I don't really care about the RB, we have plenty of those. But Blake Leuders was a big loss. He apparently was convinced by Harbaugh that the 3-4 defense would not suit his talents, I'm sure the fact that he knew the defensive staff at Stanford better than the ND staff and I'm guessing Brian Pollian worked some magic for Stanford as well. Still a tough loss, coming not exactly on the heels of Tony Hurd to A&M and Chris Martin to CAL, given that we are short on D talent.
Recruits <r>Well some of my worst fears are coming to reality. I was hoping that Kelly could some how keep this class together but obviously it ain't gonna happen. I agree with Terry, the RB wasn't a major loss but Lueders was for sure. What can you say? hard to blame the new coaching staff as they haven't had any time to develop a relationship with these kids but it still hurts. We won't really know if Kelly and company can recruit till next year I guess. For all those who were in such a big hurry to see CW go...well this is what happens when HCs are fired. Of course if they had let him stay....well let's not talk about that...<br/> <br/> Kelly is going to have to win coming out of the chute in order to get recruiting back in line. I guess if he can win 8 or 9 next season and get the excitement going it will help with next year's class and make up for some of the losses this year. We'll see.... <E</E></r>
Well we did get 3 players who had verbaled to Stanford to switch to the Irish ...Badger, Tai'ler Jones and Tate Nichols so I guess inorder to balance the trade we had to send Leuders to them! Was it worth it?
ND <r>well I really like Tai'ler Jones a lot and Badger and Nichols fill some real needs but so did Lueders. we'll have to see. maybe Kelly can pull off some magic yet before this class is done and bring in some more talent on the Defensive side. <E>:?</E></r>
Last year we got the magic in Manti Te'o, but most of the time in these transition classes there is no magic in the end as kids decide to go with the school/coach/staff that they know the best and who has been recruiting them for the longest. I've read any number of reports of good players who Kelly is just getting in on at this late date. The kid from Colorado, a kid from Central Fla, and a few others, they all say they are glad to have a ND offer and the kid from Colorado is coming to the last recruiting weekend. Everybody pretty much concedes these are the kids who we have some shot at getting signatures. Seantrel Henderson JR Ferguson Danny Spond Josh Shirley Matt James Christian Jones Jeremy Iaone Luke Massa Most realistic outlook is that maybe Spond, James, Jones, Massa come....or we could get none of those and what we have is what we'll get faxes from on 2-3-2010.
ND <t>Terry,<br/> <br/> We'll see what happens after this weekend. it does sound like Kelly probably could have gotten a few more of the "elites" if he had more time but...well you already said it all. We'll just have to make the best out of it and hope for a monster class next year.</t>
I thought that maybe Kelly would fare more like Kiffin (with regards to recruiting) and not only keep the guys we have but add some excellent talent. He has added 2 guys in Tate Nichols and Austin Collingsworth but neither of those kids are highly rated. They may turn out to be great, but they are more of the "low hanging" fruit type of kids, that is kids who were excited to get a ND offer and virtually accepted the offer on the spot. When Charlie took the job he put himself in handcuffs with regards to recruiting and staff building because he stayed with the Patriots through the Super Bowl. Limiting the time he had to build a staff and recruit. With Kelly he was on the job right away and still it took him awhile to get a staff built and while he's been on the road working hard on recruiting it right now hasn't seemed to made much impact. I'm sure he's battling the I don't know you thing, and I wonder if his new staff is getting hammered for their lack of big time coaching experience by our rivals. It would be nice to get some nice suprises next week instead of getting Leaked, Bookered, or Littled on signing day.
From what I have read the current staff doesn't really like Cooper as a Safety prospect and they aren't recruiting him any more.
From todays SBTrib: On Blake Leuders. I think this is a case of 1) he likes Stanford, no problem it's a great place and 2) he's worried about the new 3-4 defense at ND and his place in that defense. Having reached a comfort zone with Hart and Polian is an ACE recruiter it just wasn't happening for ND.
Irish getting a visit from Stanford verbal Brandon Bourbon, a big RB. If we steal him from Stanford, that will be 4 guys for 1 guy!! Plus with a last name like Bourbon I know AJ Huskerman, Huskerfan will become an Irish fan just to follow this kid!!!
ND <r>Bourbon is 6'2", 205 and runs a 4.4. Yep, I'm interested. <br/> <br/> Looks like ND is also getting a visit from Kona Schwenke, a DE from Hawaii. <br/> It appears Kelly and company are trying to do their best with what time they have left. <E>8)</E></r>
I've read that he's going to have a lot of kids on this last weekend. Maybe instead of getting Leaked or Bookered on signing day we're going to close with a flourish! I am a little suprised if after the season Toby Gerhart had in the Stanford offense that he'd be making a visit to ND. Esp since Gerhart has said he will not be back for his 5th year. Big Fast White boy, it's been awhile at ND. Mike McNair was supposed to be that guy but he never developed.
ND <r>In looking at the first recruiting classes for Urban Meyer and Nick Saben at their respective schools, Kelly may actually be doing a little better than I thought. According to Rivals, Meyer had a first year class consisting of eight 4 stars, 9 three stars and one 2 star(kicker) his final class ranking was 15th. Saben's class had ten 4 stars, eleven 3 stars and three 2 stars and had a final rank of 10th. <br/> <br/> As of today after losing 4 and gaining 2 verbals. Kelly has eight 4 stars and nine 3 stars. Hopefully he will close with at least two more 4 star players and possibly three 3 star players which would probably mean a final class ranking of around 18-20. <br/> <br/> All things considered, not as bad as I thought it might be. <E>8)</E></r>
ND <t>Terry,<br/> <br/> Mike McNair...best prospect tape I ever saw. Kid looked unbelievable on tape. He is the reason I'm not overly impressed by any recruits video since. Just can't trust those recruit videos. <br/> <br/> Hope the young man is enjoying life with his ND diploma but he was never as good as advertised.</t>
Well Kelly is catching some Internet heat for one of the kids coming this weekend on an official visit: Bruce Heggie a 6'6" 240lb DE prospect. Who doesn't yet have an offer from anybody. He's been asked to come as a preferred walkon to UF, USF, UCF. William and Mary has show interest. I have no idea why Kelly is interested in this kid or if he will actually get an offer and become Irish. But I can't really think of a stretch like this that has worked out. Lou took the son of a Board member, JW something or another and he actually helped in his 5th year, Abel Banda was a good kid who graduated but didn't play much and I can't think of the RB/LB from PA who Ty got suckered on by Lemming and he never played, I think he graduated in 4years though and then transfered to Temple and actually played his 5th year there. Any way, ND fans for the most part get antsy, nervous, etc unless we are getting mostly 4* and 5* players, a few 3* are OK. But a kid without an offer??? Terry
ND <r>Terry,<br/> <br/> Well I've looked at this situation(Heggie) five different ways and still can't make any logic out of it. Must be something we don't know and all I can do is hope it's good <E>:?</E> <E>:roll:</E> <E>:?</E></r>
funny thing about Mike McNair... the absolute lack of coaching he received at ND has and will continue to haunt ND in Southern California. Places that once turned out ND Heisman winners and All-Americans (Mater Dei and Servite) have become pipelines for USC in the past 8 years. Everyone and I mean everyone back home agrees that far lesser players with less ability went onto greatness at other schools. What happened there? Was the kid soft? Did the staff suck? I'm better it is more the latter than the former.