ND <t>So what do we attribute this early success on the defensive recruiting side to? Elko? Is he making this big a difference this soon?</t>
Well everything you read about Elko, Lea, Alexander and Pollian are all very good recruiters...so there is that. Plus reports are that Kelly is actually a little pumped up himself about recruiting, unlike Urban Meyer and Jim Harbaugh who are always right in the middle of things, Kelly has seemingly preferred to be the "closer" not to be in the middle of things. Maybe that 4-8 season with the fans calling for his scalp has got him thinking that he needs to change. Also while there were no reports about Kelly and Swarbrick, you have to believe that Swarbrick contrary to popular opinion does care about ND Football success and that just maybe he told Kelly he needs to kick it up a couple of notches or he'll be coaching somewhere else. For a guy like Kelly who's whole career has been moving up the ladder to think he might actually get fired was maybe sobering. Anyway I'm glad to be getting some good news, even if we all know it's a long way to Nat'l Signing Day in 2018, and it'll be necessary to see big time turnaround on the field in 2017, we don't have to win the Nat'l Championship...but we need to have some big wins, and we need to win a min of 9 games..better yet win 10 games min and things will be good. A 7-5 or 8-4 season with big lossess to UGA, Stanford, USC, Mich State and Miami will trigger a nuclear reaction amongst the fans and we'll see some of our recruits rethink things.
Nce article on Mike Elko by Laken Litman the ND beat writer for the Indy Star, who I think is located in South Bend. What jumps out at me is one of my favorite words....fundamentals. http://www.indystar.com/story/sport...ootball-man-fix-notre-dames-defense/97910902/
The Irish really do have a lot of young talent on the OL, and some very good jr/sr kids as well. HH gets a lot of praise, and he's put a good number of kids in the NFL. But last year the OL just never seemed to come together. Hopefully they will bounce back and have a great year. http://www.scout.com/college/notre-dame/story/1755224-lugg-named-pennsylvania-s-top-lineman
I like Micah Jones quite a bit, he's not a speed burner but with his size he should be a very productive college receiver. I see that we have another 5th year grad transfer interested in maybe making the move to South Bend. Scott Pagano a DL from Clemson is going to be visiting ND soon. I don't know anything about him, I have to assume he's leaving Clemson because he doesn't see the playing time he wants for his last year. Maybe he's like the Mich kid where injuries have curtailed his playing time and he's been recruited over and is down the depth chart. Certainly at ND we have a need for some quality DL's next year.
ND <r><QUOTE><s> </e></QUOTE> No doubt about that. If he has any skills at all he could get some serious playing time this season at ND.</r>
Another great pickup for the Irish. 4 star Athlete who will play WR at ND, just gave his verbal. We beat out Oregon and USC for him. I hope this keeps up!
ND <t>Polian played a big part in getting this kid. Nice work. Again, what a difference on the recruiting front so far for the new members of the coaching staff.</t>
No kidding, it's hard not to start to have some optimism about the program again! http://irishsportsdaily.com/s/1989/lenzy-bringing-elite-speed-to-south-bend Lenzy is really a fast kid, the staff told him he could be the next Will Fuller. We haven't had many kids from Oregon come to ND. Now they need to keep up the work and also we need to do well on the field next year, or we could see a repeat of last year where we lost some good kids because of that and all the negativity that goes with a 4-8 season. Spring Practice starts March 8th. I hope to see some good things from both Wimbush and Ian Book.
Pretty good week/weekend for the Irish. Softball beat ranked teams like OU and Georgia and are off to a pretty good start. Ice Hockey split with Boston U at their place and finished in 4th place in Hockey East. Will need a good tourney to make the Frozen Four. Both Men's and Women's Lacrosse squads had good wins, the men beat Michigan and the Women beat Duke for their 6th win in a row, after beating Michigan earlier. Both squads should be good. Irish Women's basketball wrapped up their 4th straight outright ACC title by beating FSU at home today and the Irish Men had a hard fought win vs Ga. Tech keepin them in the top 4 in the ACC. Women were expected to be good, Men were expected to be around 7th or 8th in the ACC. Bonzie Colson has had a great year and while it's a team game without his year we'd be a mid level ACC team this year. No new verbals from football recruiting this weekend.