MichiganManOf1961

March 27th, 2013 at 2:48 PM ^

So he was essentially averaging 2/per? Hell, we should thank him, he's a job creator. Think of all the teachers / pediatricians / day care workers / farmers / school security guards / social workers / police officers / prison guards / parole officers / criminal court judges / court clerks / wardens / morticians he's put to work over the years just by having those 29 kids? Imagine him without the NBA...

~Herm

Zone Left

March 27th, 2013 at 12:58 PM ^

No kidding. I always felt like he was a terrible manager of his players. Part of a coach's job is to bring wayward kids back into the fold and make them contributors. It seemed like he just kept running players off the team instead of doing the extra work to make them want to stay. Fortunately, Hoke seems much better at the roster management aspect of coaching. That, and hiring Greg Mattison. Hiring Mattison is a great coaching trait.

Yeoman

March 27th, 2013 at 9:39 PM ^

Managing players, managing staff, doing the PR that comes with a high-level management job.

Those things cannot be delegated. Everything else can--there's probably some stuff you're good at that you keep, but you get to pick and choose. The management stuff, that's yours no matter what.

MichiganManOf1961

March 27th, 2013 at 11:55 AM ^

Was Notre Dame football 2012 really a Cinderella story and not a return to prominence?  I think the answer is yes.

~Herm

Logan88

March 27th, 2013 at 12:22 PM ^

Agreed. Kelly is a very good football coach (but a seriously crappy human being), so I don't think ND is going away anytime soon. However, they had the Devil's own luck this past season (much like OSU) and another trip to the MNC game is not that likely in the near future.

MGoRossGrad

March 27th, 2013 at 4:37 PM ^

The 2012 ND football team was an augmented version of the 2011 Michigan football team.

Both overachieved (obviously ND had no business being 12-1, and we were a lofty 11-2), but were very solid squads.  Honestly, if we had taken care of business against Iowa that year, we would have sat in the same position at 12-1. 

They weren't a Cinderella story.  They were the same ND team that usually goes 8-5, or 9-4; they just got an inordinate amount of lucky breaks last season. 

phork

March 27th, 2013 at 7:57 PM ^

Its frustrating for sure, even going back to Lynch.  Its amazing the power pussy has over kids.  Ferguson, regardless of what Papa says, was falling on the depth chart, even behind some freshman.  Work ethic was also up for debate.

Neal had a kid with his girlfriend that he has had since the 7th grade.  Curious choices of schools in Cali vs Arizona where he was originally expected to sign.

Greenberry & Tee Sheppard are also curious cases.  Greenberry flipped at the last second to Houston after telling the ND staff that Tee was headed to USC.  Tee ended up at ND but he didn't have the required classes.

Apparently Gunner has no chest.  Not a lot of info here.

 

LSAClassOf2000

March 27th, 2013 at 12:29 PM ^

....as you know that NBC would be all over this story, had an interesting quote regarding Ferguson's departure:

"In Ferguson’s case, Jason Ferguson said some level of discomfort on the part of his son was the driving force behind the receiver’s decision, although no specifics were given."

Ferguson's dad apparently said that there were no issues with playing time or anything specific like that. The NBC story links to the ND site on 247Sports and goes into a little more detail (but not much). 

Old_Guys_Rule

March 27th, 2013 at 12:54 PM ^

Kelly's view on players transferring out:  "This is a process every year we go through: You have some additions, you have some deletions," Kelly told the Chicago Tribune. "But we didn't miss a step."

So...nothing really important here.  Some stay, some leave, they're just numbers...

evenyoubrutus

March 27th, 2013 at 12:53 PM ^

Combing through our 2012 class (from which we have yet to lose a single player) it appears, based on practice tea leaves or what they did as true freshmen, that every single 4 or 5 star is going to be a significant contributor. The only one whose potential now seems to be in doubt is Terry Richardson. Then you add the clear fact that many 3 stars were underrated, (Funchess, Wormley, Ojemudia et al) 2012 is setting up to be the highest percentage yield class I think we have seen since the dawn of the recruiting websites. If 2013 class produces similar results things could get very interesting.