I'm beginning to think that the primary factor as to which school a recruit commits has more to do with his relationship with the head coach than any other factor. Two recent commits, Montana and Benedict, are the two most recent examples. They may cite academics and playing time....but if that were so, we should have 20 commits by now.
I think the personal recruiter and position coach are more important from years of reading interviews and discussion I've had with ND players as to why did they pick ND. Those are the people making the frequent contact, building the bond. The person the player will deal with every day once on campus. The person that actually will direct their development. In Nick Montana's case Charlie Weis would have had a direct effect on his development as OC and Powlus's mentor at QB Coach. Tom Brady, Brady Quinn, and Jimmy Clausen will attest to his training skills. Crist recently came to ND to learn under Weis.
Likewise Charlie's recruiting prowess was so good the other coaches got together and banned Head Coaches from traveling in May during the evaluation period. Weis, Saban, and one or two other coaches were working their butts off in May with tremendous success.
Many people insisted Nick Montana did not want to come to ND and have to walk in his father's shoes. I largely discounted that factor as he will be compared to his dad anywhere he goes and that attitude would be scratching San Francisco off his list of potential future employers. Considering how ND fans savaged Powlus when Holtz took the best Pro QB recruit and forced fit him into an Option attack while not having the receivers OR coaches for a ProSet, his father's shadow might have taken a back seat to the fans booing Powlus AND Clausen. I also discounted Montana's interest in the SEC and OSU when looking at their depth charts. To me Stanford and UW seemed more likely for a West Coast kid, both programs are close to home and mom and dad, and both have coaches invigorating their programs, and some success developing QBs. UW fans would be thrilled with a QB that led them to a winning season. For the students that care at Stanford the expectation levels are likewise low. I heard a rumor that Joe Montana doesn't like Weis. If true, why is his other son still playing for Weis? They're paying $40K a year for the kid to walkon. He could walkon somewhere in the West Coast with more economical travel expenses. And he would lose a year of eligibility, he's not on scholarship.
As for Benedict, he's another example of ND trying to pull a kid from the Deep South up to South Bend. I don't recall Benedict complaining about Michiana winters but did read interview after interview where he expressed a strong desire to play in the SEC. I don't see how that translates to a Head Coach issue unless we're conjecturing why Benedict chose UGA over UF.
Weis has an obvious stability issue. He needs for this team to excel right out of the gate this year to show that '05 and '06 were more his norm than the rebuilding years of '06 and '07. Actually it's still a young team but the younger talent has enough experience to bring it home. The problem is how many kids will wait. And how many that wait can get through ND Admissions. I commented in the Linder thread that his waiting to make his decision (his coach likes his players to make trips and decisions after their season) is the best situation for ND. Weis will have a chance to demonstrate stability.
I'd like to hear comments from Wabash and the other poster on this board that went played college ball and went through the process.
