With the news of Trattou’s de-commitment coming today, I am now extremely worried about the future of our defense. Charlie is building a program that is decidedly one sided in favor of the offense. In the last tow years, based on numbers alone, ND has recruited 28 offensive players to only 17 players on the defensive side of the ball. Setting aside the issues that we have at DT and LB, and simply looking at the numbers of players for the defense scares me. With the players in the ’06-’07 classes, as on right now, we can’t even build a two deep. The inability to get defensive recruits has me very worried. Thoughts?

Yep but right now am concirned cause this old priest and i called trattou irish waaay back. That i dunno how he feels till sunday me

 

Temoporarily going unchristion that SOB http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e5/YesterdaysNews42/14_6_161.gif[/img]

Notre Dame is a good offensive team and Weis is a great offensive coach, thereby attracting good offensive talent.

 

On the other hand, Notre Dame is not that good defensively and Corwin Brown is an unknown (and Rick Minter was not known well, lately) so defensive recruits don't think of Notre Dame first.

 

If the defense improves under Brown (which I'm guessing it will. It can't get worse can it?) then things will turn around with defensive recruiting.

Wow. If I were to tell you guys back in February of last year when Kerry Neal committed that 11 months later we would get only 1 more defensive line recruit, and that it was a guy we didn't really even pursue from the beginning, would you have believed it???

 

Honestly this is pretty crazy, lets just hope John Ryan, Morrice Richardson, Kerry Neal and Kallen Wade are all diamonds in the rough.

 

Hell, we'll be alright. Our secondary with Walls, McNeil, Gray and H. Smith will be ridiculous, and our offense will be the best in the country!!!

Notre Dame is not that good defensively and Corwin Brown is an unknown

 

 

exactly...

It seems the talent level can attract similar recruits. The ND offense has been on the up with Quinn and Shark, etc. Recruits follow. The D has been a joke in the big games, and D recruiting is so-so. Kids want to be part of success. They watch the bowl games and the disorganized mess that is a Willingham recruited/Minter coached D. It will take another year to erase that ineptitude.

I didn't think I would have to experience that sick feeling that I had during the HS AA game again but the recent Trattou news brought it back. The defensive recruiting has been terrible. The entire coaching staff must take some blame. I can only assume the Coach Brown will help. Staffs like Illinois & Florida are inspiring kids to come play there. The on the field product certainly helps but that is only part of it. I truly hope they get things turned around!!

I think Brown is the first step towards getting there. He will make a big impact. Don't forget that guys will get shuffled around, nonetheless we finished short this year. We didn't get some of the breaks, but we won some close ones w/ Little, Allen, Hughes, and Romine.

This is what happens when you don't get a "name coach"... CB might end up being the DC in ND history. Until he proves it though he is just a name. When he was hired alot of people thought recruits would flock to ND... unforetuneately that is not going to be the case until he proves himself.

Ok, it's obvious that we haven't been as successful w/ defensive recruiting as we would liked to have been for the past 2 classes. However, I completely agree with those of you who say that our D recruiting will improve with the improvement of our defense under CB.

 

CB WILL turn our defense around!!...and if any of you are worried about this, just consider the guys who recommended him to CW...Parcells, Belichik, Groh, and Mangini. I am confident that being around the great coaches he's been with that he's learned a plenty and is well prepared for this job.

 

Also, although we haven't gotten the #s that we wanted, just consider the increase in talent that CW has been able to recruit. Take a look on Rivals at our classes previous to CW, they're all filled with 2* and 3* defensive players. EX: The two safeties that we're anxious to see, Bruton and Herring, were both 3*s. Now imagine in a year or two from now when we're anxious to see 4* guys like Sergio Brown and Harrison Smith. With the increased speed and athleticism combined with good play calling we will attract the studs that we need

If CB can turn it around he'll definitely deserve to be called a great coach since he'll have turned it around with such lack of depth at DL and LB. Then of course he'll leave for a HC job. But hopefully he will have upped the recruiting before leaving.

 

What bugs me is CW seems tone deaf with the people he's recruiting - McCoy from last year, Tez, Donald, Benn, Martin, James Wilson, etc. this year. But we pass on guys on like Colasanti and Dailey, and offer Jason Peters way too late. 6 defensive commits this year. Plus I guess Nuss and maybe Nwankwo. CW has got to get organized on the defensive recruiting side. Seems like we are being forced to go 3-4 for lack of DL's. The 3-4 will take a long time to implement and be effective if in fact we are going that way. I think our next NC has been pushed back to 2009 or beyond because of mediocre D recruiting.

Great points NDFan!

Let's face it! We are going to kill people next year! No one willbe expecting much from our defense and we will annihilate them. You know CW need to take a hint from NWA (defunct since 1991)and start preaching to the recruits that "Life ain't nothing but *&%$#&% and $$$$$$" Then and only then will we start recruiting the Big Ballers! Learn how to show the recruits the money and then we will get them signed! Thus leading us to a National Championship!!!

I love the enthusiasm, chiro

Notre Dame is not that good defensively and Corwin Brown is an unknown

 

So we've got that going for us! Which is nice!

Hey guys, I have a request. Could we start another thread on our defensive future so I won't have to see the name "Trattou" at or near the top of the threads when I sign on? It just reminds me of the two days I spent curled up in the fetal position when I heard the news. Thanks to all.

I second that. He's a name I do not wish to discuss. About what my priest source said. I strongly suspect there might have been a chance, slight as it appears, If there had not been a lenghty time lag between the rumors Minter was going and Brown being confirmed. Verbals simply mean zip, nadda today. Other then that I can add nothing to this disappointment and conversation