Well, for me, this situation is not great but let's contemplate what's real here as regards Notre Dame football:
1). we've all been dreaming of a team ultimately with two All-American corners on the field. In our not-completely-outrageous fantasy, they have been Tee Shepard and Ronald Darby. Darby may be gone. Well, in an "average" recruiting season, I'd take one All-american Corner and consider myself fortunate.
2). Oh, woe!! We're dead!! Well, we're not exactly dead really are we? There's Lo Wood, who Diaco felt was ready to play, and played him. And there's Atkinson, Jackson, Prosise, and just maybe another corner yet this year. Think about those names. Those guys are pretty good athletes. We will field two promising corners next season, no matter which two win the pre-season competition. Everyone can have their intuitive favorite newcomer here, but my intuition says that Josh Atkinson has the speed and the attitude and the confidence for this.
3). It's not like our corners won't have a lot of help. Yes, it's too bad that Harrison won't be back there to clean up the mistakes, but otherwise we're loaded at safety, so much so that we're going to be able to spare a safety here and there for creative speed-defense purposes, and maybe even "permanently" for linebacking [Baratti? or even Shumate? or Badger?]. AND what our d-line brings ... well, no need for further comment.
Young Mr. Darby SHOULD come to ND for reasons far beyond football. Hopefully he still will. Notre Dame will be a fine football team regardless. We could of course use his wonderful talent. Clemson could too, after West Virginia put 70 on them in the bowl game. Pretty embarrassing. Wouldn't have happened at ND. At least he would know that he was on a team which battled right to the final whistle regardless.
Notre Dame is general excellence and character. That is what we offer. I thought that it was a great privilege to attend here. Anyone should.
