G
Guest
Guest
Email from Dan Gorski's father floating around the net. It's an excellent read.
This past weekend Pat and I traveled to Notre Dame to participate in Junior Parents Weekend with our daughter, Margaret. Dan went with us in order to meet Charlie Weis and David Cutcliffe (a**'t. head coach and QB coach) to determine how interested ND was in him as a prospective player. The visit went very well. Dan heard what he was hoping to from both Weis and Cutcliffe and he committed to ND as a preferred walk-on, the same offer that Nebraska made to him. He thinks he can play at the D1 level and wasn't interested in any lower level program (other than Princeton). He chose ND for several reasons: as you know, he's always been a Notre Dame fan; the longtime family ties to ND; lots of relatives in South Bend; ND has a better academic reputation and network, nationally; ND has 4 scholarship QBs to Nebraska's 8 (BIG factor); and, Weis told him that he's got 4 scholarships in his pocket that he can hand out to walk-ons this season and that he's going to use them if a kid shows him that he deserves one.
It made an immediate impression on Dan when Weis told him that he had postponed a Friday evening flight to Boston where he was going to sped time with his wife and children (they're only able to see each other every other weekend until June, when the family moves to ND), so that he could meet with Dan on Saturday morning. Weis is a real character: some might say he's VERY cocky; others might say he's just a real confident guy from Jersey. As soon as we sat down in his office, he licked his ring finger and twisted off his Super Bowl ring and tossed it to Dan. He said "that's a $21,000 ring. The league allots $5,000 per ring, but we had an owner who wanted to wear a really nice ring, so he popped for the extra dough." The ring was enormous and would easily fit over the fist of a young baby.
The following are some of the things he told Dan (I'm paraphrasing):
"There isn't a better place for a young QB to come to play football. Where are you going to find a coaching combination like we have here? Where are you going to get 2 coaches like Coach Cutcliffe and me? I've coached in the NFL for fifteen years and I've been the winning offensive coordinator of 3 of the last 4 Super Bowls. I brought Coach Cutcliffe in as a**'t. head coach and QB coach, and all he's done is coach Peyton and Eli Manning and Tee Martin. Where else are you going to find that combination of coaching? Nowhere in college and maybe not even the pros."
"There couldn't be a better time to come to Notre Dame to play QB: one, it's ND; two, I've already told you about the coaching; and, three, I've got 1 QB on the roster, Brady Quinn. There are 2 sophomores, one of whom is on my crap list, and I don't even know whether the other one can throw a football, and there's an incoming freshman who I didn't recruit and who's getting scoped next week."
"We're going to score a lot of points. I can tell you now that there are some defenses we're going to play against and it's going to be a mercy killing. There are only a couple of teams that will give us trouble with their defensive schemes." For you NU fans, this is reminiscent of Callahan's comment that: "We don't take what the defense gives us, we take what we want."
"I know that Callahan had you in for an official visit, and I know that you can go to Princeton. But after we're done here you're going to spend time with Coach Cutcliffe and if you don't know where you want to go within 30 minutes of leaving his office, then you're brain dead."
Dan started to explain to him that he thought he'd have had interest from more D1 schools but for the very base offense he ran at Prep. Weis cut him off quickly: "What are you talking about? So you ran a simple offense and handed off a lot, big deal. How can you complain? All you did was win all those games and ended up state champs. Besides, you're sitting here at Notre Dame and I'm telling you why you should come here. What more do you want?"
At one point Weis was talking to Pat and me about his decision to come to ND: "After my junior year I earned early admission to Princeton. They weren't recruiting me to play football, but I could have walked on. But I decided that Notre Dame had a lot more to offer on a national basis." He then turned to Dan, pointed his finger at him and said: "Pittsburg, September 3rd." He returned to talking to Pat and me about ND: "I earned a 3.2 gpa my first semester and thought I did pretty well. But when I got home my parents let me know that I didn't do as well as I should have and they grounded me for the entire Christmas break. They let me go out New Year's eve, but that was it. I learned my lesson and got straight A's the rest of the way."
"Every Monday at 6 a.m. (some student mgr. whose name I don't recall) comes into my office and we go over the class attendance for every football player. My players better not miss a class unless they're sick, or the professor gives them a couple of cuts during the semester. Any player who cuts classes will answer to me and they won't like what I have to say. Doing 'ok' isn't good enough; you've got to do as well as you can. Dan, you better get a high gpa."
"I watched your highlight DVD with Coach Cutcliffe. You did some good things: You looked ok, but you've got a lot to learn."
I told him that I had a couple of things I wanted to talk about. I told him: "I love ND and I want Dan to come here. He loves Notre Dame; in fact, we've got a picture of him as an 11-year old in a Marc Edwards replica jersey, standing in front of Ron Powlus' locker [he interjected - "I had Edwards at New England and he's a real dirtball" (I think he meant that affectionately)], but I know that Dan loves football and wants to go somewhere where he has a real shot to play. Listening to you, I think you'll give him an honest shot at getting on the field. What if he looks really good in fall camp, can he earn a scholarship?" Weis said: "Look, I already told you, I treat scholarship players and walk-ons exactly the same, so he's going to get his shot and if he performs like a scholarship player, he'll get a scholarship."
He said he can't wait to get his shot at some guys in the media. He said he learned a bunch when he coached for Parcells and that he taught him a lot about handling the media. "I hated watching the Insight.com Bowl and listening to Gottfried and Franklin. I swear to God, the first time Gottfried talks to me and starts being critical of Notre Dame, I'm going to say to him: 'What the hell do you know? You've had three college jobs and got fired every time." He continued: "I can't wait to talk to Trev Alberts, too. I swear to God, if he starts getting on Notre Dame I'm going to ask him: 'What did you ever do? You were a 1st round draft pick and I was sorry to see you quit the league. We loved playing against the Colts when you were out there - you were easy pickings."
We spent a little over an hour with him and he had lots more to say. He was refreshingly blunt, very confident, very dedicated and very happy to be back at ND. He told us all about his future plans regarding how long he'll be at ND (12 years), where he's going to retire (6 months at Myrtle Beach, 6 months in Key West), the half-way house that he and his wife are going to build and run for mentally/emotionally challenged young adults, and how they're raising the money starting now, and lots more about his family (which he places first in his life), football, education and other topics. The guy is a character and is terrifically charming in a very base way. ND fans are going to love him..........though he has to win.
Cutcliffe is like your wife's favorite uncle. He's just a sweetheart. A very unassuming Southern gentleman. Contrary to Weis' comments, Cutcliffe told Dan that he watched his DVD with Coach Weis and that Weis was really excited about what he saw. He talked to us about his impression of Notre Dame, and asked whether we thought he captured what makes it so special. He told Dan that he had a really great opportunity at ND, and that it was a perfect time to come in as a freshman QB. He said: "The way I look at it, you ought to consider a best-case, worst-case scenario. At worst, if things don't work out and all you do is play scout team QB and dress for home games, you're still going to leave here with a Notre Dame degree. Now how's that? If that's the worst that can happen to you, that's pretty good. But I don't think you'll have a worst-case experience. You could come here and show Coach Weis how good you are and become Brady Quinn's back-up for 2 years, and then become the starter. Now that would be pretty good, wouldn't it?" He then talked about where he saw Dan fitting in among the returning QBs, and said pretty much the same things that Weis had said about the returning QBs. About Sharpley (incoming frosh scholarship QB): "We didn't recruit Evan, the prior staff did, but Coach Weis honored his commitment. I've met Evan and he's a nice kid, but he's getting his knee scoped this week and you're a lot bigger than he is." Later in the conversation Cutcliffe started to say something like "I don't know when you're going to choose.... " and Dan interrupted him and said: "I'm ready to choose right now. I'm going to come to Notre Dame." That provoked the neatest moment of the weekend: Cutcliffe jumped up out of his seat with a real big smile on his face and reached across the table to shake Dan's hand. He told him how glad he was to hear that, that Coach Weis would be too, and he congratulated him on the decision. We talked some more and then viewed about 25-30 Patriot offensive plays, going over coverages, pass routes and QB decisions. We spent about an hour and a half with Cutcliffe, and it was time well spent.
For you Nebraska fans: Shortly after committing to ND, Dan called Coach Callahan to let him know of his decision. He wasn't available, but called back about 2 hours later. Callahan could not have been more gracious to Dan. He congratulated him, wished him well, said that he wasn't surprised by his decision, though he had hoped that he would have chosen Nebraska, and told him that if it doesn't work out for him at ND, to give him a call. It didn't surprise me that Callahan said those things to Dan. I've had several long conversations with him about Dan, football, family, education and other topics, and he's always been very gracious and charming. He, and the entire NU staff (particularly, Downing, Norvell and Cassidy), actually had Dan strongly considering (and me accepting) attending NU. If Weis hadn't convinced Dan that he wanted him, Dan would have insisted on being a 'Husker. Considering that, until he met those coaches last spring, he hated Nebraska, that's an amazing change of opinion and attitude.
Thanks to all of you for the interest you've shown in Dan and his career over the years. I hope to have college updates to send you some day.
Best regards,
Gregory M. Gorski
This past weekend Pat and I traveled to Notre Dame to participate in Junior Parents Weekend with our daughter, Margaret. Dan went with us in order to meet Charlie Weis and David Cutcliffe (a**'t. head coach and QB coach) to determine how interested ND was in him as a prospective player. The visit went very well. Dan heard what he was hoping to from both Weis and Cutcliffe and he committed to ND as a preferred walk-on, the same offer that Nebraska made to him. He thinks he can play at the D1 level and wasn't interested in any lower level program (other than Princeton). He chose ND for several reasons: as you know, he's always been a Notre Dame fan; the longtime family ties to ND; lots of relatives in South Bend; ND has a better academic reputation and network, nationally; ND has 4 scholarship QBs to Nebraska's 8 (BIG factor); and, Weis told him that he's got 4 scholarships in his pocket that he can hand out to walk-ons this season and that he's going to use them if a kid shows him that he deserves one.
It made an immediate impression on Dan when Weis told him that he had postponed a Friday evening flight to Boston where he was going to sped time with his wife and children (they're only able to see each other every other weekend until June, when the family moves to ND), so that he could meet with Dan on Saturday morning. Weis is a real character: some might say he's VERY cocky; others might say he's just a real confident guy from Jersey. As soon as we sat down in his office, he licked his ring finger and twisted off his Super Bowl ring and tossed it to Dan. He said "that's a $21,000 ring. The league allots $5,000 per ring, but we had an owner who wanted to wear a really nice ring, so he popped for the extra dough." The ring was enormous and would easily fit over the fist of a young baby.
The following are some of the things he told Dan (I'm paraphrasing):
"There isn't a better place for a young QB to come to play football. Where are you going to find a coaching combination like we have here? Where are you going to get 2 coaches like Coach Cutcliffe and me? I've coached in the NFL for fifteen years and I've been the winning offensive coordinator of 3 of the last 4 Super Bowls. I brought Coach Cutcliffe in as a**'t. head coach and QB coach, and all he's done is coach Peyton and Eli Manning and Tee Martin. Where else are you going to find that combination of coaching? Nowhere in college and maybe not even the pros."
"There couldn't be a better time to come to Notre Dame to play QB: one, it's ND; two, I've already told you about the coaching; and, three, I've got 1 QB on the roster, Brady Quinn. There are 2 sophomores, one of whom is on my crap list, and I don't even know whether the other one can throw a football, and there's an incoming freshman who I didn't recruit and who's getting scoped next week."
"We're going to score a lot of points. I can tell you now that there are some defenses we're going to play against and it's going to be a mercy killing. There are only a couple of teams that will give us trouble with their defensive schemes." For you NU fans, this is reminiscent of Callahan's comment that: "We don't take what the defense gives us, we take what we want."
"I know that Callahan had you in for an official visit, and I know that you can go to Princeton. But after we're done here you're going to spend time with Coach Cutcliffe and if you don't know where you want to go within 30 minutes of leaving his office, then you're brain dead."
Dan started to explain to him that he thought he'd have had interest from more D1 schools but for the very base offense he ran at Prep. Weis cut him off quickly: "What are you talking about? So you ran a simple offense and handed off a lot, big deal. How can you complain? All you did was win all those games and ended up state champs. Besides, you're sitting here at Notre Dame and I'm telling you why you should come here. What more do you want?"
At one point Weis was talking to Pat and me about his decision to come to ND: "After my junior year I earned early admission to Princeton. They weren't recruiting me to play football, but I could have walked on. But I decided that Notre Dame had a lot more to offer on a national basis." He then turned to Dan, pointed his finger at him and said: "Pittsburg, September 3rd." He returned to talking to Pat and me about ND: "I earned a 3.2 gpa my first semester and thought I did pretty well. But when I got home my parents let me know that I didn't do as well as I should have and they grounded me for the entire Christmas break. They let me go out New Year's eve, but that was it. I learned my lesson and got straight A's the rest of the way."
"Every Monday at 6 a.m. (some student mgr. whose name I don't recall) comes into my office and we go over the class attendance for every football player. My players better not miss a class unless they're sick, or the professor gives them a couple of cuts during the semester. Any player who cuts classes will answer to me and they won't like what I have to say. Doing 'ok' isn't good enough; you've got to do as well as you can. Dan, you better get a high gpa."
"I watched your highlight DVD with Coach Cutcliffe. You did some good things: You looked ok, but you've got a lot to learn."
I told him that I had a couple of things I wanted to talk about. I told him: "I love ND and I want Dan to come here. He loves Notre Dame; in fact, we've got a picture of him as an 11-year old in a Marc Edwards replica jersey, standing in front of Ron Powlus' locker [he interjected - "I had Edwards at New England and he's a real dirtball" (I think he meant that affectionately)], but I know that Dan loves football and wants to go somewhere where he has a real shot to play. Listening to you, I think you'll give him an honest shot at getting on the field. What if he looks really good in fall camp, can he earn a scholarship?" Weis said: "Look, I already told you, I treat scholarship players and walk-ons exactly the same, so he's going to get his shot and if he performs like a scholarship player, he'll get a scholarship."
He said he can't wait to get his shot at some guys in the media. He said he learned a bunch when he coached for Parcells and that he taught him a lot about handling the media. "I hated watching the Insight.com Bowl and listening to Gottfried and Franklin. I swear to God, the first time Gottfried talks to me and starts being critical of Notre Dame, I'm going to say to him: 'What the hell do you know? You've had three college jobs and got fired every time." He continued: "I can't wait to talk to Trev Alberts, too. I swear to God, if he starts getting on Notre Dame I'm going to ask him: 'What did you ever do? You were a 1st round draft pick and I was sorry to see you quit the league. We loved playing against the Colts when you were out there - you were easy pickings."
We spent a little over an hour with him and he had lots more to say. He was refreshingly blunt, very confident, very dedicated and very happy to be back at ND. He told us all about his future plans regarding how long he'll be at ND (12 years), where he's going to retire (6 months at Myrtle Beach, 6 months in Key West), the half-way house that he and his wife are going to build and run for mentally/emotionally challenged young adults, and how they're raising the money starting now, and lots more about his family (which he places first in his life), football, education and other topics. The guy is a character and is terrifically charming in a very base way. ND fans are going to love him..........though he has to win.
Cutcliffe is like your wife's favorite uncle. He's just a sweetheart. A very unassuming Southern gentleman. Contrary to Weis' comments, Cutcliffe told Dan that he watched his DVD with Coach Weis and that Weis was really excited about what he saw. He talked to us about his impression of Notre Dame, and asked whether we thought he captured what makes it so special. He told Dan that he had a really great opportunity at ND, and that it was a perfect time to come in as a freshman QB. He said: "The way I look at it, you ought to consider a best-case, worst-case scenario. At worst, if things don't work out and all you do is play scout team QB and dress for home games, you're still going to leave here with a Notre Dame degree. Now how's that? If that's the worst that can happen to you, that's pretty good. But I don't think you'll have a worst-case experience. You could come here and show Coach Weis how good you are and become Brady Quinn's back-up for 2 years, and then become the starter. Now that would be pretty good, wouldn't it?" He then talked about where he saw Dan fitting in among the returning QBs, and said pretty much the same things that Weis had said about the returning QBs. About Sharpley (incoming frosh scholarship QB): "We didn't recruit Evan, the prior staff did, but Coach Weis honored his commitment. I've met Evan and he's a nice kid, but he's getting his knee scoped this week and you're a lot bigger than he is." Later in the conversation Cutcliffe started to say something like "I don't know when you're going to choose.... " and Dan interrupted him and said: "I'm ready to choose right now. I'm going to come to Notre Dame." That provoked the neatest moment of the weekend: Cutcliffe jumped up out of his seat with a real big smile on his face and reached across the table to shake Dan's hand. He told him how glad he was to hear that, that Coach Weis would be too, and he congratulated him on the decision. We talked some more and then viewed about 25-30 Patriot offensive plays, going over coverages, pass routes and QB decisions. We spent about an hour and a half with Cutcliffe, and it was time well spent.
For you Nebraska fans: Shortly after committing to ND, Dan called Coach Callahan to let him know of his decision. He wasn't available, but called back about 2 hours later. Callahan could not have been more gracious to Dan. He congratulated him, wished him well, said that he wasn't surprised by his decision, though he had hoped that he would have chosen Nebraska, and told him that if it doesn't work out for him at ND, to give him a call. It didn't surprise me that Callahan said those things to Dan. I've had several long conversations with him about Dan, football, family, education and other topics, and he's always been very gracious and charming. He, and the entire NU staff (particularly, Downing, Norvell and Cassidy), actually had Dan strongly considering (and me accepting) attending NU. If Weis hadn't convinced Dan that he wanted him, Dan would have insisted on being a 'Husker. Considering that, until he met those coaches last spring, he hated Nebraska, that's an amazing change of opinion and attitude.
Thanks to all of you for the interest you've shown in Dan and his career over the years. I hope to have college updates to send you some day.
Best regards,
Gregory M. Gorski
