Week in Review

From Scout.Com

There was only one real recruiting story last week as Notre Dame inked eighteen recruits to National Letters of Intent on Wednesday, February 7, signing day. Less than one month earlier, the Irish faithful held a bit higher hopes for better LOI day results but some late, even last minute defections pared the final number down. What have you been missing by not being a member of Irish Eyes?

Notre Dame’s final 2007 recruiting class looked a bit more promising as late as Tuesday, February 6, the day before signing day. Late defections by four star prospects Greg Little and Chris Little (no relation) to North Carolina and Georgia respectively, along with the decommitment of five star Justin Trattou to Florida only the month before prevented the Irish class from being quite as strong as it might have been.

Still, most recruiting services will rank Notre Dame’s class in the national top ten. Three were USA Today All-Americans and seven were chosen for the U.S. Army All-American game. The players came from twelve different states with Florida leading the way with three. Head coach Charlie Weis certainly seemed pleased, especially since Notre Dame won its fair share of battles with the in-state schools.

“You have to be able to go into an Oklahoma for a Matt Romine and have it go down between Oklahoma and Notre Dame,” said Weis. “You have to be able to go down to Florida and get Armando Allen to Notre Dame. As I give you winners, I also give you losers. Going after the top players, taking a kid out of his home state is the toughest task you have. We’re going to recruit nationally.”

The biggest name in this class is Jimmy Clausen, a quarterback out of Oaks Christian High School in Westlake Village, CA. USA Today chose Clausen as its Offensive Player of the Year and he won the Ball Park National High School Player of the Year Award at the U.S. Army All-American Bowl. In his high school career Clausen never lost a game, won four consecutive state championships and finished his senior year with 49 touchdowns and only 6 interceptions.

Clausen was an early enrollee in order to get a head start on winning the starting quarterback job, a position that became wide open when future NFL first round draft pick Brady Quinn exhausted his eligibility. Despite Clausen’s high profile announcement for Notre Dame at the College Football Hall of Fame on the weekend of the Blue and Gold Spring game, Weis insists that the young quarterback is nothing like the glitzy ceremony might imply.

“The biggest misnomer is that he’s a Hollywood guy because of what happened at the spring game,” said Weis. “I thought it was cool and some thought it was way overboard. But this guy is kind of quiet. He doesn’t walk around campus with a jacket saying ‘I’m Jimmy Clausen.’ He’s kind of quiet. He’s doing good on and off the field. He’s working hard. The people at academics say he’s doing good. He’s probably nothing like the reputation people have other than the fact that he’s a fierce competitor that wants to come in and compete for playing time.”

Clausen was just one cog of one of the best offensive classes in the nation. And though the Irish missed out on some key defensive players, Weis seemed pleased with those that did sign. He especially seemed enamored of Kerry Neal whom Weis referred to as a “dynamic pass rusher.” Neal will play either defensive end or outside linebacker in defensive coordinator Corwin Brown’s new system. Another player who will undoubtedly benefit from Brown’s system is late addition Brian Smith. Smith switched his commitment from Iowa to Notre Dame a week before signing day and, like Neal, is targeted for the hybrid defensive end/outside linebacker position featured in Brown’s 3-4 defensive scheme.

As pleased as Weis seemed with his defensive recruits, he still recognized that work needed to be done in recruiting on the defensive side of the ball. Both the numbers and the talent appears to have fallen short of that recruited to the offensive side of the ball the last two years.

“You have to realize where you are light at numbers and talent,” Weis explained about offensive versus defensive recruiting. “You have to make a concerted effort. The one thing that’s happening for our benefit is that we have established more of a definition of what we want to do on defense. We have a definition instead of just recruiting players. You might recruit a defensive lineman that you don’t think is very good but in our system he’s just what we’re looking for. We can’t be concerned with recruiting analysis. We need to find fits in the system.”

Top 100

Interesting to see the differences within the top recruiting sites. A lot of the same guys, but very diffent opinions on each.

RIVALS

SCOUT

ESPN

CSTV

Notre Dame Moves up

After the committments of the two recruits yesterday, ND has moved up in recruiting class rank.

Does a great class ranking always translate to great teams over the next 3 to 4 years?

As we have seen in the past, ND had some very good recruiting classes that did not play very well. Coaching plays a big part in the developement of these young athletes. A bad coach can make a 5 star player play like a 2 star player and a good coach can develop a 2 star player to become a starter and a major contributor on the team.

Willinghams 2003 class was ranked #5 with some very good players. Then there was a 3 star TE on that team. His name John Carlson. If Coach Weis did not enter the picture, Carlson would be graduating right now without a look from the NFL. Another player Jeff Samardzija would have played baseball as his number one sport at ND. Weis developed this team from mediocrity to a team that has beaten every team that they should have.

Yes, we all know the debacles in the Sugar and Fiesta bowls. Yes, we all know that Michigan came in and destroyed this team, but one thing is certain, without Weis, we would have had two more seasons of 6-6 ball.

If recruiting is important, Coaching is critical.

We have "LOST" some recruits this year to other programs, but the guys coming in will have one advantage over the other schools. Coaching, coaching, coaching.

RIVALS Rankings

SCOUT Rankings

Weis versus Willingham. Is there a difference?

A lot of chatter on the message boards about Weis not stepping up recruiting. Especially on the Defensive side of the ball. Some guys are comparing Charlies class this season with Ty's class of seniors in 2007.

TY had 15 recruits at this point in the class of 2003. Charlie has 18. TY got 2 commits in February to bring the class to 17. I am sure Charlie will get 2-5 signees by Feb 6th.

Willingham had 10 Defensive players and 7 offensive players.

Weis has 6 defensive players and 12 offensive players so far. Two of the OL recruits will be moving to the defensive side of the ball.

Willinghams class rank for this year was 30th. He had 0 top 100 players and 0 five star players and only 3 four star players. Average rank according to Scout.com was 2.94 out of 5. We also know that more than half of this class is no longer with the team for various reasons.

Weis' class rank for this year is 8th right now and probably moving up. He had 6 top 100 players and 1 five star players and 13 four star players. Average rank according to Scout.com is 3.83 out of 5.

So, what do we see from this example? Charlie is a very good recruiter and a coach that is learning the game of college football. TY was not a good recruiter and a worse coach.

Thankfully Weis has 9 guys apply for 5th years. They are not hte greatest players, but a team without seniors is a team that CANNOT win.

NFL showing interest in Victor Abiamiri

Seattle coaches and scouts are in Mobile, along with every other staff in the league, and they were seen observing Notre Dame DE Victor Abiamiri who has been one of the standouts in practices so far this week. Here’s a quick breakdown of Abiamiri and where he projects in the draft.

Rest of the story from Scout.com insider

As a defender, Abiamiri is excellent when rushing the passer. That’s his forte and it showed up in the stat column as he posted 30.5 sacks in his four years in South Bend.

Abiamiri also posted 126 tackles and 40 tackles for loss.

NFL Comparison: Adewale Ogunleye, Chicago Bears

Strengths: Abiamiri runs very well for a man his size and he’s got the frame to add 10 to 15 pounds to become a solid weakside defensive end. He pursues well, has a great motor and he already has developed some solid pass-rush moves to get to the quarterback. He is still improving and he’s an excellent tackler as well.

Weaknesses: He doesn’t hold up well when teams run directly at him. He also has a tendency to play too high, allowing blockers to get into his chest, nullifying his outstanding athleticism. He’s still developing as a football player and doesn’t possess the instincts right now to diagnose plays quickly. If he doesn’t gain some weight and strength, he will get pushed around by physical tackles. Struggles to disengage when a blocker gets their hands on him.

Roster Impact for Seattle: With the possibility that DE Grant Wistrom may be cut this June to save some money, Seattle may be in the market for a solid young defensive end to come in and take over the reigns at the right defensive end position. Fisher and second-year player Darryl Tapp are sure-things to return, but they fit better on the left (strong) side. Even if Wistrom does come back, Abiamiri would be a solid addition to the roster and add excellent depth as he develops his skills.

Draft Projection: On most draft boards, Abiamiri is slotted as a top five defensive end in what is a weak class this year. At this point he’s considered a lock for the second round, but he could sneak into the first round with good workouts leading up to the draft.

**Note: Keep an eye out for more of these updates as we find out who the Seahawks are looking at over the next few weeks.