jiggafini19
The Pope
- Messages
- 7,370
- Reaction score
- 58
Irish offer Aldridge a head start
Football recruit James Aldridge will be allowed to enroll at ND for spring semester.
By BOB WIENEKE
Tribune Staff Writer
Merrillville High School running back James Aldridge, who last May committed to play football at Notre Dame beginning in 2006, will enroll at the school for the spring semester, becoming the first football player to enroll early at Notre Dame since before the start of the Ara Parseghian Era (1964).
"It seems like everything should run smooth," Aldridge said.
Aldridge told Merrillville coach Jeff Yelton this week that he had been admitted for the spring semester.
"He's excited about it and we're excited about it," Yelton said. "This is not something that Notre Dame normally does."
The move is significant for several reasons. Aldridge will be allowed to go through spring practices with the current Notre Dame players who will return next fall.
"It means that Notre Dame is going to be on equal footing with all the other schools," said recruiting analyst Tom Lemming, who pointed out that other schools have been enrolling players at the semester since the 1990s.
"Notre Dame was always behind, because a lot of the big names would go midterm and Notre Dame couldn't touch them."
It also is important, because ND coach Charlie Weis already has received verbal commitments from 19 high school seniors and would like to capitalize on the school's football and recruiting renaissance to push that number beyond the NCAA maximum of 25.
The school has the option of counting a player who enrolls early as a member of the incoming class or as part of the previous year's class. Because the class signed in 2005 included 15 players, Aldridge will in all likelihood count against that group, allowing Notre Dame to sign at least one extra player to its 2006 class.
And Aldridge may have company. Oklahoma City defensive back/wide receiver George West, who has already committed, is contemplating the move, according to Ron Kroeger, West's coach at Northeast Academy.
"From what I understand in talking to (ND assistant) coach (Michael) Haywood, they definitely want him to come up at the semester," Kroeger said.
Kroeger talked to West Tuesday morning and was unsure if he would enroll early. West would like to play his senior season of baseball, as well as attend the prom.
"You've got so many factors that weigh into this thing," Kroeger said.
As far as uncommitted players go, Notre Dame remains involved with at least one player who has expressed an interest to enroll early. Klein, Texas offensive lineman Chris Stewart, who is expected to announce his college choice on Thursday between Notre Dame and Texas A&M, has made it known that he wants to enroll at the semester.
While there was no written policy prohibiting the school from accepting students at the semester, it had not previously been done for decades.
"It's never been set in stone, and it's never really been questioned for a number of years why we haven't done it," said Notre Dame assistant provost and director of admissions Dan Saracino, who cannot discuss individual students.
"So we called a number of key parties together on campus -- administrators and faculty -- and took a look at it and decided that we should be open to individual cases where we felt that the student would be a good choice for this kind of enrollment."
Administrators, however, had been aware of the growing trend.
"This didn't come out of the clear blue," Saracino said. "We really had been watching and observing what's been going on for the last eight years or so."
In fact, Saracino said, a player was considered for early enrollment last year.
"At that time we said, 'You know what, it probably would work, but it's going to have to be a student that we really feel good about academically,' " Saracino said. "And the individual that we reviewed last year just didn't appear to be strong enough or have the proper overall record that we would have expected.
"But when we left the discussion that we had last year, it was the idea that it's probably going to happen, but we just need to be comfortable with the students that we make the exception for.
"We're looking at it on an individual case-by-case basis. And we're surely open to other students. We're not just doing this for football. I guess we looked at this as an opportunity to look at the whole issue of not admitting students in January.
"Is this going to be a plan to open it up in a big way? Not at all. We are definitely open to admitting individual students with good reason in January, but we do not expect it to be more than a few. And by that, I definitely mean a few."
Football recruit James Aldridge will be allowed to enroll at ND for spring semester.
By BOB WIENEKE
Tribune Staff Writer
Merrillville High School running back James Aldridge, who last May committed to play football at Notre Dame beginning in 2006, will enroll at the school for the spring semester, becoming the first football player to enroll early at Notre Dame since before the start of the Ara Parseghian Era (1964).
"It seems like everything should run smooth," Aldridge said.
Aldridge told Merrillville coach Jeff Yelton this week that he had been admitted for the spring semester.
"He's excited about it and we're excited about it," Yelton said. "This is not something that Notre Dame normally does."
The move is significant for several reasons. Aldridge will be allowed to go through spring practices with the current Notre Dame players who will return next fall.
"It means that Notre Dame is going to be on equal footing with all the other schools," said recruiting analyst Tom Lemming, who pointed out that other schools have been enrolling players at the semester since the 1990s.
"Notre Dame was always behind, because a lot of the big names would go midterm and Notre Dame couldn't touch them."
It also is important, because ND coach Charlie Weis already has received verbal commitments from 19 high school seniors and would like to capitalize on the school's football and recruiting renaissance to push that number beyond the NCAA maximum of 25.
The school has the option of counting a player who enrolls early as a member of the incoming class or as part of the previous year's class. Because the class signed in 2005 included 15 players, Aldridge will in all likelihood count against that group, allowing Notre Dame to sign at least one extra player to its 2006 class.
And Aldridge may have company. Oklahoma City defensive back/wide receiver George West, who has already committed, is contemplating the move, according to Ron Kroeger, West's coach at Northeast Academy.
"From what I understand in talking to (ND assistant) coach (Michael) Haywood, they definitely want him to come up at the semester," Kroeger said.
Kroeger talked to West Tuesday morning and was unsure if he would enroll early. West would like to play his senior season of baseball, as well as attend the prom.
"You've got so many factors that weigh into this thing," Kroeger said.
As far as uncommitted players go, Notre Dame remains involved with at least one player who has expressed an interest to enroll early. Klein, Texas offensive lineman Chris Stewart, who is expected to announce his college choice on Thursday between Notre Dame and Texas A&M, has made it known that he wants to enroll at the semester.
While there was no written policy prohibiting the school from accepting students at the semester, it had not previously been done for decades.
"It's never been set in stone, and it's never really been questioned for a number of years why we haven't done it," said Notre Dame assistant provost and director of admissions Dan Saracino, who cannot discuss individual students.
"So we called a number of key parties together on campus -- administrators and faculty -- and took a look at it and decided that we should be open to individual cases where we felt that the student would be a good choice for this kind of enrollment."
Administrators, however, had been aware of the growing trend.
"This didn't come out of the clear blue," Saracino said. "We really had been watching and observing what's been going on for the last eight years or so."
In fact, Saracino said, a player was considered for early enrollment last year.
"At that time we said, 'You know what, it probably would work, but it's going to have to be a student that we really feel good about academically,' " Saracino said. "And the individual that we reviewed last year just didn't appear to be strong enough or have the proper overall record that we would have expected.
"But when we left the discussion that we had last year, it was the idea that it's probably going to happen, but we just need to be comfortable with the students that we make the exception for.
"We're looking at it on an individual case-by-case basis. And we're surely open to other students. We're not just doing this for football. I guess we looked at this as an opportunity to look at the whole issue of not admitting students in January.
"Is this going to be a plan to open it up in a big way? Not at all. We are definitely open to admitting individual students with good reason in January, but we do not expect it to be more than a few. And by that, I definitely mean a few."
