'14 IL ILB Nyles Morgan (Notre Dame Signee)

[md_bennett]

Agree...But, Auburn is more local to Atlanta than Athens Georgia.

1.5 to 2 hours to Athens. About 3 - 3.5 to Auburn. I went to GT and made many visits to friends at both UGA and AU. However the point is still valid since its a shortish ride down I-20

 

[Rocket 94]

Bottom line is I'm glad ND does not focus its recruiting on the Chicagoland area. Not enough ready made talented prospects like down south. Being in the ACC now for five games is going to help recruiting in the south even more. That is where ND should focus and is focusing.

 

[LoveThee]

Bottom line is I'm glad ND does not focus its recruiting on the Chicagoland area. Not enough ready made talented prospects like down south. Being in the ACC now for five games is going to help recruiting in the south even more. That is where ND should focus and is focusing.

The thing is, ND shouldn't have to "focus" on the area.

Big state schools like LSU and UF typically have a lot of kids in their state or general area starting the recruiting process being fond of them. Kids in Chicago (typically) aren't interested in ND in the beginning and it takes an immense focus to reel them in.

Practically every player with a profile on this site from LA you see being identified as an LSU lock because they do such a good job of identifying the local talent they want and being able to take them as they please. LSU has their choice of LA prospects, while ND has to fight for recruits in Chicago.

The University as a whole and football program historically has been able to have the same pull in Chicago a school like LSU has throughout most of LA. But right now, we don't and it is alarming IMO

 

[Sherm Sticky]

1.5 to 2 hours to Athens. About 3 - 3.5 to Auburn. I went to GT and made many visits to friends at both UGA and AU. However the point is still valid since its a shortish ride down I-20

I'm an idiot

 

[WestCoast]

Told ISD his interest in ND is a 7

A "7" isn't so bad. My friend set me up with a girl in college. He said she was a "7". Up til then I was mostly averaging "5's", so I thought here was my chance to land a real looker. Turns out he meant she was a size 7.

 

[dwshade]

1.5 to 2 hours to Athens. About 3 - 3.5 to Auburn. I went to GT and made many visits to friends at both UGA and AU. However the point is still valid since its a shortish ride down I-20

You're confusing Tuscaloosa with Auburn. Alabama is 2.5/3 hours from Atlanta west on I-20. Auburn is no more than 1.5 hours from Atlanta straight down I-85.

 

[TheTurningPoint]

Bottom line is the acceptance of "Chicago kids just aren't coming to ND" is bull. Pure, unadulterated defeatist bull. Chicago kids have always come to ND. In football, other sports, and the general student populous. I swear to God ~20-25% of the school is from the Chicago suburbs.

We have always recruited Chicago well; especially relative to any other singular city/region. We have at least a recruit or two every year from Chicago... we already have Weishar committed in this class... and I can't think of any other city/suburbs that we draw as much talent from routinely as Chicago. It's our backyard. When a Chicago kid wants to stay close to home, we're the second closest school to Northwestern and BY FAR the closest "big time" football school.

You cannot just forget about a major city and talent trove in your backyard. That makes no sense. Ignoring Morgan for a second who seems like a unique case for a number of reasons, it's a disturbing trend that many of the "elite" prospects coming out of Chicago seem to have little initial interest in ND and lots of interest in the SEC (or even USC). Do they just want to flee the snow? Or is it more of a groundswell issue with ND having a bad rap at the youth levels and they're pre-disposed against ND? Is Core6 really that big of a thorn or just a manifestation of a larger issue?

Either way I reject that's it OK for ND to "not be getting Chicago kids on the regular" and that it isn't "alarming." The real question is whether it's rectifiable or not.

ND football hasnt recruited the Chicago area hard for a long time. There are more walkons from Chicago than scholarship players on the ND roster I believe so your theory is correct in that Chicago kids do go to ND. Chicago just isnt a hot bed for talent, so ND hasnt recruited it. Fleming and Filer were two of the highest ranked kids to come out of Chicago that ND has got. Fleming had a good career, but never made it to the point where his potential stood. Filer, never picked up the system, and when he was just getting there he tore an ACL. Hughes underachieved until the last 2 games of his college career. I mean, I honestly say its under 10 kids that I have even really said "man ND needs to get this kid" that was from the Chicago area since Weis came to ND.

As far as your comment about its ok to not get kids from Chicago. Watt/Lombard/Rees/Davaris/Daly are all going to play key roles on this years team, so that is very important talent to have on the team. With that said, ND is fine not getting Chicago talent. If Chicago was key to NDs success, I think you would see a great stress on recruiting there. But you dont. Its clear that ND is focusing efforts in Texas, Florida, Arizona, Georgia, and the Carolinas. Now with the 2014/2015 class there is a HUGE focus on Louisiana. There is just not a huge focus on the Chicago kids.

To the poster that said we need to take Chuck out of Chicago...Chuck grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and is a midwest guy to the T. There isn't a better guy to recruit chicago than Chuck.

With that said, in the case of Nyles Morgan its possible he has as much interest in ND as ND has in him.

 

[Son of Kenmare]

Hes been to ND as a recruit.

Some kids just dont like ND, there is not a thing wrong with it. Theres thousands of kids in each class, and hundreds of visits and scholarships offered by ND each year....and what happens, they sign 20-25 kids each year. You are going to have kids interested in ND, and kids that aren't.

Also, as far as kids staying locally....I wouldn't say Chicago is local to South Bend. Is it closer than 90% of the roster...yes. But that also answers why he has no interest at all. Tommy Rees, Scott Daly, Davaris Daniels Christian Lombard, and Chris Watt are the only scholarship players from the Chicago area. Chicago kids arent coming to ND.

If ND was getting Chicago kids on the regular, it may be more alarming.

At the sametime, to say he taking ND serious bc he isnt taking an OV, or another unofficial is a bit pre-mature. Its July. When ND has another season like last year, it changes things, and visits happen. It wasn't too long ago, Greg Bryant, Max Redfield, Tarean Folston, and Eddie Vanderdoes werent even considering Notre Dame and yet they magically took officials to ND when all were less than a "7" interested in ND at this time last year.

Its def cliche..

Its a marathon, not a sprint.


CHILL.

Don't forget Colin McGovern, we tend to get at least one prospect each recruiting cycle.

 

[TheTurningPoint]

Don't forget Colin McGovern, we tend to get at least one prospect each recruiting cycle.

Yessir!

 

[DCIrish]

I don't think this a big deal unless you are just looking for something to complain about. ND has always recruited nationally and doesn't have to rely on a particular city or state to get recruits. The goal should be to get the best 20-25 players they can get every year. It doesn't matter where they are from. This is a much bigger problem for a school like Illinois than it is for ND.

 

[NDdomer2]

that last sentence from TP. i was thinking about this. "a 7" sounded sour grapeish.

 

[woolybug25]

As far as your comment about its ok to not get kids from Chicago. Watt/Lombard/Rees/Davaris/Daly are all going to play key roles on this years team, so that is very important talent to have on the team. With that said, ND is fine not getting Chicago talent. If Chicago was key to NDs success, I think you would see a great stress on recruiting there. But you dont. Its clear that ND is focusing efforts in Texas, Florida, Arizona, Georgia, and the Carolinas. Now with the 2014/2015 class there is a HUGE focus on Louisiana. There is just not a huge focus on the Chicago kids.

We have always focused on recruiting nationally, and I agree that 5 guys all from one city is significant, especially when one of them is the starting QB and 4 of them are significant contributors from the team. We certainly haven't targeted Chitown as we did under every coach before Chuck Weis (and Golfingham, but he didn't target anything), but we still have advantages in the city. It's the subway city to Notre Dame and the closest major high school football to South Bend.

While I think we all agree that Notre Dame has to recruit nationally, I think that we need to start pulling the elite recruits from the 100 mile halo of the university. We used to do this, we haven't in a while. We have specific advantages of a more positive image, close proximity to their families and the ease of unofficial visits. My concern is that it seems like the staff chooses to approach local kids the same way they approach kids from CA or LA, who we fight an uphill battle with the entire process.

 

[md_bennett]

You're confusing Tuscaloosa with Auburn. Alabama is 2.5/3 hours from Atlanta west on I-20. Auburn is no more than 1.5 hours from Atlanta straight down I-85.

Well those college days are a bit hazy lol. I stand corrected - my bad Sherm

 

[TheTurningPoint]

We have always focused on recruiting nationally, and I agree that 5 guys all from one city is significant, especially when one of them is the starting QB and 4 of them are significant contributors from the team. We certainly haven't targeted Chitown as we did under every coach before Chuck Weis (and Golfingham, but he didn't target anything), but we still have advantages in the city. It's the subway city to Notre Dame and the closest major high school football to South Bend.

While I think we all agree that Notre Dame has to recruit nationally, I think that we need to start pulling the elite recruits from the 100 mile halo of the university. We used to do this, we haven't in a while. We have specific advantages of a more positive image, close proximity to their families and the ease of unofficial visits. My concern is that it seems like the staff chooses to approach local kids the same way they approach kids from CA or LA, who we fight an uphill battle with the entire process.

Agreed. I def dont think they recruit kids from Chi diff than a kid from Fresno, but thats where ND is getting ahead in the recruiting game. They arent telling kids what they want to hear all the time. Honesty is great with some kids, and not great with some kids. Its all in the eye of the beholder. ND has done well within the 100miles radius, esp Indiana. The kids they have targeted close to home have come.

Now dont take this the wrong way, but the current chicago kids on the roster are different than a Laquon Treadwell, Clifton Garrett, and Ty Isaac. Bright lights and a current lifestyle is more of what those kids are looking at, instead of over the long haul. There isnt anything wrong with that bc that can set you up for life if they make it. I would have loved to have all 3 suiting up for ND, but I dont see any of those 3 making or breaking the program.

Establishing relationships with high school coaches is also huge and the schools ND needed to dip into to get the elite kids, the connections just arent there. When push comes to shove its the relationships of the important figures in the recruits life that essentially decide a ton of recruitments. They look for advice and help to separate the BS from fact. If ND wanted to own Chicago in recruiting, they need to build relationships and that just doesnt seem to be a high priority.

 

[Luckylucci]

Obviously this is a topic that all of ND nation has been talking about for awhile. Including the board at II. TJ's take is very similar to what TP has stated already. The staff would love to land these Chicago area recruits and during the early stages of their recruitment we're recruiting them very hard (specifically Morgan). With that said just like recruiting a kid from anywhere in the country if they don't show the same sincere interest in us, at some point it's wasting resources to continue along that path. It's not the staffs fault this is happening it's on the kids and more importantly the people around them. The staff is very aware of the influential people at some of these schools and they just aren't in ND's corner. Nobody that's close to ND thinks it's Chuck's fault he is known as a great "living
room guy." We'll continue to recruit there and hopefully we get better results. I realize that a lot of this was already said by TP but I thought it was important to hear it from another credible source.

 

[woolybug25]

Obviously this is a topic that all of ND nation has been talking about for awhile. Including the board at II. TJ's take is very similar to what TP has stated already. The staff would love to land these Chicago area recruits and during the early stages of their recruitment we're recruiting them very hard (specifically Morgan). With that said just like recruiting a kid from anywhere in the country if they don't show the same sincere interest in us, at some point it's wasting resources to continue along that path. It's not the staffs fault this is happening it's on the kids and more importantly the people around them. The staff is very aware of the influential people at some of these schools and they just aren't in ND's corner. Nobody that's close to ND thinks it's Chuck's fault he is known as a great "living
room guy." We'll continue to recruit there and hopefully we get better results. I realize that a lot of this was already said by TP but I thought it was important to hear it from another credible source.

I would understand that if the staff didn't put considerable effort into recruiting kids from far away with equally lacking interest. We can act like these IL kids show little interest from the start, so the staff simply moves on, but that's not reality.

Furthermore, I don't buy that these kids are "looking for glitz and glamour" in places like USC or the SEC. The stupid Skunkbears cleaned up in IL last year.

 

[Luckylucci]

I think Ty Isaac and Greg Bryant are good examples. We recruited the heck out of both in the beginning. In fact prior to Greg picking OU he said Alford was his favorite coach. Both commit to other schools. Later in the cycle byant decommits and Ty starts looking around. ND reaches out to both to gauge interest in and starts recruiting both. Believe it or not the staff was talking to Isaac a lot while USC was falling apart. Bryant reciprocates the interest and sets an official visit. Ty talks about it but never steps foot back on campus. What should the staff do there?

 

[IrishLax]

Core6 just sent a DB to Vandy. Odd Chicago to Vanderbilt pipeline opening up.

 

[stlnd01]

I blame the Chicago Tribune. Especially that punk Brian Hamilton.

Seriously, I don't really think it's a "problem" that we don't land more big-time Chicago kids, as long as we're landing big-time kids from elsewhere, but it is an interesting contrast with how well we've done in Indiana and Ohio the last few cycles. Not sure what it means, though.

I wonder if Chicago's a comparatively easier target for other schools because it's a big city and pretty much everyone - certainly everyone in the Big Ten - has relationships there. Also easy for an out of town (SEC/Pac 12) recruiter to hit a whole bunch of high schools in one trip, compared to schlepping all over Indiana.

 

[woolybug25]

I think Ty Isaac and Greg Bryant are good examples. We recruited the heck out of both in the beginning. In fact prior to Greg picking OU he said Alford was his favorite coach. Both commit to other schools. Later in the cycle byant decommits and Ty starts looking around. ND reaches out to both to gauge interest in and starts recruiting both. Believe it or not the staff was talking to Isaac a lot while USC was falling apart. Bryant reciprocates the interest and sets an official visit. Ty talks about it but never steps foot back on campus. What should the staff do there?

I'm not saying that the staff messed up with Isaac or that they are even not recruiting well (they are), i'm saying that the focus on Chicagoland that Notre Dame had for over a 100 years, hasn't been the case since Weis. I think that's a mistake. We could hypothesize on what would have happened with recruits from the area that we lost on, but i'm not even talking about that. I'm talking about the kids we don't even pursue because we are off in LA chasing receivers that we usually don't end up landing. Who knows if we would have been able to land guys like Tillman, Bosch, SCHUTT (how stupid does his recruitment seem now), Voltz, Westerkamp, etc if we simply would have targeted/offered them earlier? These kids all went to midwestern schools with similar recruiting messages.

 

[Luckylucci]

I may have misunderstood your previous posts. I thought your previous comments were placing blame on the staff for not doing enough or doing a poor job.

 

[Kaneyoufeelit]

Not really anything new. It seems like a Vandy/ND race. Distance could work in our favor.

He and Hood sat together on the plan and Hood was working hard on him

ISD Intel

 

[STLDomer]

Sampson said in the updated Defensive Master List that Notre Dame believes they are in better position than Morgan has let on publicly

 

[AdmiralBackhand]

Interesting news.

 

[Sherm Sticky]

Good news.

 

[Emcee77]

Sampson said in the updated Defensive Master List that Notre Dame believes they are in better position than Morgan has let on publicly

Very interesting ... I've always felt that Wiltfong has seemed overly optimistic about ND's chances for Morgan, when Morgan personally seems not to be overly enthusiastic about ND. If Morgan is more interested in ND than he is letting on publicly, that may explain the inconsistency.

 

[Kaneyoufeelit]

Sampson said in the updated Defensive Master List that Notre Dame believes they are in better position than Morgan has let on publicly

cue drake29 to shits on this news

 

[GoldenIsThyFame]

cue drake29 to shits on this news

Lol, I will be drake for a minute. Nyles' father has always liked ND so I am assuming he is the source of this info. Actions speak louder than words and until he visits ND again I will not believe he is seriously interested.

 

[irishog77]

I heard franklin say on espn earlier today, in regards to recruiting at vandy, "come be a part of the greatest turnaround in the history of college football."

Umm, no.

 

[dwshade]

To be perfectly honest if we were in need of a new coach I'd have Franklin very high on the list. That being said I hope there isn't a need for a coaching search for many years to come.