Tonight, Manti Te'o became the 9th recipient of the Lott Impact Trophy, his 7th national award. Two sources I've read said that this is a record number of post-season awards in one season for a college football player.
There's just one piece of hardware left to be picked up that matters and I think we can all agree that's the one we really want. I'm fairly certain the players, including Manti, would agree about that. Glad to see we picked up another solid RB recruit. I like what Kelly has done in terms of recruiting in the trenches and big bodies. I hope he doesn't get away from that. We seemed to spend too much time these past 10 to 15 years chasing the skill player that will make the difference. I'm a firm believer that if you can't be beat up front on either side of the ball, the skill guys will find their way to you.
Yeah Manti has a ton of hardware, he's going to graduate in Dec, he's going to be a consensus AA, he's going to have a chance to play for the National Title, and he's going to be a high first round draft choice. 2 top players came back for Sr. Year to finish their careers. One was a shoo in for the Heisman and His team was preseason #1. He wasn't even invited to NYC, his team is unranked, and he finished the season injured and with questions about his draft status which was previously top 5. Then there is Manti Te'o.
Good article on the life of ND players. Living in dorms for their first 3 years (Manti lived in Dillion) with regular students keeps them close to the student body. That's not attractive to all players and is sometimes given as why sometimes kids decide to play elsewhere after HS than ND. But it's also what makes the experience unique. Life of a ND football Player
I don't know the situation now...but way back in the day when I was at Purdue the football players lived with the rest of the students...no special dorms, etc. (as many schools had, even then). There were two football players on my floor...and Gary Danielson lived in the dorm on a different floor.
When I was in school back in the day the players lived in the same dorms with all the civilians as well....don't know of they still do or not.....back then and nowadays as well from what I understand, after freshman year, most guys wanted to get out of the residence halls and find "off-campus" apts.....
When I was in school at Texas, all the athletes lived in a dorm together, it was the nicest and newest dorm on campus and had it's own cafeteria which anybody could use. Now while I'm sure some freshmen athletes live in the dorm at Texas, it's not manditory and most live in apartments from the get go. At A&M at that time athletes didn't live in Corp dorms either they lived in a athletic dorm. Athlete only dorms might be a southern thing now that I think about it.
Lottery results were announced today. Lots of big time donors whining online. Consider this: ND got ticket applications for over 100,000 tickets. Each app. had to be accompanied by a $25 non-refundable "service charge." That means that they pocketed probably over $1,500,000 in service charges. That's more than the payout in many of the bowls. It's good to be the king!
While arguing religion and football with a friend/Stanford alum (I know, I know)... I came across this video. I wish I had found this back right after the game. A few things are real obvious and interesting. The 'stop' was way in the backfield, forward progress had clearly stopped much more so than even I thought earlier. Also, whoever shot this was right behind the Te'o family. You can see Manti's massive father stand up and Te'o run over to point at the spot after the play. <iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/hQwBE1atRF0" frameborder="0"></iframe>
Sid, You're welcome. That is an absolute argument killer. My buddy who played there, was all Pac10 and in true Stanford man fashion...hates everyone had to admit that when you look at that in real time, from the exact angle the linesman on the play had.... that play was over and should have been blown dead. It never should have gone to review. ND's defense could have picked up that RB and run him back to the 50, they didn't because anything beyond what you saw take place would have warranted or risked a personal foul call... I could feel the fire in his heart die a little bit when he admitted that. I almost felt bad...almost. As for the article, thank you for that. The baseball man in me loves that stuff. It's as good as facts.
ND <r>As a ND fan and as we begin to start the 2012 bowl season on sat, this is absolutely the best I have felt about the ND program for many, many years. Especially at this time of year! Not to worry about a coaching change, getting a BCS bowl game, direction of the program, recruiting......man, what a difference this season is. <br/> <br/> We have the coach the program has needed for so many years and the staff he put together is great too! <br/> <br/> Everyone always says winning cures all.....how true that is!<br/> <br/> Terry,<br/> <br/> you know how big of a recruiting nut I am from way back in the prodigy days. Hell, I remember calling Tom Lemming's 900 number to get the latest updates for like $5 a minute or something crazy like that! The internet changed all that but still at this time of year I would be checking the recruiting boards every 5 min for an update. By the time NSD arrived I was totally unhinged worrying about who we would get int the latest class. This year............totally relaxed. Not only does Kelly have us in a BCS NC game but he and his staff know how to recruit. Even the commits I'm not sure of turn out to be real contributors to the team. We have a great class lined up already and more on the way but I'm happy with recruiting, REAL happy!<br/> <br/> Win or lose the NC game, ND is back to being RELEVANT, <I><s></s>on the field<e></e></I>.<br/> <br/> Now I can sit back, relax, watch all the other bowl games and wait for Jan 7.<br/> <br/> For once in a very, very, very Looooooong time it is truly GREAT to be an IRISh fan.[/i]</r>
Tim there is a lot of action on the recruiting front. The Folston kid is still in play along with Max Redfield. The Muhammed kid from Jersey is in play I think but he hasn't visited and that concerns a lot of the gurus. We have a great group of OL and LB and with Bryant a terrific RB, I hope we can get some more DL, they keep talking about that Vanderdoes kid from Cali but he seems to be a long shot IMHO. We only have something like 4 slots max so hopefully we'll fit everybody in that we need, but even if some of them don't end up coming it will still be a top 5 type of class. I'm sure everybody has seen Dan Foxes tweet that he's done with school forever. He is eligible for a 5th year though, and he'd have to come back for the spring semester if he wants to play that 5th year, not to mention if he plays in 2013 he'll have to be enrolled in Grad school and actually going to class the Irish won't tolerate a kid who's not going to class. So I thought it rather a strange tweet, unless he's done with Football. I don't think he'd get drafted by the NFL or make it as a free agent. So maybe he's ready to move on.