Okay, it appears Major Wright has given a verbal commitment to UF. This is on top of rumors of a commitment from Moses Jenkins. Now, if Cam Heyward or Allen Bailey takes the slot vacated by S Corley and John Brown announces for UF, looks like the defense may be done. Looks like WRer is down to Paige, Thompson, or Toliver .... unless UMeyer convinced Ronald Johnson to play WRer at UF.
Terry, what I think is that the coaches probably know the kids who are firm and the ones that are not. Actually what the coaches may know could well differ from what we hear as fans on the internet. But I am somewhat with you and we had three commitments that have been listed as soft and one of them, Sidell Corley, is no longer a Gator commit. And he has been taking visits right along so many Gators have not been counting on him. Another one is VanDyke who is probably going to be a Cane now that they have a coach. The third one is Jay Howard and he will probably hold and we should know this weekend. The Gators have to be pretty close to wrapping up our class, we are at 25 right now and I don't think we can go more than 27 or 28 without putting some off until next January, greyshirt I think the call that.
You're probably right Bill, and I don't have any room to critcise anybody. As I write this Iowa has pulled the scholarship offer of one of their verbals, a kid named Brian Smith because he is taking a trip to Notre Dame. It's pretty much assumed that Brian will commit to Charlie, his father played at Notre Dame and is president of his chapter of the Monogram club. Brian was not offered earlier because the Irish were after Lorenzo Edwards and the Donald kid who verbaled to Tenn. They thought they would get both and in fact supposedly both had verbaled to Charlie (silents) but after the Sugar Bowl they bailed on him. So Smith is a plan B kid, and like those commits I told you Mack Brown poached recently, Smith is likely to come to ND for the reasons I stated above. Terry
re: Brian Smith the Plan 'B' Linebacker Did you see Iowa's LBs last year? Did you see our LBs? I'll take any letter of the alphabet they've got. I don't care if he's Plan 'Z' from outer space. If he's a real linebacker, let's suit him up and toss him in there.
smih/walkere <r>well it's official. LB Brian Smith and K Brandon Walker are Irish...at least for now. Smith via Iowa and Walker from U of Louisville. <br/> <br/> I didn't say anything last week when Urban poached a DE from us so I'm not going to be critical of CW taking these 2 away from the schools they originally verballed to. I'm not sure it's all good but it's they way it is. <br/> <br/> They do both sound like good kids and <B><s></s>IF THEY DO SIGN<e></e></B> next week, I wish them the best. Lord knows we need LBs and and descent kicker. <E>8)</E></r>
Yes.... <t>JO'Co as my opinions are well known about our defense so Brian Smith welcome to SB and the opportunity to work with a guy that looks to know something about attacking an offense.<br/> <br/> Also, lets hope the kicker will end the sickening trend of kicking off to the ten and the offense setting up at the 35+ for each drive. Also pray we may now have a legit threat at a 40 yard field goal in the future.</t>
Again, I don't like it but that apparently is the way things work. I hope this kid can kick because whether its him or Burkhart we need somebody that can kick over 40 yards.
smith <r>by the way. This Smith kid is a <B><s></s>4 star, 6'2, 222lb LB<e></e></B>. If he is a "B" plan player, <B><s></s>where can we get some more like him.?!!<e></e></B> <E></E></r>
Well..... <t>The Boise State roster is full of those guys or less rated.<br/> <br/> I really think a year from now we will see a recruiting class that well serves the needs of the defense. Brown will have an impact here.</t>
This is something I pay close attention to. It goes back to when my son played in HS and ran back KOs. More often than not this past season, our kickoff team held the returner short of the 30, which, while not as good as touchbacks coming out to the 20, is not that bad. I agree that we would love to have that super-kicker who can get it into the end zone most of the time, but defending KO returns was far from the weakest area of ND's special teams last season.
I'm glad we got Brian Smith as well, and the kicker Walker is supposedly coming in as a punter and a KO specialist...supposedly has very strong leg on KO's. With Geoff Price comming back I doubt if Walker gets on the field as a punter unless there is an injury, but certainly could be in the mix as the KO guy. To me our biggest problem on ST was tackling, both on punts and ko's. Terry
Not having a decent kicker goes far beyond just FGs. Obviously in 2006 we were incapable of attempting any beyond 35-40 yds. That forced Weis into a lot of gamling on 4th down because he had zero faith in his defense. Those gambles tanked in the last few games. Plus are KOs were short. We basically conceded field position most of the year. That changes everything.
walker <r>George/Terry, all<br/> <br/> I looked at the videos on Walker and he looks like he can get it into the endzone on kick-offs on a regular basis even factoring in he is kicking from the 40.(High School) If he can just do that it would be a great impovement. I can't rememeber how many times I said "just get in in the endzone" to myself last year when we were kicking-off. <E>8)</E></r>
You guys are on fire. I can't fathom why Trattou decided to switch down there. The competition for playing time on your D-line will be incredible. He had a chance to start at ND... he'll probably red shirt at UF tehn hold breath for the next recruiting cycle.
It seems like UF is going to hit 30 verbals this year. It's a perfect storm year for them in recruiting. They won the NC, and Miami and FSU are both down in terms of recruiting.
recruiting <t>Terry,<br/> <br/> you are correct about Miamai and Fl St. I checked on rivals and Miami currently is ranked 23rd with 15 verbals and Fl St. is 38th with 13. My how things have changed in the sunshine state! <br/> <br/> While not quite as large a class overall as last year, ND has 20 on board now and ranked 4th. !4 of those are 4stars and one 5. The lowest ranked player is the Kicker who is a 2 star(the highest ranked kicker is 3 stars). <br/> <br/> We have had some dissappointment over the last few weeks but you have to admit that neither Davie or Willingham ever came up with back to back classes this good. <br/> <br/> Davie and Willingham screwed us up pretty good but one more good recruiting class should put us back on track. <br/> <br/> I'm afraid we will have to pay the price for the remainder of Willinghams' recruiting incompetence this coming season, after that...look out!!<br/> <br/> By the way, UW is ranked 34th with 23 recruits. only 4 of them with 4 star ratings..sound familiar?</t>