Leinhart was too dumb. Our recruiting has suffered tremendously under Davie and Willingham. Furthermore (you just need to look at Julious Jones' recent exploits in the pros) our player development is horrible. If Brady Quinn were playing at U-M (who wanted him badly) he'd be a great QB instead of a good QB. They'd be comparing him to another Brady.
An exerpt from a suntimes article (
http://www.suntimes.com/output/couch/cst-spt-greg07.html) that's been out for a few days. Pay particular attention to Lemming's comments on the Irish...
But is it really a sabbatical, or is Notre Dame's prestige gone for good?
Recruiting experts Jeremy Crabtree of Rivals.com and Tom Lemming of ESPN.com believe the school still can restore its big name with high school football players. Neither believes the recruiting of black players will be affected by the race questions raised when the school fired Willingham, the Irish's first black coach, after just three years.
But Crabtree said Rivals sends out thousands of questionnaires to high school players, and 10 years ago even those players who had no chance of reaching the big time would include Notre Dame on their wish lists. Today, he said, he sees the Irish listed less and less.
"Whoever comes in has to do a better job of not just letting Notre Dame's name sell itself,'' Crabtree said. "Kids know about the great tradition of other schools now, too. Willingham and Bob Davie both just let kids find out about Notre Dame on their own, and Notre Dame has had the luxury to do that for a long time because they had the national fan base, the national television exposure.
"But now, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Florida State have most of their games on TV, too. And they're playing great competition every week, too. In recruiting, Notre Dame's not at that level anymore, not the elite upper echelon. Now I would probably put them with, say, Wisconsin and Purdue.''
Lemming said with the right coach, Notre Dame's prestige could be back as soon as next season. Until now, he said, Notre Dame's recruiting problems have been connected mostly to an unimaginative offense and out-of-date facilities, the latter of which Notre Dame is upgrading.
Lemming discarded the usual criticisms that Notre Dame's academic standards are too high and its schedule too tough.
"Davie and Willingham were given a lot of leeway on academics,'' he said. "They've brought in kids with 2.3 and 2.4 [grade-point averages], and they still couldn't get kids to visit. It's a lack of recruiting expertise, really.
"After they ran Lou Holtz out, Notre Dame has arbitrarily raised and lowered academic standards. There has been no consistency. First they changed the standards to get rid of Holtz, then they used them to help Davie out, then to help Willingham out. I keep track of these kids' grades, and Notre Dame's standards are a little above the Big Ten, but not much.''
Lemming said Notre Dame is still the dream job for most coaches, but many of the top names have been tied up with long-term contracts that Notre Dame won't buy out.
