Committed Prospects Taking Other Visits

[Irish2015]

One thing that has become clear to me is that it is not good for our committed prospects to be taking other visits. Throughout this season, I bought into the idea that Greenberry, Darby, and finally Decker were just interested in sight-seeing, but after today that is obviously false. A quick look over our 16 committs shows that 15 of them (excluding Tee) did not take another visit after committing to the Irish. This loyalty moving forward is what we need. I know my opinion holds no bareing on the coaching staff's decisions, but I hope in the next year and moving forward the staff asks kids to fully commit before making a verbal committment and pledge not to take any more officials. I believe at least if the staff did this this year Darby, Greenberry, and Decker could have decomitted earlier allowing us to offer guys and not be sitting at the alter alone.

#clunkclunk

 

[irishfanjho15]

I feel the same.

 

[scUM Hater]

Weis would drop a verbal commit if he visited another school.

 

[Irish Fam]

Dropping a commit is a little drastic. But I like the idea of viewing a kid as uncommitted if he is continuing to visit other schools. Darby's and Decker's situations were a bit weird, but TayB was apparently looking for somewhere else to go.

 

[TerryTate]

Weis did that. Didn't work well.

 

[Ironman8]

Early.

Signing.

Period.

 

[Irish2015]

I mean I think Weis's problems lay more in his inability to recruit defense and develop players.

 

[Irish2015]

Early.

Signing.

Period.

Well do you think they'll actually impliment one. I was speaking of something ND could do specifically to try to prevent from being royally screwed.

 

[irishmarine]

Weis had the motto if you're looking then we are looking. With the way recruiting is today I think it is a necessary thing. Cover your *** coaches. Weis had a season where he was pick pocketed of quite a few recruits and he learned (I think) but I'm hoping Kelly wise uo to the fact that these are young kids who can change their minds. Saying that I think Kelly has done well and is finding guys that got his system and getting faster guys in here. The big names and star value though are going to want to go o a winning team most of the time. I hope Kelly is teaching younger coaches things too though because his staff may start to get raided as well as we grow and get better.

 

[irishfanjho15]

Weis did that. Didn't work well.

You're right. So what can they do. Or are we just screwed because of ND not over-signing? I really think we are, just don't want to admit it I think.

 

[TerryTate]

I mean I think Weis's problems lay more in his inability to recruit defense and develop players.

His threats of pulling offers if people visited resulted in recruits not being interested in ND

 

[Irish Fam]

well then don't pull offers. continue to recruit the kid. but don't tell him that his spot is being held if he continues to visit other schools. I think there is a happy medium somewhere in there

 

[BobD]

The only thing worse than "counting your chickens before they hatch" is counting on a teenager before they've signed a LOI.

 

[Irish2015]

His threats of pulling offers if people visited resulted in recruits not being interested in ND

I mean Kelly's method of allowing kids to take visits didn't really end up to well for us this year, so wouldn't you rather maybe get a hard working 3 star than strike out on a big name because of the threat of pulling a scholarship? For clarification I'm not blaiming Kelly I'm simply stating some kids royally screwed him.

 

[Irish YJ]

"If you're looking, then we're looking" is the only way to go in today's world. Weis had more of a problem with attitude, inability to recruit D, and couldn't develop. My only wish is that there was an early signing period.

 

[Kanye West]

I mean Kelly's method of allowing kids to take visits didn't really end up to well for us this year, so wouldn't you rather maybe get a hard working 3 star than strike out on a big name because of the threat of pulling a scholarship? For clarification I'm not blaiming Kelly I'm simply stating some kids royally screwed him.

I mean it worked for Carroll.

We just had bad breaks, Armsteads didn't get cleared, twittergate, and coaches getting poached. Just think about the positives Kiel, Carlisle, Prestlewood, and the rest of this talented class.

 

[TerryTate]

I mean Kelly's method of allowing kids to take visits didn't really end up to well for us this year, so wouldn't you rather maybe get a hard working 3 star than strike out on a big name because of the threat of pulling a scholarship? For clarification I'm not blaiming Kelly I'm simply stating some kids royally screwed him.

It's kind of hard to know that when you have to offer them a year in advance just to get into the race. I get what you're saying, but this is the recruiting landscape now. Hopefully you get 22 high-character kids that buy into ND. However, the majority of the time, the kids are only looking out for themselves.

 

[bert2834]

It seems to me that some kids commit to ND early because they know that even if they get hurt, they will still get a scholarship, then once their season is over, start looking for a better fit for themselves.

One of the many things that goes against ND besides oversigning.

Decker committed to ND because he didn't have an offer from OSU. Same with Clay Burton and Florida. Once they got these offers, they bolted.

I think if you commit before your season, then you should HAVE to sign with that team unless there is a coaching change or a serious personal issue(family member sick or having a baby).

This would keep some of the kids from using ND and schools like ND from getting screwed.

 

[Irish2015]

I'm not sure what Saban's particular policy is but if the evidence means anything Saban only has 1 out of 26 that took another visit officialy after committing to them. Again this could not be the whole story because I simply looked at the committment list and don't know if they had any decommitts or about the kids who may have gone unofficialy.

 

[TerryTate]

It seems to me that some kids commit to ND early because they know that even if they get hurt, they will still get a scholarship, then once their season is over, start looking for a better fit for themselves.

One of the many things that goes against ND besides oversigning.

Decker committed to ND because he didn't have an offer from OSU. Same with Clay Burton and Florida. Once they got these offers, they bolted.

I think if you commit before your season, then you should HAVE to sign with that team unless there is a coaching change or a serious personal issue(family member sick or having a baby).

This would keep some of the kids from using ND and schools like ND from getting screwed.

I don't think kids commit early for fear of losing offers if they get injured. MANY recruits visit for the Blue & Gold game. We've all seen the effect of a campus visit to ND. Recruits come back from the visit and think this is the right place for them. After the high wears off, they have to weigh that visit against all the negative recruiting that goes on for another 8 months. Couple that with a mediocre season, and every recruit may want to explore other opportunities.

 

[Irish To The Core]

Nobody likes being on the wrong side of these NSD flips. But those guys who keep saying nothing is done 'til the LOI is signed and delivered are correct. I don't think the staff were caught with their pants down, they have continued recruiting WR prospects and will keep recruiting those kids on their board who have yet to sign LOIs.

Personally I am not going to comment on the signing day flip again. We have 14 new players and 2 of them are WRs with valuable skills.

 

[TerryTate]

I'm not sure what Saban's particular policy is but if the evidence means anything Saban only has 1 out of 26 that took another visit officialy after committing to them. Again this could not be the whole story because I simply looked at the committment list and don't know if they had any decommitts or about the kids who may have gone unofficialy.

Look where the recruits are from. What are their other options, honestly.


How many times did you hear "I want to stay close to my mom/family" during the AA announcements

 

[Irish2015]

True, they could have gone to Auburn though and actually only 7 of their recruits were from the state of Alabama. Again I understand the difference in situations I just don't particullarly agree to the philosophy of locking yourself into a kid whos not 100% locked into ND.

 

[Irish YJ]

I'm starting to think we should try oversigning

 

[tadman95]

I don't know the answer here but if a kid commits and continues to take visits then I continue to recruit other kids too. If the recruit doesn't like me continuing to recruit, then quit being recruited.

I never thought Darby and Greenberry were that solid. They said the right things but without a lot of passion.

In fact if it were me, I would over recruit up to the point of eliminating all 5th years if necessary because the odds of that happening are pretty thin.

 

[IrishLax]

Early.

Signing.

Period.

This!!!!! It's such a freaking easy solution!!! There are lots of schools that don't want it though for an umber of reasons. Same thing with schools pushing to get the scholarship cap down to 80.

Bottom line is you either: 1) raised the scholarship cap or 2) had an early signing period ND would not get burned and end up with no backup plans. It would NEVER happen. We would always get a ton of 3 caliber players who want to be at ND to sign up early.

ND gets screwed by the system as much as we get screwed by the players. We're not playing the game the right way right now. We do not appeal to football first kids. We either need to:

A) Sign some people like Urban Meyer to run the program and cover our eyes/ears during the offseason.

B) Dumb down the schedule to win consistently (never going to happen).

C) Get changes to the system.

As is, we're playing with one hand tied behind our back.

 

[ab2cmiller]

I think Kelly could have a difficult time implementing a policy like that given how it seems as Kelly is being portrayed (probably by other coaches neg recruiting).

Most people outside of ND view him as a crazy man on the sidelines that berates his players. They remember the quote where he pitted his recruits vs the prior coaches recruits. His comment today about Greenbery will be spun against him as well. If he tried to implement this policy, he would have other schools pounding the thought in the recruits head (even more so than they do now) that Kelly is not a player friendly coach and you don't really want to play for a coach like that do you?

 

[Irish2015]

I think Kelly could have a difficult time implementing a policy like that given how it seems as Kelly is being portrayed (probably by other coaches neg recruiting).

Most people outside of ND view him as a crazy man on the sidelines that berates his players. They remember the quote where he pitted his recruits vs the prior coaches recruits. His comment today about Greenbery will be spun against him as well. If he tried to implement this policy, he would have other schools pounding the thought in the recruits head that Kelly is not a player friendly coach and you don't really want to play for a coach like that do you?

Couldn't he simply point out how Te'o Floyd and Eifert all returned. If he wasn't very "player-friendly" wouldn't they have all said screw it and bolted?

 

[ab2cmiller]

Couldn't he simply point out how Te'o Floyd and Eifert all returned. If he wasn't very "player-friendly" wouldn't they have all said screw it and bolted?

Yes they can. It's the best argument you can make in response. My point it just adds fuel to their argument if he were to try to implement this policy. Would make recruiting possibly a little more difficult. There would be benefits for sure to this policy, but there may be more negatives. I don't really know which is the best approach.

 

[Rhode Irish]

One thing I don't get is how we could end up with only 16 kids. I know this is probably incredibly naive, but we should have a roster of recruits that are borderline 4 types that end up at places like BC and NC State and Oregon State and Wake Forrest and Minnesota and Purdue, who we can call at 11:00a.m. on NSD if we lose a guy or two. I mean, I get the whole relationship part of recruiting and that kids like to be made a priority, but at the end of the day if we called its a chance to PLAY FOOTBALL at NOTRE DAME.

I'd have to believe that, with minimal prior involvement and some honesty about the situation, there would have to be some kids who would still jump at that chance rather than go to one of those aforementioned schools.