Scout.com: Total Package
Beal, ranked No. 11 in the East by Scout.com, said he favors USC slightly over Boston College, Ohio State, Florida, LSU and Miami. All of his favorites have offered
----------Did we stop recruiting him all together to be left out completely behind LSU and Miami? It's a little hard to beleive after he said "You're the one i've been waiting for" about his ND offer and then leaves us out completely. I've known for about a month now he's starting leaving us out completely do you think our coaches have just stopped calling him and just spent all their focus on Sabino or Filer for that final LB spot?
He's always said glowing things about all the schools recruiting him, so the ND comment in actuality isn't all that impressive, oddly enough.
I've gotten the same "dead end" impression with Beal as well. Sabino was a name that came onto ND's very quickly - I think the first time I heard of him was when he got the offer - but it has definitely stayed there. And when the Beal offer was extended, there was one or two weeks where things sounded great, and then the news went down a slippery slope from there.
I think the pearl of ND's eye at this point is definitely Sabino, then Filer, then a hodge podge of backup plans I can only speculate on (Will Compton, balls to the wall for Arthur Brown, a prospect TBD, etc). Beal isn't amongst those plans, unless Weis has a flashback to Brian Cushing while tossing and turning at night, and flies out to New Jersey begging for Beal to go to South Bend - aka, not gonna happen.
Mike Frank isn't a bullet proof analyst, but he does know a thing or two, and he's been saying the Beal door is essentially shut - virtually zero dialogue from either side of the recruiting process. So IK, I think your guesstimate is right.