Committed Prospects Taking Other Visits

[IrishLax]

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.

Yeah seriously. It's ridiculous. 15 non-specialists... that a USC under sanctions sized class. WE passed on sooooo many guys too:

Ekanem
Schutt
McNamara
Bolden
Destefano
etc.
etc.
etc.

We need to stop being so cautious of over signing OR the NCAA needs to put in an early signing period. Preferably the former.

 

[OlympiaIrishFan]

This can be spun so many ways. We got Kona after BYU told him they would pull his offer if he visted ND. We can't have it both ways. How about Jarron Jones, he commited after being a Penn State Pledge, right? And visted us after being committed. Didn't Everett Gholston change his mind aftervisiting? I can't remember totally.


It really burned us this year. But, if you go back and listen to Darby's and DG's interviews they sounded like they weren't totally sold on us. Again, that is my opinion.

The being burned happened to really take us hard because Tayler, DG, Darby, and Perkins all took more visits after committing and all of the decommited and left. Tee thank God stayed, adn Jarron (If I am correct).

Our attitude, or at least mine, can change if we can get a impact athlete like Neal to come. Hope it happens.

Go Irish!

 

[OlympiaIrishFan]

Oh, Shaq Thompson said on KJR Radio in Seattle there were a like 3 major reasons he came. The two Cal Coaches (Lapoi who recruited him, and the new D-Coor coached his brother too), Sark is a great coach and doesn't go crazy and yell at his players on the sidelines like other coaches he was recruited by,, and Seattle is a beautiful city. Hard to go against any one of those.

Some recruits don't mind the yelling. But, maybe coach can take a little look at that? Need to hold players accountable, but maybe a little less blowing up?

Early signing period may work, but the stars will still wait IMO.

 

[PatsandBostonfan1975]

It's gonna happen forever . Notre dame is beautiful and has a great tradition . It is also A tough Catholic school in South Bend Indiana . Selling a eighteen kid on Florida or California is easy compared to that . I like comparing it to joining Army or Marines or Coast guard or Airforce . The type of coach that can sell all recruits on coming here need not apply because of Notre Dame Standards. I'm proud of kids we have and will get . Notre Dame will carry on I promise you.

 

[NDinL.A.]

If this class happens again, I'll be alarmed. One year? Meh...a lot of bad, unlucky crap went down (plus we sucked on the field).

These guys have proven they can recruit IMO. But they have to prove they can win. That's the absolute bottom line. If and when they do that, you'll see recruits lined up to come here. But nobody wants to play for a middling team, which is what Urban and Kiffy and the rest are saying about ND.

As for not letting players take visits...yeah right. Imagine where we'd be without Tee? If we don't let Darby take visits, he doesn't commit anyway, or he just decommits earlier. It's all part of the game. What ND really needs to do is win, and then these guys either won't want to take other visits or they won't want to decommit b/c ND has everything they want, including a winning program.

(We sure do like it when other committed guys take visits to ND, don't we?)

Eff it fellas, bring on the Spring Game. As Jay-Z says: "On to the next one..."

 

[enrico514]

Kelly will hopefully learn from this experience. Kids who take visits are not truly committed!!! I think we all learned that the hard way this year! ND needs to make it clear that the school will not honour the scholorship of a "committed" recruit that takes visits if he gets injured. Kelly should also make it clear that the "committed" recruit's spot is not guaranteed. If a recruit who is higher on their board wants to commit... he will be given his spot. Just my opinion!

 

[rtrn2glory]

all verbals are soft verbals nowadays...that's just the way it is.

 

[irishff1014]

That and dont slow play good talent like Rios.

 

[bibigon]

Michigan has this policy, and doesn't oversign. I think Kelly might still be stuck in a Cincy mindset here. ND has the cache to demand that their guys not take official visits (while Cincy might need to take their chances).

Michigan enforced this policy, and lost a decent TE prospect over it. On the other hand, they held together a huge and highly rated class in a recruiting season when Urban Meyer was stealing everyone else's guys.

It also gives the team more time to create backup plans. If they'd stopped considering Greenberry a commit when he took his visit to Houston last week, he'd have had time to touch base with another solid recruit and see if they wanted to come to South Bend if a spot opened up.

It's a fine class, but a couple of changes could have made it better.

 

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

We need to start winning football games if we want to keep these big name recruits. Why go to ND over Bama, USC, or Texas when they've been able to win championships? Most recruits don't care about ROI or whatever that crap is. They want to win.

 

[stlnd01]

All this cuts both ways.
With an early signing period, maybe we don't land Kiel or Jones - or Golson last year. If we demand loyalty from our commits, how can we go honestly go after other schools' commits?
"Your word is your bond, but only if its your word to us?" That's a tough sell.

I wonder if we bring kids in for OVs too early. I mean, a game is great, but it usually means we don't get the last shot at the big-time guys who want to wait, and leaves us susceptible to coaching changes. How many from that massive USC weekend haul actually came to ND? And how many OVs did we have in January? Standifer. Anyone else?
I realize that South Bend in January doesn't compare favorably with, say, Gainesville, but it was fairly obvious in the last week or two that our coaches were running out of bullets and moving on to the class of '13, and with the result being a poached, light class.

 

[bert2834]

I think I have a fix to this situation.

If a player decommitts from a school without extenuating(sp?) circumstances, then he has to pay for his first year to that school.

Take for example Jordan Payton.

Committed to USC, USC pretty much pushed him out, no consequence.
Committed to Cal, lost his recruiter, no consequence.
Commited to Wash., decommitted for UCLA, pays for his 1st year.

 

[HawaiianIrish]

We need to start winning football games if we want to keep these big name recruits. Why go to ND over Bama, USC, or Texas when they've been able to win championships? Most recruits don't care about ROI or whatever that crap is. They want to win.

That is the bottom line... WIN games esp BIG games and more studs will come!!!


GO IRISH

 

[Irishman77]

we will win when we have an answer at QB. I can't believe what this staff has done with the lack of talent they had coming in. We are very fortunate to have the 2012 class we have. If our other QB takes care of the football we will win. We got the schollies available for 2013. that along with the development of Kelly's players we will be BCS. with that being said I am completely devastated by the Greenberry situation and turned to some Knob Creek single barrel tonight...

 

[Whiskeyjack]

Early signing period + 4 year scholarships.

That is all.

 

[bibigon]

Early signing period + 4 year scholarships.

That is all.

How would an early signing period solve this. Wouldn't that just push the date up on all this? Instead of NSD on February 1, there would be a mad rush in August or something. Same result, no?

 

[irishtrain]

Weis did that. Didn't work well.

No it does work out well as you find out where you really stand what type of guy this is and is he really committing. I would pull my offer also. You simply dont want these type of guys.

 

[yankeehater]

I wouldn't consider a recruit committed if they are taking other visits. I would still recruit them until someone else closes their recruitment and truly commits therefore taking the previous players spot. You want in to a truly great school and program you do not look around. (Snooze you lose).

 

[Redbar]

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

I think there might be a happy medium in there too. This sounds like a good one to me.

 

[Redbar]

I could see coaches having a problem with the early signing period simply because if a kid is seriously injured in their senior year you are now committed to an injured guy. Or what if he makes it through football season unscathed can you now demand that he not play basketball, or wrestle or track? I am not saying that I wouldn't prefer it and that it might not help in some ways but it could introduce a series of potential "other" issues that might leave a coach happy with the way things are.