'17 DC DE Kofi Wardlow (Notre Dame Signee)

BobbyMac

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More CBs coming. It looks like maybe him, the kid from Hawaii, Owusu, and a chance at Yeast. If so, the staff killec it at the end in such short time.

There's no chance of an Irish Yeast injection.




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IrishLax

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More CBs coming. It looks like maybe him, the kid from Hawaii, Owusu, and a chance at Yeast. If so, the staff killec it at the end in such short time.

Disagree, somewhat. We needed two CBs and three WRs in this class as a minimum and it looks like we got zero and two with no premium players. Going to hurt us for years to come. You can make excuses at WR, but I have no clue how Lyght managed to land zero CBs... that's total garbage, Diaco-style bullshit where we two years from now we'll have a gaping roster hole that undermines an otherwise talented team.

At least we got bodies on the DL with these late adds assuming Wardlow/Amosa and maybe someone will amount to something with development. The DL next year could have seventeen scholarship bodies on it depending on retirement/transfer which means we should be able to find four of those guys that can play. We're doing a good job of depth recruiting even if not adding high-star guys.
 

ColinKSU

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Disagree, somewhat. We needed two CBs and three WRs in this class as a minimum and it looks like we got zero and two with no premium players. Going to hurt us for years to come. You can make excuses at WR, but I have no clue how Lyght managed to land zero CBs... that's total garbage, Diaco-style bullshit where we two years from now we'll have a gaping roster hole that undermines an otherwise talented team.

At least we got bodies on the DL with these late adds assuming Wardlow/Amosa and maybe someone will amount to something with development. The DL next year could have seventeen scholarship bodies on it depending on retirement/transfer which means we should be able to find four of those guys that can play. We're doing a good job of depth recruiting even if not adding high-star guys.

Well I agree with you that they're piling up depth on the defensive line, more than half of that depth is, well ... I'm being polite when I say they're at least putting on their uniforms correctly.

As for the secondary, I 100% agree with you. The horrible job that Lyght did in recruiting is unacceptable. He didn't lose his job or change position responsibilities, yet he produced nothing. For a guy I hear nothing but love about, he sure left a crater that will haunt the team in a few years.
 
N

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Well I agree with you that they're piling up depth on the defensive line, more than half of that depth is, well ... I'm being polite when I say they're at least putting on their uniforms correctly.

As for the secondary, I 100% agree with you. The horrible job that Lyght did in recruiting is unacceptable. He didn't lose his job or change position responsibilities, yet he produced nothing. For a guy I hear nothing but love about, he sure left a crater that will haunt the team in a few years.

I honestly mean no disrespect but I think you're being too hard on LyghtLyght and the cornerback depth that includes Nick Watkins, Shawn Crawford, Nick Coleman, Ashton White, Daunte Vaughn, Julian Love and Troy Pride jr. That's a lot of bodies, not too mention they all have at least two years of eligibility.

That doesn't mean that not landing one isn't bad but we'll be fine with a good '18 class which I'm sure we'll land considering none this year.

As far as Lyght goes, a month ago he had Adebo and Hicks. Nothing he can do about both of them being teenagers from California and Texas who changed their minds. He went after some but it was too late (assuming Yeast doesn't commit).

I think we'll be just fine at CB and I definitely give super-alumn Lyght a pass.
 

TheTurningPoint

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I honestly mean no disrespect but I think you're being too hard on LyghtLyght and the cornerback depth that includes Nick Watkins, Shawn Crawford, Nick Coleman, Ashton White, Daunte Vaughn, Julian Love and Troy Pride jr. That's a lot of bodies, not too mention they all have at least two years of eligibility.

That doesn't mean that not landing one isn't bad but we'll be fine with a good '18 class which I'm sure we'll land considering none this year.

As far as Lyght goes, a month ago he had Adebo and Hicks. Nothing he can do about both of them being teenagers from California and Texas who changed their minds. He went after some but it was too late (assuming Yeast doesn't commit).

I think we'll be just fine at CB and I definitely give super-alumn Lyght a pass.


Why does Lyght get a pass because he is an alum? That's always a perplexing statement. Sure he had a great career and has been a phenomenal ambassador for Notre Dame. In fact, it's pretty much the ideal story for a student-athlete.

However, when it comes to recruiting he has struggled greatly.

Pride Jr. - Denson
Vaughn- Elston
Love - Denbrock
Studstill - Denson
Elliott - Booker

Isaiah Robertson - Denbrock
Genmark Heath - Collab effort between Elko and Lyght.

It's hard to make a case that Lyght has done even an average job on the recruiting trail looking at that list.

Clearly Notre Dame and the staff (including Lyght) did something well enough for Hicks and Adebo to commit and then Thomas Graham to basically commit as well. Why did they decommit? Was it Notre Dame's season? Doubtful, as Graham went to Oregon, Hicks to Cal and then Adebo to Stanford, the school he visited right before committed to Notre Dame.

Lyght should get a pass in the area that he is a new coach. His only recruiting experience is at Notre Dame the last two years. That's understandable that there will be growing pains, however, you still need to land talent, especially at the position you coach. There is no way around that.

I do agree that it doesn't kill Notre Dame in the grand scheme not locking down a corner, BUT....if Crawford gets hurt and say Watkins go down....then Notre Dame is down to Love, Vaughn, Pride, Coleman, who has clearly struggled and Ashton White, who hasn't played a down at corner in a live game. Not saying Coleman and White can't improve (because I hate when people write kids off after a 1-2 years in the program), but that's not ideal to have 3 sophomores as your rotation....again. It's not ideal to have a true freshman in the rotation, but at least your building for the future and I don't think Hicks/Adebo/Graham would have been that much worse than Pride/Vaughn/Love last year and it's not drinking kool-aid to think they'd be better than White/Coleman.
 
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N

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Why does Lyght get a pass because he is an alum? That's always a perplexing statement. Sure he had a great career and has been a phenomenal ambassador for Notre Dame. In fact, it's pretty much the ideal story for a student-athlete.

However, when it comes to recruiting he has struggled greatly.

Pride Jr. - Denson
Vaughn- Elston
Love - Denbrock
Studstill - Denson
Elliott - Booker

Isaiah Robertson - Denbrock
Genmark Heath - Collab effort between Elko and Lyght.

It's hard to make a case that Lyght has done even an average job on the recruiting trail looking at that list.

Clearly Notre Dame and the staff (including Lyght) did something well enough for Hicks and Adebo to commit and then Thomas Graham to basically commit as well. Why did they decommit? Was it Notre Dame's season? Doubtful, as Graham went to Oregon, Hicks to Cal and then Adebo to Stanford, the school he visited right before committed to Notre Dame.

Lyght should get a pass in the area that he is a new coach. His only recruiting experience is at Notre Dame the last two years. That's understandable that there will be growing pains, however, you still need to land talent, especially at the position you coach. There is no way around that.

I do agree that it doesn't kill Notre Dame in the grand scheme not locking down a corner, BUT....if Crawford gets hurt and say Watkins go down....then Notre Dame is down to Love, Vaughn, Pride, Coleman, who has clearly struggled and Ashton White, who hasn't played a down at corner in a live game. Not saying Coleman and White can't improve (because I hate when people write kids off after a 1-2 years in the program), but that's not ideal to have 3 sophomores as your rotation....again. It's not ideal to have a true freshman in the rotation, but at least your building for the future and I don't think Hicks/Adebo/Graham would have been that much worse than Pride/Vaughn/Love last year and it's not drinking kool-aid to think they'd be better than White/Coleman.

I certainly wasn't giving Lyght a pass because he's an impressive alumnist. I simply said super alumn just for the sake of mentioning it.
As far as Lyght not being the lead recruiter for the CB's you mentioned, that's true but not a situation I was referring to. I was just talking about this year's class although you have a very solid point and wasn't aware that he wasn't the lead recruiter on any of them. I'm sure he did have a hand in all of their recruitments and decision to commit to ND though.
That being said, after reading your post, I do now think that he isn't quite the recruiter I thought he was. I've seen many tweets etc from recruits that mention how "cool" coach Lyght is etc. which always lead me to believe he's highly regarded. I don't know. Hard to say.
I still hold firm that not landing any CB's this year won't hurt us in '17. That being said, I agree it could hurt us down the road. Landing elite CB's in '18 would soften that blow as they would arrive at ND ready to play like Love and Vaughn would.
 

NDdomer2

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It's not just about starters either. These are you special teams guys, your scout corners pushing the starting wr's and the depth/future. You can't have holes like this.
 

ColinKSU

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I honestly mean no disrespect but I think you're being too hard on LyghtLyght and the cornerback depth that includes Nick Watkins, Shawn Crawford, Nick Coleman, Ashton White, Daunte Vaughn, Julian Love and Troy Pride jr. That's a lot of bodies, not too mention they all have at least two years of eligibility.

That doesn't mean that not landing one isn't bad but we'll be fine with a good '18 class which I'm sure we'll land considering none this year.

As far as Lyght goes, a month ago he had Adebo and Hicks. Nothing he can do about both of them being teenagers from California and Texas who changed their minds. He went after some but it was too late (assuming Yeast doesn't commit).

I think we'll be just fine at CB and I definitely give super-alumn Lyght a pass.

I'm not trying to disrespect you either, but there are a number of questions in that list of CBs.

- Crawford is coming off of an ACL *and* an achilles in consecutive years and has never really played.

- Nick Coleman has played and has unquestionably been a liability.

- Nick Watkins has played one game and missed all of 2016 with an injury.

- Ashton White has never played.

And why does Lyght get a pass because he's an alumni? When you don't do your job, you don't do your job and you hurt the team's overall product. Lyght didn't do his job and it's going to hurt the team.
 

Domina Nostra

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I'm not trying to disrespect you either, but there are a number of questions in that list of CBs.

- Crawford is coming off of an ACL *and* an achilles in consecutive years and has never really played.

- Nick Coleman has played and has unquestionably been a liability.

- Nick Watkins has played one game and missed all of 2016 with an injury.

- Ashton White has never played.

And why does Lyght get a pass because he's an alumni? When you don't do your job, you don't do your job and you hurt the team's overall product. Lyght didn't do his job and it's going to hurt the team.

Kelly is notorious for over- and under-recruiting. How do we know Lyght's marching orders weren't get 2 4-5 stars, we don't need depth. Wouldn't shock me. Look at WR.
 

dublinirish

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So, we getting Wardlow?

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">And now we wait. Tagovailoa-Amosa at noon, Owusu-Koramoah at 2 and Wardlow at 2:15.</p>— Mike Vorel (@mikevorel) <a href="https://twitter.com/mikevorel/status/826812861049630721">February 1, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 

NewBrunswickIrish

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">And now we wait. Tagovailoa-Amosa at noon, Owusu-Koramoah at 2 and Wardlow at 2:15.</p>— Mike Vorel (@mikevorel) <a href="https://twitter.com/mikevorel/status/826812861049630721">February 1, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Was Wardlow's ceremony always scheduled at 2:15? I thought someone posted earlier it was at 2PM. It's probably reading too much into this but I wonder if Wardlow scheduled his at 2:15 so that (hopefully) both guys can both have fans pay attention to their commitments to ND. I guess the more logical thing would be that Wardlow has 2(?) other guys at his school signing today so his was scheduled based on these guys.
 

dublinirish

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Irish.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Brian Kelly announces Kofi Wardlow has signed with Notre Dame.</p>— Mike Vorel (@mikevorel) <a href="https://twitter.com/mikevorel/status/826869319942430721">February 1, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Kofi Wardlow is IRISH.<br><br>Kofi is absolute stud at rushing the QB & wrecking havoc in the backfield.<br><br>&#55357;&#56384;<a href="https://twitter.com/KofiWardlow">@KofiWardlow</a><br><br>➡️<a href="https://t.co/luwjezQ3ln">https://t.co/luwjezQ3ln</a> <a href="https://t.co/I8aVZF85QB">pic.twitter.com/I8aVZF85QB</a></p>— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) <a href="https://twitter.com/NDFootball/status/826869386954825728">February 1, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
G

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Sweet, wondering who the third mystery guy was. And in a dire position of need, no less. Woowoo!
 

Irish#1

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Happy we landed all three of the late announcers.

Given the situation they were put in, this staff closed like a MF.
 

Luckylucci

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Bk compared him to Romeo Okwara and I think that's a very possible trajectory for him. Give him multiple years to get acclimated to the speed of the game and grow into his body. Then get some solid production in year 3-5. Good news is we should be able to afford him that time, with Okwara and Jones ahead of him.
 

dwshade

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Bk compared him to Romeo Okwara and I think that's a very possible trajectory for him. Give him multiple years to get acclimated to the speed of the game and grow into his body. Then get some solid production in year 3-5. Good news is we should be able to afford him that time, with Okwara and Jones ahead of him.

Just don't use him on special teams for his FR. year. :)
 

ndcoltsfan2010

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Just got back from work, woohoo!!!!! Fantastic finish!! Phenomenal job by staff!!!!!
 

NDinBoston

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Gave some final rambling thoughts on <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NotreDame?src=hash">#NotreDame</a>'s 2017 recruiting class: <a href="https://t.co/urByJnIwp1">https://t.co/urByJnIwp1</a></p>— Bryan Driskell (@BGI_CoachD) <a href="https://twitter.com/BGI_CoachD/status/827014730824941568">February 2, 2017</a></blockquote>
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247 Composite:
Kofi Wardlow (8427)
Josh Paschal (9028)

Not sure if I can post a single comment from the article but Kofi's stats in the same league (TFL, Sacks, Pressures) are MUCH better.
 
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