'17 LA WR Michael Young (Notre Dame Signee)

[NDinL.A.]

When it comes to recruiting driskell knows nothing

That's not true bro. I get why people do not like him, but when has had to, he's dipped his toes in recruiting and actually knows quite a bit when it comes to certain recruits.

I've talked to him several times about recruiting and there are some fascinating tidbits that he gains while going to camps like The Opening et al. There are parents all over the place, and many of them LOVE to talk, so they are easy access for reporters at those events. The stories you hear there, off the record, are sometimes friggin' crazy, but it helps give reporters an idea of where certain recruits will end up.

Having said that, I don't know what he knows about Michael Young, and I hope he is wrong. Mike Frank certainly thinks ND is sitting pretty here, which is good enough for me.

 

[arrowryan]

Per 247, he'll be announcing tonight.

His commitment won't mean anything to me if he's still taking OVs. In fact, I'm surprised that staff is taking his commitment if he's visiting other schools.

 

[zelezo vlk]

Per 247, he'll be announcing tonight.

His commitment won't mean anything to me if he's still taking OVs. In fact, I'm surprised that staff is taking his commitment if he's visiting other schools.

When was the last time that the staff allowed this?

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[arrowryan]

When was the last time that the staff allowed this?

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I'm pretty sure the staff usually tells the recruit(s) to take all the visits they want before making a final decision. I could be wrong though.

But they will still have to recruit slot guys only because Young wants to take OVs. I wouldn't accept his verbal if he's open to visiting other schools.

 

[zelezo vlk]

I'm pretty sure the staff usually tells the recruit(s) to take all the visits they want before making a final decision. I could be wrong though.

But they will still have to recruit slot guys only because Young wants to take OVs. I wouldn't accept his verbal if he's open to visiting other schools.

That's what I'm thinking. I'm thinking that Michael may announce that he won't take any more official visits after committing, or he may pick A&M, because I don't see the staff accepting his commitment if he wants to still visit other schools.

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[ThePiombino]

Don't like it

Unless he doesn't choose us

Pffft! You would honestly rather a kid commit elsewhere then OV to ND than then other way around? You do realize that despite what some might think, it's actually a lot easier holding on to a kid than getting one to flip, right? Just silly.

 

[IrishLion]

I haven't been a big fan of what Driskell has put out there lately. He's quickly becoming the Skip Bayless of 24/7.

I think the offense is going to look a lot different this year. They're going to lean a lot more on the intermediate passing game and the running game. With nobody taking the top off the defense, it's obviously going to make everything that much more difficult.

The reports of our deep passing game's demise have been greatly exaggerated.

ESB is gonna be the deep threat. And if he is 25% the threat that Fuller was, we'll be good.

Also, Torii can get down field pretty well himself.

 

[jspags10pg]

When was the last time that the staff allowed this?

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Off the top of my head...Tillery just a couple years ago.

 

[arrowryan]

Off the top of my head...Tillery just a couple years ago.

Correct. I had no idea that Tillery took an OV to Dartmouth lol

 

[Irish Man3]

The reports of our deep passing game's demise have been greatly exaggerated.

ESB is gonna be the deep threat. And if he is 25% the threat that Fuller was, we'll be good.

Also, Torii can get down field pretty well himself.

There is zero proof of ESB being a productive deep threat. Could it happen? Sure. To say that it's going to happen in his first real season is a stretch.

Taking Fuller out of this offense is huge. He was the best in the country at what he did last year. That doesn't get replaced easily, if at all. Fuller was a true #1 that opened the field for everyone else. ND no longer has that.

 

[woolybug25]

There is zero proof of ESB being a productive deep threat. Could it happen? Sure. To say that it's going to happen in his first real season is a stretch.

Taking Fuller out of this offense is huge. He was the best in the country at what he did last year. That doesn't get replaced easily, if at all. Fuller was a true #1 that opened the field for everyone else. ND no longer has that.

You could say the same thing about literally every #1 WR in recent memory.

He will be replaced. BK has never had a bad passing game, he isn't going to start now, especially with the amount of talent we have.

 

[arrowryan]

There is zero proof of ESB being a productive deep threat. Could it happen? Sure. To say that it's going to happen in his first real season is a stretch.

Taking Fuller out of this offense is huge. He was the best in the country at what he did last year. That doesn't get replaced easily, if at all. Fuller was a true #1 that opened the field for everyone else. ND no longer has that.

He was also a guy that caught the ball with his body and was sort of a one trick pony. He was a very good deep threat but that was about it. You don't need to have 4.3 speed to be a deep threat. The offense will be just fine.

 

[Luckylucci]

You could say the same thing about literally every #1 WR in recent memory.

He will be replaced. BK has never had a bad passing game, he isn't going to start now, especially with the amount of talent we have.

Precisely. It isn't like Fuller was an obvious #1 going into his sophomore season. We had these concerns around Floyd leaving, he focused the passing game around Eifert. When Eifert left, he turned the focus to TJ Jones.

We've literally had this conversation after every highly productive WR has left ND under BK's tenure and he continues to produce more productive WR's. Until that stops, I'll be optimistic.

Lastly, what gives me the most confidence, is that all those players are quite a bit different in skillset. Its not just plug and play talent, even though those players are talented. They are being used in vastly different ways but all incredibly productive.

 

[Irish Man3]

You could say the same thing about literally every #1 WR in recent memory.

He will be replaced. BK has never had a bad passing game, he isn't going to start now, especially with the amount of talent we have.

I'm strickly talking about a deep threat. I'm in no way saying the offense will now be anemic. I have said in other threads that an intermediate passing game and strong running game will be the offense this year.

All I'm saying is that what Fuller brought to this offense will not be replaced this year. He was an AA and the best deep threat in the country, not just the team. Those don't grow on trees.

 

[Irish Man3]

He was also a guy that caught the ball with his body and was sort of a one trick pony. He was a very good deep threat but that was about it. You don't need to have 4.3 speed to be a deep threat. The offense will be just fine.

I disagree. He was the only guy on the team that could take a bubble screen to the house and he was the only guy on the team that could blow by the opposing teams best CB for six. That's one hell of a two trick pony.

 

[Domina Nostra]

Driskell thinks our wide receivers this year will be better than
last year. He knows nothing, period.

He doesn't think that. It sucks to misquote a guy and then trash him for what he didn't say.

He said that the group as a whole could be better, and I think he included Alize as well. If so, I could see it, because Chris Brown, though I love the guy, didn't get as much production as I was hoping.

He barely even said that. That's been more of Lou's talking point because it will force them to spread the ball out more. Driskell thinks that the Fuller loss is huge, Hunter and ESB have mega talent but haven't proven very much, and that there is a lot of other unproven talent.

He thinks we have the talent for almost every unit to be better this year, but he continually emphasizes that most have not proven anything.

I haven't been a big fan of what Driskell has put out there lately. He's quickly becoming the Skip Bayless of 24/7.

huh? Driskell doesn't take very many extreme positions. I think we are confusing his kind of contrarian cockiness with being a sensationalist.

The only thing he has been out there on this year is saying that the LB corp might be better this year, even without Jaylon. His argument is that as good as Jaylon was, the stats show that Joe was equally bad (and he is not a JS hater--says the injury slowed him down and he was not athletic enough to be slowed down even a little). Because BVG's defense relies on the MLB to produce big plays, and used the WILL mostly to clean up (JS was not asked to blitz much for his talent level), Joe's weaknesses were over-emphasized and Jaylon's strengths were under-utilized. If BVG stays this course, we now have a really dynamic MLB, and two good players next to him, so we could see incremental improvement. But that is only because BVG refused to adjust to the players strengths last year and cannot repeat the mistake of relying so heavily on JS again this year (because he's gone).

Even then, he says a lot of the big plays were the safeties fault. Does anyone really disagree?

He is a contrarian, but he almost always ends up somewhere near the middle by the time he's finished.

If he needs to change anything, he needs to stop interrupting Lou and just let the man finish a sentence.

There is zero proof of ESB being a productive deep threat. Could it happen? Sure. To say that it's going to happen in his first real season is a stretch.

Taking Fuller out of this offense is huge. He was the best in the country at what he did last year. That doesn't get replaced easily, if at all. Fuller was a true #1 that opened the field for everyone else. ND no longer has that.

Don't know why I am defending Driskell, but this is basically what he said. If he is more optimistic, I think he would say that the running game has more ability to open up the passing game this year, with a healthy Folston and TE corps. So the TH Jr. and ESB won't need to be as dynamic as Fuller.

 

[IrishFanJMercy]

Not sure why everyone is so worried about our WR's this year. I think has a whole the group we have can be better than last year. We had a tendancy to target Fuller and make throws when other guys were wide open down field too. I like the group we have. We might not have anyone go over 1,000 yards but I think there are 6-7 guys on this team capable of having 600-700 yard seasons.

 

[IrishLion]

I'm strickly talking about a deep threat. I'm in no way saying the offense will now be anemic. I have said in other threads that an intermediate passing game and strong running game will be the offense this year.

All I'm saying is that what Fuller brought to this offense will not be replaced this year. He was an AA and the best deep threat in the country, not just the team. Those don't grow on trees.

Right, and I predict that ESB will be a serviceable deep threat this year. I didn't say that he was replacing Fuller. I said that acting like we won't have a deep passing game is premature.

You can't replace Fuller, but you don't need to replace Fuller to have a deep threat in your offense. ESB is 6'4" and has great speed; if you target him on the deep ball 2 or 3 times a game, you don't even need to complete the pass to keep the safeties from swarming against the run or clogging the intermediate throws. Just make sure they know you have a guy capable of hurting them deep.

You don't need Fuller's production to have a deep passing game. As I said in my OP, if someone (my guess is ESB) is even 25% as effective as Fuller, we'll be fine.

 

[arrowryan]

I disagree. He was the only guy on the team that could take a bubble screen to the house and he was the only guy on the team that could blow by the opposing teams best CB for six. That's one hell of a two trick pony.

Idk. I'll take a guy that can run the whole route tree. Look at what Mackensie Alexander said about Fuller at the combine; Alexander shut him down because he knew what route he was running 80% of the time.

 

[Irish Man3]

Not sure why everyone is so worried about our WR's this year. I think has a whole the group we have can be better than last year. We had a tendancy to target Fuller and make throws when other guys were wide open down field too. I like the group we have. We might not have anyone go over 1,000 yards but I think there are 6-7 guys on this team capable of having 600-700 yard seasons.

So you think that after losing our top three WR from a year ago, we can replace them with unproven players and have more production and possibly have a better WR core?

 

[Luckylucci]

I disagree. He was the only guy on the team that could take a bubble screen to the house and he was the only guy on the team that could blow by the opposing teams best CB for six. That's one hell of a two trick pony.

Sorry but that's simply not true. Last year we saw that kind of speed from Adams, Prosise, and Sanders. Fairly irrelevant if it comes from a bubble screen or a jet sweep. The big picture question should be, do we have enough team speed to still hurt teams? The answer is, yes, there is plenty on offense. Again, its fairly irrelevant whether its vertically or horizontally, because you use one to setup the other. Essentially the point of a spread offense.

 

[Domina Nostra]

Idk. I'll take a guy that can run the whole route tree. Look at what Mackensie Alexander said about Fuller at the combine; Alexander shut him down because he knew what route he was running 80% of the time.

Well, that didn't work out to well for anyone else.

Plus, corners are big mouths, and the rain hurts speed players.

Fuller killed it for us this year. I like TJ Jones too, but I'm taking Fuller.

 

[Irish Man3]

Idk. I'll take a guy that can run the whole route tree. Look at what Mackensie Alexander said about Fuller at the combine; Alexander shut him down because he knew what route he was running 80% of the time.

It's fairly easy to say that after the game. It was a monsoon ( I was there) and that had a huge impact on the passing game.

I'll take the guy that won ND multiple games last year because of his two trick pony routes. He won the Temple game, Virginia game, and was a huge contributor in every other game minus the monsoon game. I'll take that guy.

 

[Luckylucci]

So you think that after losing our top three WR from a year ago, we can replace them with unproven players and have more production and possibly have a better WR core?

Well, isn't that exactly what happened Fullers Sophomore season. This isn't something folks are saying as opinion. Its fact. We have routinely replaced stud WR's with either other productive WR's (maybe in different roles) or other stud WR's. Basically, every single time.

Fuller was basically an unknown going into his sophomore year. We lost Koyack, Jones, and Daniels. Who had combined for over 2000 yards of passing offense. Next thing you know, you get 1k from Fuller, 642 from CJ, and 500 a piece from Brown and Robinson. The same production in just a different look.

 

[arrowryan]

It's fairly easy to say that after the game. It was a monsoon ( I was there) and that had a huge impact on the passing game.

I'll take the guy that won ND multiple games last year because of his two trick pony routes. He won the Temple game, Virginia game, and was a huge contributor in every other game minus the monsoon game. I'll take that guy.

I'm not saying that I wouldn't take the guy lol. I think he was a great talent and I'll miss him as a player. But by no means was he a complete receiver and he'll never be a team's #1 guy in the NFL

 

[IrishLion]

This discussion has somehow transformed.

I was simply trying to tell IM3 that it's too early to say that we don't have anyone that can take the top off the defense in the absence of Will Fuller.

1. I think ESB will be that guy, because he's 6'4" and has some giddyup

2. You don't need to be Will Fuller to take the top off of a defense. You just need to be a viable threat down the field, in order to keep things (relatively) open underneath.


Counterpoint: IM3 says it's too early to say that ESB can be a deep threat. I respect that. Just because he's tall and fast doesn't mean he's going to beat people deep.

But I think he's set up perfectly to test out that role in the offense.

 

[STLDomer]

I'm not saying that I wouldn't take the guy lol. I think he was a great talent and I'll miss him as a player. But by no means was he a complete receiver and he'll never be a team's #1 guy in the NFL

Never is a strong word. Just because he wasn't a complete WR as a Junior in college doesn't mean he can't be in the NFL. He's got years to hone his skills and better himself. You can't teach some of the stuff Will Fuller has, you can teach some of the stuff he doesn't.

 

[Irish Man3]

Good lord guys. I'll say this and then I'll leave it alone since this is morphing into something completely different.

I'm not saying that ND's offense is doomed or that guys like ESB, Hunter, or Sanders can not be productive in a spread offense. I'm not saying that one of those guys can't individually step up and have a great year.

All that I'm saying is that an ALL-AMERICAN WR like Fuller is hard to replace. To expect that to be done by a guy like ESB who has......less than 5 career catches (?), seems unlikely. Will Fuller brought a different dimension to this offense. You can say he was a "one trick pony" all you'd like but in my opinion, that's what made his production all the more impressive. Teams knew what he was going to do and he did it anyway. He was dominant at the position and that won't be replaced this year by anyone.

I expect the running game and the intermediate passing game to be successful. There's a lot of talent on offense coming back and I fully expect ND to be productive on that side of the ball.

 

[Sherm Sticky]

Thread derailed!


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[Luckylucci]

To get back on track, the 247 A&M mods are saying that he might not even be a take for them right now.