As usual with us on IE, I read a lot of strong opinions about positions that the accused posters never made. My position [always fraught with error in understanding and particularly prediction] is:
1). Enoch Smith is a really good prospect. The Notre Dame staff offered. Who's arguing otherwise?
2). We have athletes for similar defensive positions already verballed and others on the board who seem very interested in ND, who seem, as best we can determine, of slightly higher potential [Clark, McDowell, etc]. Some of that is flat fact; some could be debated.
3). We will probably have about twenty scholarships to give in the 2014 cycle. That's smallish and requires greater precision than usual. As others have said, Alabama has no such practical restrictions as they find ways to eliminate bench players. The point of this is: No. We cannot just take everyone who is a latecomer just because they are potentially great. We must play by our morality rules.
4). It is my understanding that there are "offers" and there are "OFFERS". The "OFFERS" are: Hey! Jump on board anytime. The "offers" are soft agreements that we're very interested but "we'll hold off" on the flat OFFER. If this tricky edge-walking strategy is true, then I would not be surprised if Smith had an "offer" rather than an OFFER.
5). Should Enoch accept an actionable OFFER, that means that the staff accepts him as desirable on the team, and, as we [unless we're fools] MUST trust their competence, then that ends the discussion. I doubt that anyone is arguing against that.
The nub of this thing for me is what the understanding between Enoch and The Staff really is. If the offer is actually solidly actionable, then the staff has decided that Enoch Smith is clearly their kind of guy despite Clark and McDowell, and numbers.
