Can recruits live up to the big hype?
Quarterback Jimmy Clausen, the naton's top-rated recruit, and HML running back Armando Allen have some lofty goals to achieve at Notre Dame.
By MANNY NAVARRO
Despite the snow and freezing temperatures, Armando Allen said his first two weeks as a football player on Notre Dame's campus have lived up to the billing.
''It's been pretty cool,'' said Allen, a running back from Hialeah-Miami Lakes High who was one of three nationally prized recruits to enroll in South Bend, Ind., for classes a semester early Jan. 16. One of his two roommates this semester? The top-rated recruit in the nation, Jimmy Clausen.
''It's like before we even got here they knew who we were,'' Allen said. ``When we go eat, different students are asking us for autographs. Little kids walking around campus are asking us for autographs. It's Notre Dame football.''
But Allen, one of the nation's top high school running back recruits, and fellow freshman and cornerback Gary Gray soon might find themselves being flooded with more than autograph requests with Clausen as their roommate.
For those who haven't spent much time glued to the Internet for the latest tidbits on where highly touted teenage football players are leaning, Clausen is the quarterback experts have dubbed the high school football version of LeBron James.
`GOLDEN ARM'
He's the kid who was featured in Sports Illustrated the summer before his 17th birthday under the headline ''The Kid with the Golden Arm,'' the most polished quarterback to come out of passer-rich California since John Elway and by far the best overall talent to come out of high school this year.
But is it all hype or is Clausen the real deal?
''I think it's talent and hype, which I think comes like LeBron James, who had the hype and the talent,'' said Tom Lemming, who does the player rankings for CSTV.com and who, along with Rivals.com, ranks Clausen as the best player in the country.
``I've been doing this 28 years. My first year, I interviewed John Elway and Dan Marino when they were coming out of high school. Those two along with Jeff George, Chris Leak, Peyton Manning and Josh Booty, those were the best quarterbacks I'd seen in high school. Clausen fits into that group.''
Clausen, 6-3 and 200 pounds, put up the numbers and earned the type of trophies and rings that would lead you to believe he will one day belong in that group.
He never lost a high school game in his three years as the starting quarterback at Westlake Village's Oaks Christian School in California, a small private school of 600 students. He went 42-0, won four consecutive Division XI California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section championships and led Westlake, a team loaded with 11 major Division I-A recruits, to the first state title in California history this past season. His career statistics are eye-opening: 10,734 yards, 146 touchdowns and only 20 interceptions.
Of course, Clausen has been bred for football success. His two older brothers, Casey and Rick, played quarterback at Tennessee. Casey, Jimmy's oldest brother, was a four-year starter at Tennessee, where he ended his career in 2003 as the second-most prolific passer behind Manning. Rick's career didn't last as long. Both have said the younger Clausen, who already was participating in quarterback camps and following his brother, Casey, around the Tennessee locker room by the seventh grade, is by far the best talent.
Lemming said Clausen has Manning's brains and Joe Montana's sixth sense -- the ability to find open receivers, and a strong enough arm to throw the deep-out pattern.
''Right now, if he keeps improving like he has the last three years, he's going to be a Heisman candidate for sure,'' Lemming said. ``Going to work with [Charlie] Weis is really going to help him. The only thing you can hope for is that he hasn't hit a ceiling.''
Clausen, 19, proved he could play well against top-tier competition when he won the MVP award earlier this month at the U.S. Army All-American Game in San Antonio. That came two days after he was voted the National Player of the Year.
So why isn't everybody in love with Clausen?
When he announced his college choice, it wasn't your usual ''stand in front of a mike and put a hat on your head kind of announcement.'' Clausen and his family went Hollywood, reportedly hiring the same high-profile publicist who promoted the movies We Are Marshall and Gridiron Gang to help plan the big announcement live on ESPN at the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend.
BOLD STATEMENT
After he announced he was picking the Irish over Southern Cal and South Carolina while flashing his state championship rings, Clausen bodly told reporters his plan was to win four national championship rings. All that after reportedly pulling up to the ceremony 45 minutes late in a stretch Hummer limo.
As good as Clausen might be, though, hype alone will not get him the starting job at Notre Dame vacated by Brady Quinn. Lemming said Clausen will have to have to beat more athletic redshirt freshmen Demetrius Jones and Zach Frazer when spring practice starts.
And Clausen already could be falling behind. Allen said Clausen has sat out a few of the early 7-on-7 drills because of bone spurs in his throwing elbow.
Still, Allen said, the two have begun envisioning scenarios in which they are together in the backfield.
''They had an article up here about us being the next Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart,'' said Allen, who passed on national champion Florida. ``We kind of laughed about that, you know, wouldn't it be great if we could come up here and have an impact like those two did?
``That's our plan, but probably to be even a little better than that.''
