'08 FL LB Etienne Sabino (Ohio State Verbal)

[stonebreakerwasgod]

UNC?? How the hell do we lose ANYONE to them? They haven't had a high NFL draft day pick in awhile.

 

[Sureal]

Butch Friggin Davis...

 

[marv81s]

I hope you are right Marv, because I think Sabino is a much higher character recruit than you know who, and if it is between ND & UNC, I like our chances.

I hope so too IUB. We have the right guy on Sabino, so with Brown on it, I like our chances a little bit more, but anything can happen and stranger things have happened and he may feel he has a chance to beat out some of those already committed to Free Shoes University, or maybe Delbert Dumbshit from Fla gets in the mix even more.

 

[Irishknight1023]

Butch will prove to be a huge pain in the ass for years to come. It only took him a couple of monthes to take Greg Little from us.

 

[HereComeTheIrish]

UNC?? How the hell do we lose ANYONE to them? They haven't had a high NFL draft day pick in awhile.

Julius Peppers...

 

[gboroirish]

ryan sims

 

[irish0307]

Not to mention they got Marvin Austin last year.... that kid is a beast

 

[Ultimate Penn St. Hater]

If we get him, we get him. I like the guys we have so far and I think this class will only add more elite players who will put our Irish in position to contend for many National Championships. Go Irish!

 

[stonebreakerwasgod]

Julius Peppers...

That WAS a while ago. Didn't he play hoops for awhile too?

 

[rockne19]

butch davis is a great recruiter

 

[GoshenGipper]

That WAS a while ago. Didn't he play hoops for awhile too?

Yes, and so did Ronald Curry

UNC was very good under Mac Brown, and I fully expect them to be the same under B.Davis.

 

[marv81s]

Butch will prove to be a huge pain in the ass for years to come. It only took him a couple of monthes to take Greg Little from us.

I gotta believe that he would have stayed there regardless. The constant talk of some ND "football experts" moving him to LB didn't help maters any either.

 

[irishunclebill]

I gotta believe that he would have stayed there regardless. The constant talk of some ND "football experts" moving him to LB didn't help maters any either.

True. In reality, Butch Davis had little, no pun intended, to do with Greg Little ending up at UNC. Little had no intention of coming to ND, and basically committed to ND only so he could play in the AAA game. The Carolina Blue writer who was involved in the "conspiracy of silence" cover-up to disguise Little's true intentions all but acknowleged this when he reported what was happening in the weeks before NSD.

 

[Rizzophil]

Thanks again IUB.

The more I hear about the whole situation the more I'm happy that Greg Little didn't go to ND.

Plus, Greg wouldn't survive under CW with that type of "show off" attitude anyway.

 

[Katzenboyer]

I've heard it on this board a few times, that UNC should never win a head to head battle with ND when it comes to a recruit because they never finish high, don't have our number of championships, are a basketball school, etc. etc.

Butch Davis will do big things at UNC. He's a great recruiter, he's a good college coach, and he has Super Bowl rings just like Charlie does.

UNC is smack dab right in the middle of talent rich football areas -- North Carolina produces good players, the Hampton Roads area of Virginia produces top talent, and Davis has a great relationship with TONS of coaches at Southern Florida high schools.

He had a pretty good class last year and only had three to four months to recruit these guys. Davis WILL turn that program into a monster, and it's been a sleeping giant for a long, long time.

 

[IrishCalves]

Confidence is fine, but recruiting battles aren't as black and white as we like to think of them. There are very few instances where ND "should" win a recruiting battle against other schools, and that usually is for geographical reasons, when we should lock down Indiana products.

I think Notre Dame fans should expect to be in the mix with a lot of recruits nationally, given our NBC deal, as well as our national fan base, but we shouldn't expect ourselves to "own" in places that aren't our backyard. And when it comes to recruits from North Carolina, we should expect guys like Greg Little to want to stay at home to build something.

 

[scooper]

I've heard it on this board a few times, that UNC should never win a head to head battle with ND when it comes to a recruit because they never finish high, don't have our number of championships, are a basketball school, etc. etc.

Butch Davis will do big things at UNC. He's a great recruiter, he's a good college coach, and he has Super Bowl rings just like Charlie does.

UNC is smack dab right in the middle of talent rich football areas -- North Carolina produces good players, the Hampton Roads area of Virginia produces top talent, and Davis has a great relationship with TONS of coaches at Southern Florida high schools.

He had a pretty good class last year and only had three to four months to recruit these guys. Davis WILL turn that program into a monster, and it's been a sleeping giant for a long, long time.

UNC has very good facilities, a beautiful stadium, an athletic department that oozes money and a fairly talent rich recruiting base. Add to that an ACC in transistion just waiting to be taken. I can see them doing some damage. I think they needed to decide as a program what they wanted to be and how much they were willing to put up to achieve it. Hiring a name guy like Butch Davis and paying the price to get him was a good start. I suspect UNC's future is looking pretty bright.

As for recruiting, stoney's right. We should expect to win all of them. But, we've seen it enough to know that sometimes we're just not going ot beat out Home State U.

 

[Irishknight1023]

I never really found out the Greg and Chris Little stories, it's always been premium info. or something, but for whatever reason I never heard their reasons. Can someone explain them to me?

 

[Irishknight1023]

Etienne says he does not have a leader but favors Miami, North Carolina, Notre Dame, USC, Tennessee, Georgia and Ohio State.

 

[irishunclebill]

I never really found out the Greg and Chris Little stories, it's always been premium info. or something, but for whatever reason I never heard their reasons. Can someone explain them to me?

Both stories are really very simple. Greg Little was never really interested in ND, he only used the Irish for his own purposes. With Chris Little, at the end of the day, he decided he simply did not want to go far from home, and fortunately for him, the day before NSD, an OL slot opened up for him when Greenlee de-committed Georgia for FSU.

 

[scooper]

I don't wish injury or anything like that. There were a lot of good kids who chose other schools last year. I liked a lot of them and wish them the best. But to spurn a team that was counting on you at the last minute? That's bush league. I don't care what your reasoning is.

Chris Little gave some indication that it was family related and just wanted to be close to home-that's fine. But it's not like he didn't have other offers down south prior to signing day. He still left the Irish hanging.

The timing and lack of strong reasoning for Greg Little's switch has me believing he never wanted to be Irish in the first place...as stated above, maybe it was about the AAA game. If so, that's terribly petty. I wish for health for him and his family. But if he never tastes success on the football field at UNC, I won't shed a tear for him. His last second switch was crap. Plain and simple.

 

[johnnd05]

Absolutely right, Scoop - I was going to say much the same thing. I'm as tolerant with these kids as anyone, but the dishonesty with which Little apparently went about his recruitment was really disgusting. I certainly don't wish harm on him, but I definitely don't "wish him the best" when it comes to his football endeavors.

 

[irishunclebill]

Absolutely right, Scoop - I was going to say much the same thing. I'm as tolerant with these kids as anyone, but the dishonesty with which Little apparently went about his recruitment was really disgusting. I certainly don't wish harm on him, but I definitely don't "wish him the best" when it comes to his football endeavors.

DITTO, I do not wish poor health or misfortune upon anyone, but any ND fan who wishes Greg Little well on the football field is taking the Christian (or whatever montheistic religion you want to talk about) morality code to the absolute limit. Plain and simply, Greg Little used the program that you are a fan of for his own purposes, and purposefully hid his true feelings so that he could get away with it. Wish him well all you want, I respectfully abstain.

 

[rockne19]

very well put iub.

 

[ant80]

It's all nice to hear about Little but can we steer this thread back to Sabino please.

 

[irishunclebill]

Sabino has confirmed that ND is recruiting him to play OLB. He also said that he still does not have definite plans to visit ND even though he would like to. Summer school is complicating his recruting schedule.

 

[IrishCalves]

Sabino has confirmed that ND is recruiting him to play OLB. He also said that he still does not have definite plans to visit ND even though he would like to. Summer school is complicating his recruting schedule.

Summer school is because of his intentions to enroll early I'd take it?

 

[Irishknight1023]

Summer school is because of his intentions to enroll early I'd take it?

correct

 

[irishunclebill]

Summer school is because of his intentions to enroll early I'd take it?

Yes, which also complicates the issue for ND and others, as Sabino is probably looking at an early fall committment at the latest. This probably gives FSU & UNC a slight advantage becuase he has already been to UNC & FSU is not that far away, although it is still a hike for Miami to Tallahassee unless you are flying. An FSU article says that he is going to visit there this summer, but to me it sounds just the same as he is hoping to also visit ND this summer, in other words, nothing definite.

 

[irishunclebill]

Something tells me however that Corwin Brown will be able to convince Sabino to visit ND, if not in the summer, then on an Official in September before he makes his decision.