Interesting...Danny Spond has started an organization to promote his book on his life, and he'll be doing appearances, speeches, etc. Good luck to him, I wonder if he'll run across Rudy out there? Danny Spond
The ND Football Banquet will be this weekend. It was in days gone by the biggest recruiting weekend of the year for the Irish with many of the top recruits we were after attending and getting their first view of Notre Dame. Usually the foundation for that years recruiting class was established during that weekend. Now recruiting is almost over, many teams around the country are full up, Tenn is over 30 kids right now. The Irish only have 5 or so slots left available. There will be a few uncommitted recruits at the banquet, but not a lot. Nyles Morgan will have an in home visit with Kelly Thursday and Matt Elam will have Kelly in home on Wed this week. Neither are going to be at the Banquet though. Morgan esp is a big recruit for the Irish given their thinness at the ILB position. He's not quite the HS player that Jaylon Smith was in HS but he is a Rivals Top 100 player and the #5 ILB on Rivals. Morgan could play as a freshman, maybe not start from day 1 like Jaylon but he definitely has the talent to help out right away. Elam has been described as a Tub of Goo, lol...seriously. But he's got the body for NG, just a very raw talent and is unlikely to contribute as a freshman but if he has the work ethic could be a very good player.
ND <t>ND's recruiting of Nyles Morgan seems to really be heating up now. His leader before seemed to be Ole Miss but they are full in this years class on LBs and won't be doing a in-home visit after all. That leaves the door a little more open for the Irish. Obviously this is the type of ILB we need to stop the option attacks, run and the short pass game. In Teo's last two seasons teams like Navy found nowhere to run.</t>
Ole Miss bailed on him? I wonder why? They must have figured that they didn't want to wait him out and had a guy ready to commit who they liked...Bird in Hand sort of thing. I sort of feel that way about Lautua, he's been slow playing us for so long it'd be nice if that Schultz kid snuck in and took his spot.
ND has 19 commits, 20 if you count McKenzie who still hasn't qualified but he just took the test again and we should know soon. Here's who is left Payton Hendrix Dalton Shultz Tyler Luatua JuJu Smith Michiah Quick Kolin Hill Nile Sykes Matt Elam Nyles Morgan Charles Nelson Allen Lazard Braden Smith I would think Lazzard is out, he supposedly told so many people how much he loved Iowa State that he can't bring himself to say he wants to come to ND even though he supposedly would love to come to ND. His brother also goes to Iowa State. Sykes might commit this weekend, Ju Ju is a long shot, Hendrix likes ND but has recently been to Tech and Arkansas word is that distance is a problem for him and his family. Less than 400miles from Dallas to either Lubbock or Fayettville.
ND <r>Terry,<br/> <QUOTE><s> </e></QUOTE> From what I'm reading Ole Miss took a JUCO LB and they are full now.</r>
ND <t>I'm getting really tired again of all the negative comments you read from what are suppose to be ND fans on the internet boards. I mean, he just can't do anything right. neither can the AD or just about any of the ND administration. Wow, I mean one year ago Kelly has this team in the NC game. I don't think they are thinking hard enough because they have obviously forgotten the years we spent getting our butts kick all over the place with the likes of Davie, Willingham and Weis at the helm. I mean is Kelly the best Coach in the land? No, but who is? You can find faults with all of them. A couple of years ago they were wanting Stoops, before that it was Meyer, and so on. Obviously we see there are faults in these guys too. <br/> <br/> It's just amazing. You can't really look at this program and say it hasn't taken some huge steps forward over the last 4 years and I for one am not convinced another coach could have done any better. Are there things I wish were done differently? Yes, but not much. There are some pieces that need to fall in place yet. We've had a season full of bad luck and somehow manage to come out with 8 wins. should we have 9 or 10? Probably but there are some obvious reasons why it didn't and most the HC couldn't do anything about. <br/> <br/> Now they are upset that we are going to the Pinstripe bowl. Well they weren't going to be happy with anywhere we went that wasn't a BCS bowl. We all know the reason, or should know the reason we are playing Rutgers, it's about putting butts into the seats of Yankee stadium. Rutgers or Houston? You really think Houston fans were gonna travel to New York? Really? We all know it will be a home game for us again cause the ND nation goes everywhere and is everywhere to see this team. <br/> <br/> I swear, we could have won that NC game last year and they would still be ready to throw Kelly out after this season. <br/> <br/> We need to beat the crap out of Rutgers, get Golson back, finish off on a really nice recruiting class(again), get a new signal caller, maybe a new DC and get on with some serious butt kicking again. Which we will.</t>
Mr El Paso...its very easy. Play a REAL schedule...this will lead to top recruits..and bingo...you might win 9 games a year!...playing the 5 or 6 "Temples" of the world gets you nothing!!
Tim, That's an outstanding post. You and I think alike regarding the wannabe fans who display their immaturity and lack of knowledge via their internet vents. I recall a Lou Holtz saying, the bottom line of which was that you simply can't please everyone. The combination of your analysis of the ND program and Terry's earlier analysis is what makes me glad I'm a Skybox member. This doesn't just apply to ND football. It's true for all the programs followed by our members. We certainly are not short on strong opinions, but there is a level of intelligence and maturity here that far surpasses that of other boards. It is abundantly evident whenever a member cites the hysteria on his or her program's "main" internet boards. Thanks, Tim for your contribution to the well thought out and intelligent side of the issue.
I'm with you Tim. The reasons we lost at all this season have to do with injuries along our defensive front 4, a last second bailout by a kid who wound up starting on UCLA's DL and even playing FB in short yardage situations, including goal line (for those who missed the Vanderdoes TDs), we had our QB get busted for cheating on a test and had to sit out the year. We lost Spond due to injury which thinned our LB corps quite a bit and put more of an emphasis on Fox at MLB (who is much better in support). All of these losses compound the graduation/hole of Te'o. Had our DL been healthy at all this year, and had we not lost Spond and had our QB just taken a flippin C on a test instead of being a jackass, this is an 11 win team easily in my opinion. The cards just didn't go our way and we didn't have that one super senior to pull off any miracles. This is a good team, and one capable of beating anyone in the country. We just lacked the pieces to make the long run for reasons that were essentially out of Kelly's control. I have my beefs about Kelly, but we're headed the right direction and doing good things under the man. There are VERY few people I'd trade him for in the game.
Lol...Joel you live in a glass house and you know it. Have you checked the Penn State schedule recently? You have such powers as Temple on it, big time programs like UMass, and Akron and Kent State. Hey Joel if ND's all time record vs Navy was as bad as Penn State's I'd quit playing them as well. Penn State 19 wins 17 losses vs Navy....barely 50%. Good call to get them off the schedule!! LOL>
ND <r>Mr Jif5,<br/> <QUOTE><s> </e></QUOTE> well there is so much crap in that statement I don't know where to start. <br/> <br/> maybe we should take USC, Oklahoma, Michigan, Stanford, Michigan St. off the schedule. Would that make you happy. 9 wins??? we just had twelve. that's 12 got it last season. you need some basic math training. top Recruits? Have you been paying attention to recruiting class rankings the past few season? really??? <br/> <br/> and your favorite college team is who?? Let's take a look at there schedule any see how may Temples we can find on it.</r>
Nice post Tim. The reason we had such few choices for bowls is that we're not in a conference. And of course the same individuals who whine about the Pinstripe Bowl didn't want us in a conference. Of course next year with our ACC agreement we'll have more choices and of course the same ones bitching about the Pinstripe didn't like our ACC agreement. The solution of course stop reading some sites. If you dont' go near the manure you can't smell it.
ND <t>Mr Jif5,<br/> <br/> Oh, I see now, a Penn St. fan....should have known.<br/> <br/> Let's see here.....I see Temple was on your schedule last year as well as those tough Ohio bobcats and one of those service academies. and this years schedule included the likes of eastern michigan, or was it western, can't remember, one of those directional schools, syracuse, Kent st.(are they even FBS) and Illinois...some though ones there huh? Nittany Lions???? Give me a break!<br/> <br/> and when was the last time Penn St. ever beat ND in recruiting? I'll have to check that out.</t>
Mr Tumbleweed....I followed Penn State for 60 years .Indeed..but it was not life or death as ND football is for you. ( I don't recall EVER seeing you post under any topic other then NF football). BTW, in the late 40s I went to every game Jopa played at Brown...when he graduated and went with Rip Engle to Penn State..I just naturally went along for the ride.Now with the demise of Jopa I guess you can say I don't have a horse in the college football race.
As we say in this neighborhood, JIF is just bustin' chops. I call this Pinstripe Bowl the DVR bowl because if there is anything happening that night, I will be watching it on the DVR the next day. If we don't blow these turds out by at least 30 something is wrong. They stink on ice.
I think that the game is scheduled for Dec. 28th at 12:15. I thought I originally saw it as being on the 26th at 6:30.