 AM ^
Ray Drew, come on down!
January 20th, 2011 at 9:42 AM ^
but for real, can we haz some 5 star defensive recruits?
January 20th, 2011 at 9:45 AM ^
Kelly will be dangerous @ ND, I sure hope we can keep the RR Win streak alive against the Domers as they are my #1 hated team.
January 20th, 2011 at 9:45 AM ^
I hate that I like Brian Kelly. I know he's the enemy. I know he makes win-at-all-cost decisions (see: QB concussions vs. Michigan), but he is from my area and is a great coach. People around here and who have played for him at GVSU talk very highly of him.
January 20th, 2011 at 10:43 AM ^
I'm pretty sure Brian Kelly is from Boston........
But yes, he did coach at GVSU for quite a while.
January 20th, 2011 at 2:53 PM ^
I know he's not from here and should have made that more clear, but as you said he did spend a great deal of time here while coaching and still has family in Allendale schools, so yeah.
January 20th, 2011 at 10:55 AM ^
As a GVSU alum, I couldn't agree more. He does top notch work with lesser talent IMHO. He's going to be tough to beat for the next few years, there's no doubt about that.
January 20th, 2011 at 9:48 AM ^
I only count 4, 3 defensive lineman and the tight end? Their class definitely looks solid, BK scares me.
January 20th, 2011 at 9:49 AM ^
ND got better as the season went on and beat some teams that in previous years they might not have beaten, couple that with top 5 classes.....ugh... ND looks like a load.....beer sales going up in pubs all across America.
January 20th, 2011 at 10:08 AM ^
January 20th, 2011 at 11:41 AM ^
ND started off the season 1-3 and finished it 6-2 with 4 of the 6 wins coming against teams who went to bowl games (yeah, there's a ton of bowl games) and one of the other wins against a team who was ineligible for a bowl game (USC).
January 20th, 2011 at 12:42 PM ^
not sure about favorable schedule. before the bowl games were taken into account, they had the # 1 strength of schedule. they may have played some easy teams, but certainly not more so than anyone else.
January 20th, 2011 at 5:42 PM ^
Having the the hardest schedule in the country is favorable to ND fans but I don't think it supports your point of view
January 20th, 2011 at 9:52 AM ^
Even though Charlie's defenses always sucked, I feel like they had a lot of highly recruited players... T'eo was a 5-star.
Looks like they will have pretty good personel for a 3-4 in the upcoming future.
January 20th, 2011 at 9:55 AM ^
I hate that you have more than enough points to start a thread like this. Damn you!
January 20th, 2011 at 9:56 AM ^
I hate recruiting.
January 20th, 2011 at 10:03 AM ^
But I CAN'T QUIT YOU, RECRUITING!
Notre Dame is, I am afraid, on a path of destruction. Kelly is a damn good football coach. Period.
Michigan is behind the 8-ball here, as others have mentioned. But we're taking good steps--starting, hopefully, with Mattison as the DC.
January 20th, 2011 at 10:16 AM ^
I had lost track amid all our coaching news and whatnot.
January 20th, 2011 at 10:24 AM ^
Their kicker commit for the 2011 class is very, very good. Wish he would have went blue, saw him play live and it was unreal.
Hopefully we will get a solid kicker ourselves/
January 20th, 2011 at 10:33 AM ^
Where did it go? It never left.
The real question is whether talent development and success is back at ND. There is some evidence from last year to suggest this is the case, but the jury is definitely still out. BK is a pretty terrible in-game coach and made some very Weis-like decisions. They also lost to some pretty crappy teams. Wait and see if their success from later in 2010 carries over to next year; then you can begin to worry that they hired someone good.
January 20th, 2011 at 5:44 PM ^
Did you know UM was ND's worst loss of the season
January 20th, 2011 at 10:43 AM ^
It is really strange how ND has consistently been pulling world-beater classes and then being so-so on the field.
Three 5-stars on the D-Line is pretty impressive though.
January 20th, 2011 at 5:45 PM ^
world beater classes? ND's recruiting classes haven't been rated much higher than UM's over the past 6 seasons
January 20th, 2011 at 10:44 AM ^
Returning to glory since 1993.
Same b.s., different year.
January 20th, 2011 at 11:07 AM ^
Not that it matters too much here, but remember that Scout is more generous with stars than Rivals (which has 2, instead of 5, 5-star recruits listed for them).
January 20th, 2011 at 5:47 PM ^
if you're really worried about stars Lynch is only 2 spots out of getting his 5th on Rivals
January 20th, 2011 at 11:08 AM ^
until they win and keep winning. recruits are great, and obviously the better they are helps too. but lets be honest here, ND hasnt had the best 15 years and until they compete for the BCS then they are NOT back...
January 20th, 2011 at 11:08 AM ^
Am I running out of good opportunities to use this picture?
January 20th, 2011 at 11:27 AM ^
I'd like Notre Dame to get better. It would be nice to mop the floor with a respectable team for a change.
January 20th, 2011 at 11:51 AM ^
but id trade a loss to them for a win over the school in the armpit of america anyday!
January 20th, 2011 at 12:35 PM ^
I'd like to see them go 0-12, have NBC drop their contract, and be booted from all other sports from the Big East and have to join the Horizon League.
January 20th, 2011 at 11:32 AM ^
For the first time in a long time ND has a professional coach with a history of success as a head coach. I think he will do well. Look for many parallels to be made between Hoke and Kelly.