D Fence

I also believe that despite what the recruiting analysts say to the contrary, there has to be some human nature in the ratings whereby if a guy holds out on a commit, then later piles up 65 offers from some of the top schools, that guy is going to get rated higher than someone who committed early. I'll also take the three we've got and am excited about them

From Scotty88 on the other Goodman thread posted on Friday - nice intuition man!!

Gi Irish - thanks for bringing up Schwapp. I have been thinking this guy was a critical loss last year - can pick up tough yards and is a hammer lead blocker.

Given so many names on that list, you wonder if we even 1 extra this year: with legacy / kids who grew up big fans and the potential for decommits. In the older days, it was typical to take some LBs and move them down, but that was typically taking a kid who was 240 to begin with and getting them up to 275 or more. Might be tougher in the 3-4 where you'd need more size (unless you get these 220 lb kids and get them to 245 to play down at DE). Of course, LBs are also very valuable in special teams too.

Scanning through some of the most recent posts and haven't seen any lists of visitors for Junior Day. Anyone have insights on who is coming to South Bend for this?

Bhatta - echoing all the other thoughts here - speedy recovery

We may have discussed this before, but doesn't the 5th year also mean they have to be accepted / enroll into a graduate program? In other words, their undergrad courses have to be completed and they cannot just get approved by the coaches and school and hang around finishing up their undergrad credits.

I'm thinking these aren't mutually exclusive and both are true

For the starters, I think the backs in the AA and MP mold will need to demonstrate hands to get significant time. CW isn't want to get predictable if other teams know someone can't catch a screen and is likely in there to run or pass block. I was initially lukewarm on Hughes because of his speed, but am excited having seen his videos and hands. He will get chances to catch in space like DW did as the outlet option.

GoIrish - I didn't look at all the numbers, but 365 for Nagel is impressive. That number for AA given his size was amazing. I know people can make the argument that people who are shorter have more BP leverage, but 365 is a lot of weight.

Thanks GoIrish. That is interesting. Just noticed for the first time that Ian Williams posts a 400 lb bench and Hughes is 425. Wow. Also probably more impressive was AA at 345 for someone who's only 170 pounds.

Shark - from what you saw, how do you rate this kid?

Gush - I see what you're saying, could possibly be another Gary Gray thing: guy commits to local school, seemingly tough to pull from there, etc. But I don't think he's got that same level of interest in ND that Gray had at this point. The problem with CW spending so much time with him is he has so many other spots to fill and willl be concentrating on those kids who are much higher on the Irish than Green, like Floyd. Especially with getting thrice jilted this year, I think Weis looks for top talent that are very pro-ND first. With the others, he will lay out the facts and if they express an interest in playing for his O, then he'll invite them to visit and feel them out. I think Green falls into this latter camp.

Thanks for the recap on the Golic announcement on ESPN. I was headed to a meeting and heard Greenie and Golic tee up there was to be a big announcement "in about 20 minutes" and figured this was it, but couldn't hold out long enough to hear it.

Nice to return from vaycay and see Committ #1. Definitely seems to be a slight shift in philosophy from last year and I think this factor will change the numbers we recruit by position, where we take an extra guy at a position because of the legacy or similar factor.

Yes - send CW and a few assistants to hit NJ and FL, get say a CB to go after Filer and Floyd and a few of the Ohio kids, then look at CA. By the way, I can't remember what the consensus was on Reuland's brother. Does he get an offer? I thought I remember people saying he was solid and just noticed ND is one of his favorites on Rivals.

Chiro - nice stump speech for the Colts!

Senor - let me sneak in a congrats as well before this thread gets shown the door. Can't say that I will ever catch you guys.

This will be a good early test to see how our recruiting approach changes for next year versus this year.

I also read someplace (can't recall where) that LSU was among the other teams pressing for Ian last minute. Nick - not sure if that came up in your interview. IF true, that would be very interesting. Ian appears to be a special talent and that in and of itself is good reason for a coach to pursue him, but given how many other DTs LSU landed this year, it makes you wonder a little bit whether there's something between Miles and CW. I could be reading into that too much too.

Well, Ian - since you're occasionally reading - welcome aboard. Can't wait to see you dominate on the D-Line for the next several years. Nick - thanks for the info.

I thing Zook will actually continue to pull pretty good talent in there. Regardless of how successful they are (and given his track record this will probably be mediocre at best), there will still be kids who want that lax atmosphere and coach who acts like one of the guys. As long as he doesn't get the top few kids in Illinois that we want each year, I'm okay with that.

Hopefully this will make things that much more appealing to Floyd, Buckner etal for 2008

Thank bhatta - good to know.

Not sure who that is directed at - but look at the first post of this thread man - Ital brought this up to have fun with it.