Yeah staff is shaping up. HC - Kelly OC - Long QBC - ? OL - HH TE - ? WR - ? DelVaughn Alexander ASU WR coach? DC - Elko LB - Lea DT - Elston DB - Lyght? ST - Pollian Obviously it would take more than 9 guys to fill those slots so there has to be some doubling up. Long could coach TE's since he's done that before. and I've read that maybe Rees will come on board as a GA and move to QBC if they approve a 10th coach in April. In which case Kelly would coach QB's till then. Some say that Kelly will coach Wimbush no matter what and Rees would work with Book and Davis.
Early report that we may have another decommitment... a 4 start DB named Adebo from Teaxas. Don't know any more.
Re: Crable video. He referred to Gene Smith, Special Teams Coach. I'm guessing it's the same Gene Smith, ND alum, who is the current AD at Ohio State.
Yeah it's official, Adebo has flown the coop. He's been shaky though for a little while, sort of like the Pouncy kid who was also shaky for awhile. The Pouncey kid was apparently waiting for a Miami offer and finally got one, and the Adebo kid reportedly was waiting on a Stanford offer and he finally got admitted to Stanford and so most expect that is where he will end up. Foster Sarrell the 5* OL that we lost out on was nearly a lock to Stanford once he got his admission as well, and that's where he ended up. He verballed at the Army All Star game to them. Stanford has a really solid program right now, and their coach is highly respected and their staff is very stable. So it's not surprising that we're losing these battles to them right now. Elko has been out chasing prospects, but they are mostly kids that we're battling lower level teams for their signature. So get ready for most of the kids we get between now and signing day to low 3 star type of kids.
Unfortunately, our program is widely regarded as being on a downward trajectory. As such, in today's atmosphere that demands instant gratification, the weak of heart will flee. That must be 4 or 5 now. The coaches are going to have to mine the three and two star recruits and find the hidden gems. This is going to be an arduous re-build.
Yeah the only thing that can fix that is winning, and it starts next year. The Irish have good talent coming back on offense but defense while having good players doesn't have near enough of them. Will Elko be able to coach this squad up to being a good or even great defense? That's going to be the key. Also it's important to note that BVG was a terrible recruiter who we now know barely made even the effort. That's on Kelly, for hiring him and not demanding he pitch in and recruit, but Elko has already been working hard on recruiting and while I doubt we see much other than some low rated 3 stars like he might have gotten to Wake Forrest, maybe going forward for the 2018 class he can make an impact, Lea the new LB coach is also reportedly a good recruiter. So the trend can be reversed if the staff, including Kelly, get out there and work. That's what Urban does, that's what Harbaugh does, that's what Saban does, Dabo as well. Kelly hasn't been a hard worker at recruiting or even demanding of his staff, at least that's what the guru's say. The bad news is that instead of having a backlog of young studs like 'Bama, Clemson, Ohio State, etc have due to years of solid recruiting we don't have that. But it starts with winning 9 or 10 games next year and looking good doing it, and then building off of that for the 2018 class and holding on to the QB Phil Jurkovec. Oh btw... http://www.und.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/010917aad.html Kelly says he's the play caller. Last year it was supposedly a group effort between Denbrock, Sanford and Kelly...how'd that work out.
I just realized Zaire never announced where he was transferring, I looked around and couldn't find anything other than this article that said he's not going anywhere this spring, that he's going wait till mid April to make up his mind. I can only assume that he's trying to make sure where ever it is he goes he has little or no competition for the starting job. https://www.seccountry.com/sec/report-notre-dame-qb-malik-zaire-pick-sec-school-delaying-transfer-decision
Being reported that CB recruit Elijah Hicks has split. Kelly reportedly on a strict diet and exercise program so that he can play DB.
ND <t>no need to worry about finding room for anyone that wants to come in this class. Plenty of scholies available and more to come probably.</t>
Sort of bizzare that ND dropped Hicks. I wonder if they got the word that he was going to decommit and decided to beat him to the punch. Tough times in ND recruiting. I wonder if we'll be able to fill the class, there isn't much time left.
Well it's come out now that Hicks had already enrolled in CAL for the Spring Semester. I guess it was one of those "I quit" ..no you can't quit "your fired" situations. Of course CAL doesn't even have a HC at this time, but he still decided to stay on the West Coast rather than come to ND.
ND <t>Well I see the new WR coach is now official. <br/> Wish we had as as much luck getting new recruits and we seem to be having getting coaches lately.</t>
So it looks like the staff is shaping up this way. Kelly - HC Long -OCorrd HH - OL Denson - RB Alexander - WR Pollian - ST Elko - DCoord Lea - LB Elston - DL Lyght - DB I'm guessing that Long will coach the TE's. Elko may help with the DB's I think might have coached S at some of his stops. Any how that's 9 guys. Still out there that Tommy Rees might be moving back as a GA and then if and when (April) the NCAA approves a 10th coach he will coach QB's.
Irish Men on the road tonight vs Miami who beat us twice last year. Miami is rolling out special uniforms for this game. Time for some payback, beat the like it's 1986! Irish Women at home vs Pitt, they should win. No bad news on Irish football, but no good news either. Recruiting is back on as the dead period is over now.
Well some good news, there had been some chatter that Alize Jones would not be back that he didn't get it done in the classroom. But that was not true and he reportedly has Tweeted out that he got things taken care of and will be ready for Spring Drills.