"Tradition"
1. Independence (keep it or join a conference?) - Stay Independent. The incentives of joining a conference are simply not there. Eventually, if a super conference system is on the horizon, then I see a massive split between teams. This will increase the SOS for all teams and eventually lead them to playing more difficult OOC schedules.
2. Field Turf or Grass? Field Turf. Grass simply isn't going to cut it in South Bend. It is still an anomaly that Soldier Field is still natural.
3. Jumbotron? If it's aesthetically pleasing? Sure thing.
"Recruiting"
A. Shoot for the moon or limit recruiting to RKGs? I really hope those 2 can go hand in hand, but honestly you just can't find many ELITE 5-star RKG's anymore. Jaylon Smith-type recruits are just a one-in-a-million type of player. However, the rest of the "shoot for the Moon" recruits come from schools that don't focus on education at all, and thus, they look for a school that is essentially the same. Even when a player states they are looking at getting an education, they are usually just making themselves look good in front of everyone.
B. Take JUCOs? Well, I'd have to say no. If a JUCO player is eligible to play here and now, then sure. But that's almost never the case. JUCO players generally couldn't even qualify for SEC schools, much less Notre Dame.
C. Oversigning? An absolute crime. I hate that the NCAA allows the SEC to get away with such shady actions. Allowing them past the rule of 25, and even letting them around their own rule of 28. As long as they have 28 recruits signed, they're fine. The loophole utilized is that Early-Enrollees don't count towards that 28 limit. THAT IS THE PROBLEM! I've heard that there a people pushing an earlier signing period. That's fine, AS LONG AS THEY ABOLISH THE SEC'S SHADY RECRUITING LOOPHOLES! No more rule of 28, no more oversigning EE's. You get 25, THAT'S IT!
D. What matters most for recruits? (offer list, stars, the tape, or do you just trust the coaches?) Well, I highly doubt each recruit is thinking the same. But I guess I'll try to break it down by the general "TYPE" of recruit:
- There are some (mainly high 4-5 stars from the South or California) that believe that their talents are enough to make it big and that they're invincible. They are mostly fooling themselves. They get by with their superior athleticism and generally look at a school that is a perennial football factory where you don't have to work hard in the classroom (Alabama, Ohio State, Florida, etc.), and use their play on the field to justify their spot on an NFL team and big bucks will fall into their laps.
- There are the VERY rare elite players that do believe in the value of a quality education. These are the one's that generally end up at Stanford or Notre Dame. Of course, as you can probably guess, as rare as these players are, it's even more difficult to tell if they mean it. Case in point, a certain individual who spurned Virginia Tech and Michigan, established elite engineering schools, for Alabama, a perennial football factory.
- The mostly unknown 4-star athlete, that most don't know much about and doesn't find his way up the boards because he committed early. This is generally what ND ends up with, and I'll be honest, 2014's class has a TON of them. They are elite enough to make a huge impact on the field, but level-headed enough to understand that making it big in the NFL, even for elite athletes, is very slim. They fully understand the qualities of a great education.
- The underrated, unknown player that went unnoticed for a majority of the season, a.k.a. Kolin Hill. A guy who went so long without a decent offer. Then ND gave him a decent look and he takes it almost immediately. These guys are looking for the chance to make it and are willing to do anything to succeed. They're hungry and determined. ND has a habit of making other teams and recruiting sites look like dumbasses with pickups like these. On a side note, HOW THE FUCK DID KOLIN HILL GO UNNOTICED FOR THAT LONG!?
Bonus Football Topics:
a. Brian Kelly (love him, hate him, or TBD) - Love him. His road with ND has been anything but smooth, understandably so. He inherited a team in total ruin. Lack of defensive talent and passion, no developed athletes to speak of, sans Floyd. We all knew this wasn't going to be a quick fix, but despite all the struggles and criticism, he's stayed calm and collective. Just doing his thing. With an established Dual-Threat QB to run his offense, I have very high expectations from this year forward.
b. Most hated team (USC, Michigan, or other?) USC, because at least Michigan does it somewhat cleanly. USC has to cheat their way to a national championship. Michigan, while greatly despised, has to go through similar recruiting tribulations as Notre Dame, due to weather. I honestly don't see the appeal to USC in terms of location and weather? Sure it's in LA, but in probably one of the worst parts of it, and those summers are BRUTAL!
c. Playoffs, BCS, or other? I'll hold my opinion until after this year's playoffs. As much crap the BCS got for it's faulty system, it actually got it right MOST of the time.
d. Scheduling (toughest possible or other?) Somewhere in between, closer to toughest. However, that is the one thing that's bad about the current system, is that no team has similar scheduling difficulties. First things first, NO MORE SCHEDULING FCS teams.
Bonus non-Football topics:
I. Mike Brey (fire him or keep him?) Keep him or let him walk on his own. There's no benefit of letting him go after one bad year. It's not like ND football where they can literally hire ANYBODY they want. Basketball isn't exactly one of the bigger seats at the table at Notre Dame.
II. Pay student-athletes? I say no. I was saying yes, due to it possibly minimizing the pay-for-play scandals going on in college football. However, greed runs the world. This won't stop the big green machine. Just because players get paid, doesn't mean the incentive of getting MORE dirty money under the greedy table isn't going to go away. The NCAA just needs to nut up and crack down on these violations. I'm sick and tired of them pussying out of EVERY SINGLE ONE! It seems like after the Cam Newton case, they just gave up. Maybe they want to save some credibility, but lord knows that they're losing more credibility from doing NOTHING...y'know if they actually had ANY credibility to begin with.
.......although really looking fwd to playing some new teams now!!
