2.11.07

"Corwin Brown has to make a dent, not only in Chicago, but nationally in recruiting," Lemming said. "Corwin Brown has to do what John Blake did at North Carolina, Lane Kiffin did at USC, Doc Holliday did at Florida. Corwin Brown, since he's the defensive coordinator, should be responsible for the defensive players coming to Notre Dame that will fit into his system.

Corwin Brown --(SBT)

Top 10 Class -- (MSNBC)

ND Hoops --(SBT)

Tom Lemming Discusses ND recruiting

CSTV recruiting analyst and Irish Sports Report columnist Tom Lemming answered reader questions about Notre Dame's 2007 football recruits.

More than 150 questions were submitted to Lemming in less than one hour. Becuase of the heavy number of questions we were not able to answer every question during the allotted time.

Read the transcript of the chat below:

South Bend Tribune

Major is a Gator

JasonPeters Yesterday to the GT Yellow Jackets and now Another player. This one going to the Florida Gators. Another Defensive player off the board and the hits keep coming against the Irish.

Corwin Brown will need to do some magical things this coming year with a young defense. Once he does, the recruits for 2008 will come. It takes time to build (rebuild) a program, and this is no different.

Major Wright

Senior Bowl Practice Notes (Defense)

The one bright spot for the Defense this past season was the improved play of Victor Abiamiri. He became a strong pass rusher and improved considerably with his Run Defending. He will make a very good NFL player and showed what he had this week at the Senior Bowl. Notes by Scout.com

Victor Abiamiri/Notre Dame

Ht: 6.044 Wt: 271
Arm: 33 1/2 Hand: 10 1/4

Monday Practice Notes: Gets upfield very well for a player of his size with great reaction to the ball. Does not move very well laterally against the run.

Tuesday Practice Notes: Athletic prospect who shows the ability to change directions well. Dips his shoulder off the edge in his pass rush. Does struggle to get off of blocks when engaged and needs to be quicker on his counter moves in his pass rush. Some teams have inquired about him possibly being a 34 outside linebacker.

Wednesday Practice Notes: Athletically looks the part but had a quiet day. Part of the reason is because he struggled to get off of blocks. Change of direction during pass rush drills was not as stellar as was perceived during yesterday’s practice.

Thursday Practice Notes: In pass rushing situation, Abiamiri does not posses the greatest initial moves but did an especially nice job on his countermoves today. One mental breakdown did allow a back to break contain to make a big run to the outside during inside drill.

Analysis: Physically there are not many who are on Abiamiri’s level. One of the more impressive looking prospects down in Mobile, his overall play was not as stellar. Inconsistent in many areas of his game as the week progresses, especially struggling with getting off blocks at times. Some teams are looking at him as a possible 34 outside linebacker. A talented prospect who will likely go higher than his play would indicate.

More on Justin Trattou

I know we have heard enough about him, but here is one more story i thought was intersting. Not to beat a dead horse, but ND is in trouble on the Defensive side of recruiting this season.

STORY

Recruit Profile

Steve Paskorz--Big, Physical and versatile. Something the Irish need in the coming years.

SCOUT.COM

Notre Dame commitment Steve Paskorz typifies the type of player the Irish coaches are bringing into the program. The standout from Hampton high school (Allison Park, Pa.) has the athleticism to play multiple positions and his attitude is all about winning.

He is 6-foot-2, 220 pounds and has fought his way through two injuries during the past year. Now that he is healthy he’s focusing on being prepared for the next stage of his career.

Paskorz built his reputation as being a physical, punishing running back throughout high school. He certainly has the ability to work into the backfield rotation at Notre Dame, but the Notre Dame staff intends to use him on the defensive side of the ball.

Steve is anxious to get rolling at Notre Dame, but until he reports he is going to enjoy his final days of high school.

“I think I’m going to enjoy being a regular student the last couple months,” he said. “I thought about the early graduation thing, but you just miss a lot of high school things and that’s just something I don’t want to do. I might take a couple visits to Notre Dame, because I know a couple students that are from around my area. I’ll definitely make it to the spring game.”

Defensive Line Help?

With the defection of Justin Trattou, the DL is in dire straits. And not the Mark Knopfler kind.

Coach Weis has gotten a couple of commits to think about the switch from offense to defensive line.

IAN WILLIAMS--Recruited as a defensive lineman. Will do very well, but without help, may be in trouble.

ANDREW NUSS--Was asked and delivered. Charlie spoke with the young man and he decided that for the betterment of the team, he would move to the DL. He is big, fast and athletic, but he is a freshman coming in.

Notre Dame has needs on both side of the ball, but their need along the defensive front may be greater than their need at offensive guard. Emeka Nwankwo (6-foot-5, 270 pounds) will be happy no matter what position he plays, but he would like a chance to play defense.

The team will be fine in two years, but what about 2007? The athletes that Weis has coming in are different than in the past. Different in a couple of respects:

1: They all have the confidence needed to come in and play

2: They are all cocky enough to think they can come in and make an immediate impact.

I like both of these qualities. Very important will be the role of the New Defensive coordinator. What defense will the Irish run? The 3-4 D will be my guess. We shall see.

Ronald Johnson update

Scout.com's Tom Beaver of GoBlueWolverine.com spoke with Ronald Johnson after he moved up his visit to Michigan State this past weekend to facilitate a January 26 visit to Florida.

After listening to the interview, my earlier thoughts have come to fruition. Unless an unexplained turn of events in the likeness of the current Alabama program recruiting saga, ROJO will not be Irish.

Williams Stock Increases

Notre Dame and Charlie Weis have made some inroads to a better Defense. In Our opinion A DL is where it will all start. Two commits that were projected at OL will now play DL. We discussed this in prior postings. Now Ian Williams speaks about the chance to play, what he is expecting and the ND team of 2007.

As national signing day approaches Ian Williams’ value to the Notre Dame football program increases. The standout from Lyman High School is the lone commitment the Irish have from an interior defensive lineman in the 2007 recruiting class.

Scout Insider members, CLICK HERE

Everyone else, Read On!

Is there any prospect in the Notre Dame recruiting class that is more important than Ian Williams? The big defensive lineman committed to Notre Dame in December, sending a wave of relief to Irish recruiting fans. Since that time Notre Dame has seen it’s other options along the defensive front disappear.

“I saw that [Will] Blackwell committed to LSU today. We could still get Jason Peters, but I’m doubting that,” Williams responded when asked about Notre Dame’s defensive line recruiting. “It isn’t a big concern. I know that I’ll have to step up a lot more, but it is kind of a concern.

“I look at it like an opportunity, but I also I want to have guys to compete with. I do want to come in and start, but I want to have a team atmosphere. I don’t want to be the only guy. I want to go two and three deep so that we’ll be able to rotate guys in. I know in the college game that nobody is able to play the whole game. If anything happens to me, we’ll have to have someone to step in.”

Notre Dame still has time to add players to this recruiting class, and Williams still has six months until he reports to Notre Dame. His life hasn’t change much since he committed to the Irish, but he doesn’t miss the recruiting calls.

“Right now I’m just enjoying life, and relaxing,” Williams said. “I finally have my nights back. It’s become a lot less hectic. I don’t get all the calls from all the recruiters any more and I don’t get all the calls from Scout and Rivals. I got use to it but I don’t miss it.

“I’m basically lifting and get ready to go to Notre Dame in June. I work out with my teammate; he’s always in the weight room so I just work on with him. I need to work on getting faster and stronger. It’s going to be a different speed in college so I want to improve that. I have a lot that I need to work on, my strength and my agility, but I’m not worried about it. When I get up there they’ll put me in their strength and conditioning program and I’ll get much better.”

The Notre Dame coaches expect Williams to help improve their defense. He has stayed in touch with his recruiting coach and Ian has discussed the changes with the Irish coaching staff.

“Yesterday I spoke with coach Parmalee,” Williams explained. “We talked about getting Corwin Brown as the defensive coordinator. He seems like a hard-nosed guy so I think we’ll be all right. II think he’ll turn the defense around.

“Coach Parmalee is just introducing me to what is going on at Notre Dame and what I should expect. I’m getting to know him a lot better. He doesn’t really preach to me about recruiting since I’ve already committed. He’s just become a real good friend and I think the next couple years that we’ll become really close.”