News 2.8.07

Florida Wins Again -- (USA Today)

New Coaches -- (USA Today)

TY -- (CSTV)

ND Hoops -- (UND)

Turbulent Year -- (Observer)

An ILL Wind -- (Chicago Tribune)

Bump in the Road -- (Chicago Tribune)

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.