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Football: Notre Dame’s recruiting disadvantage
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The true hallmark of the Notre Dame football fan isn’t discussed very often. You can sing the fight song? Big deal. You are not really a Domer fanatic until you realize that you are never satisfied. You haven’t been since 1987. Coach Weis took them to two BCS bowl games? You say he didn’t win them. Coach Weis led them to a bowl victory last year? You say it wasn’t a major bowl. If there isn’t a National Title game, preferable a ND blowout, you aren’t happy.
Notre Dame Nation needs to take a closer look at what they are threatening to throw away. Coach Weis is expected to do the same job as Urban Meyer, Les Miles, and Bob Stoops, right? During the Weis era his recruiting staff has landed top ten classes year after year, just like any other top program, but they do it with more restrictions than any of them. Every one of the doom and gloomers who feel that Coach Weis isn’t living up to the hype seem to forget that he reloads with a top class every year.
The truly ignorant will tell you that it’s Notre Dame, of course they’ll come. Hey grampa, Leahy isn’t there anymore, and there are plenty of other top programs to choose from. You want football and academics? Jay Cutler went to Vandy, not a bad school. Michigan has got a well earn reputation as a top school, and they play a little ball there too. Stanford has turned out a couple of Nobel Prize winners, while running a program. You want a rabid fan base? There is Oklahoma, Texas, Wisconsin, and just about every school in the SEC. Top recruits can choose any school in the country. Why did Jimmy Clausen choose the Irish? It wasn’t the weather.
Every blowhard that whines about the unfair advantage of the NBC contract isn’t worth the time of day. Have they ever heard of College Gameday on ESPN? Do they really think USC isn’t getting enough coverage? Beyond that, every draft day a player gets picked out of some school that most have never heard of, like Sherrod Martin out of Troy drafted by the Chargers. That’s right, Troy. If you can play, the NFL will find you. Nobody needs to come to South Bend to get on TV, and nobody need to come to South Bend to get drafted. The Coach brings them in.
What does Notre Dame have to contend with? Well, imagine you are a top recruit. You hit all the big schools. USC shows you the sunny weather in L.A., Miami takes you for a walk on South Beach, and Notre Dame gives you a parka so you can stand outside long enough to see Touchdown Jesus without succumbing to hypothermia. Most schools in the Pac-Ten, the Big 12, the ACC and the SEC do not have to deal with bringing a recruit into cold weather. You may scoff, but believe it or not an 18 year old kid can be pretty shallow.
You say you have a monster of an athlete with legit 4.2 speed? That’s great! You say he struggles in the classroom and didn’t do well on his SAT? Well he will love playing for Texas, because he can’t come to ND. Year after year Weis and staff lands a top class, and they can only pick from the brightest students. That means that roughly half of the top recruits in the country are taken off the board before Notre Dame even starts, because if you can’t make the grades, you don’t wear the blue and gold. Does Nebraska have to worry about this? Auburn? Florida?
Notre Dame fans need to come to grips that there is a ton of competition out there for the top kids. For every one of you who boldly declares that this is a make or break year for Coach Weis, you need to take a deep breath and consider everything that he is doing right. No scandals, no payoffs, no investigations, and he still lands the top players in the country. Think twice before throwing that away.
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