Some thoughts on recruiting thus far.  Does anyone else get the feeling that
Bob Davie's lowered expectations for the football program that he repeatedly
expressed throughout the football season through his various excuses have
now filtered over into the recruiting process?  It used to be that ND would
go head to head with the best teams in the country for high school talent,
and would often win the battle, especially in the late 1980s and early 90s.
For example, in the early 90s, ND signed, among other top prospects, the
national high school player of the year (Ron Powlus), USA Today's defensive
player of the year (Kory Minor) and the top rated offensive lineman (Aaron
Taylor).  Now, clearly some of these highly touted recruits did not live up
to their high school accolades.  Whether that was due to their inability to
take their games to a higher level or a failure of the coaching staff to
bring out the best in these players can be disputed.  However, the point
remains that not too long ago, ND used to go up against the FSUs, Floridas,
Michigans, Penn States, and USCs of the world and more than hold its own in
recruiting. 

These days ND does not seem to be recruiting as many of the top players in
the country, especially in need positions like the skill positions and on
defense, with the focus on upgrading team speed.  I don't care what any
so-called expert like Tom Lemming or anyone else says when they rank ND in
the top 10 nationally in recruiting yet again at the end of this recruiting
season.  I think these so-called experts rank ND in the top 10 every year
regardless of the talent ND has actually compiled simply because appeasing
the ND fans and faithful will help these experts sell magazines (or increase
sales over their toll phone lines).  Looking at the players ND has signed
thus far, I have a hard time believing these types of players will be able
to return ND to the upper eschelon of college football (especially since
these players will have to do so by trying to overcome the shoddy coaching
and pessimistic attitude of their head coach).  Didn't Davie say after the
blowout loss to Tennessee that the opponent played at a much different speed
than ND?  Based on the guys ND is recruiting, it doesn't appear that the
biggest need, an upgrade in team speed, is being addressed.

These days, it seems that Davie refuses to or doesn't believe he can compete
with the top teams in the country for talent.  Instead of competing with the
top teams in  the country, ND now is trying to beat teams like Northwestern,
Minnesota, Vanderbilt and Maryland for high school players. A few examples
are: (1) Vontez Duff, a RB from Texas, who is highly rated by the so-called
experts was not actively recruited by either Texas or Texas A&M.  Since
Texas under Mack Brown has for the past few years cleaned up the top talent
in the state of Texas, it casts some question on Duff's abilities since
Brown wasn't interested in Duff.  As further evidence, ND beat out
non-traditional powers Vanderbilt and Oklahoma for Duff.  So, not only was
Mack Brown not interested in Duff, but neither were most of the other top
teams in the country. I have a hard time believing Duff runs a 4.4 40 if the
top teams in the country were not recruiting him.  Ditto for Garron Bible, a
DB recruit from Texas.  (2)  Kyle Budinscak was a third team all state DL
from NJ.  He was not a third team all american, like many of the players ND
traditionally recruits, but third team all state.  (3)  Kevin Ely, another
DL from NJ, was not among the top 100 players in NJ as reported by the
Newark (NJ) Star Ledger.  He went for an official visit at ND last weekend
and chose Maryland instead of ND.  Maybe ND never offered him a scholarship,
but my question is - why was ND even considering this guy in the first
place?  (4)  Preston Jackson, a DB from Florida, was not even recruited by
FSU, Florida or Miami.  He is a verbal commitment for ND. (5)  I just read
that Ronnie Rodamer wants to go to Tennessee, but they have not offered him
a scholarship. To me, that casts some doubt as to Rodamer's abilities. This
is yet another example of where ND is going after guys that are b-list
players or aren't even on the radar screen of the top teams in the country.
(6)  Anthony Crosson, an ND prospect, was a third team all state player in
NJ as a DL.  None of the traditional power programs have offered him a
scholarship.  He has received tepid interest at best from Auburn, but no
scholarship offer.
These are just a few examples.  If you go down the list of guys who have
verballed to ND and the ones ND is interested in, you'll see that in most
cases, ND is not competing against the best collegiate teams for these
players.  This is a general statement, and of course, there are a few
exceptions.  In addition, I realize that not every player ND has signed in
the past were high school all americans.  My point is that ND seems to be
getting fewer and fewer of the high school all americans these days under
Bob Davie.  Now, there could be a lot of reasons for this, some of which may
include (i) the top players are not academically qualified, (ii) the
administration might be handcuffing Davie and staff from recruiting certain
potential recruits as a response to the Kim Dunbar fiasco, (iii) the top
players in the south are not interested in coming to South Bend or (iv)
Davie doesn't have enough confidence in the name and prestige of ND to go
out against the FSUs, Texases, Floridas, Tennessees, Michigans and Penn
States of the country to land the top players.  Or, it could be some
combination of all of these.  Some people may argue that perhaps Davie and
staff are just doing a better job locating talent than other programs and
this is the reason why some of the top programs are not recruiting the guys
ND is after.  My response to that is: what has Davie done with this program
since he took over that has led you to believe he is doing anything better
than his peers?  Moreover, since it appears that the coaching staff is not
very adept at developing the talent they currently have, any shortcomings in
recruiting top talent will be exacerbated.

One other point about recruiting:  Thus far, ND has landed two QBs (Jared
Clark and Matt Lovecchio) and is actively pursuing a third, Carlyle Holiday,
who is rumored to be the best of the bunch.  In addition, ND has landed
three WRs thus far, and there are three more (Rodamer, Lorenzo Crawford and
Carlos Perez) they are recruiting.  Perhaps a few of these will move
positions:  Jerome Collins to TE, Jovan Witherspoon to DB, Jared Clark to
defense.  However, I have a few observations on this:  (1) a recruit's
willingness to switch positions while he is being recruited may change when
he he reports to camp because for some players, a positional move is a blow
to their ego.  They ask why they are being moved and not the other player at
that position.  (2) Recruiting that many players at a single position is
asking for trouble in terms of players transferring.  Every time ND signs
two QBs in a single class, one transfers.  Now ND is trying to land three
QBs this year.  Assuming ND lands Holiday,  I wouldn't be surprised if at
least one and possibly two of the QB recruits transfer sometime in the
future.

Unless something drastic happens in the next few weeks in terms of upgrading
the types of players ND is recruiting,  don't believe the hype when the
so-called recruiting gurus tell you in February that ND has again landed one
of the top 10 classes in the country.