Archive for the ‘Notre Dame Recruiting’ Category

Notre Dame received the first blow to its 2009 recruiting class Thursday when Eric Shrive made a surprise commitment to Penn State.

West Scranton offensive lineman Eric Shrive, one of the top offensive line prospects in the state, committed to Penn State’s 2009 class Thursday, according to a report in the Scranton Times.

The addition of Shrive is somewhat of a surprise, as most recruiting experts believed Notre Dame was in the the lead for his services.

Shrive is considered one of the best offensive linemen in the country and was thought to be at the top of Notre Dame’s wish list. Tall, athletic tackles like Shrive are hard to come by and are a hot commodity in football as evidenced by the Dolphins taking Jake Long #1 overall in last month’s draft.

What makes matters even more disappointing is that Shrive was considered to be all but a lock for the Irish just a couple months ago.

With Shrive off the board, Weis and staff will most likely have the full court press on Xavier Nixon as their top tackle.

I updated our 2008 Recruiting Board with Shrive’s commitment.

Theo Riddick made it official earlier Wednesday and committed to Notre Dame - giving the Irish four verbal commitments on the season.  Here’s some additional information on the Irish’s newest commitment.

2007 Season Stats: (source)

• Rushing: 159 carries for 1,192 yards (7.5 avg) with 13 TDs and a long of 80 yards
• Receiving: 10 catches for 70 yards (7.0 avg) with 1 TD and a long of 25 yards
• Kick Returns: 5 for 175 yards with 1 TD and a long of 89 yards
• Defensive: 12 tackles, 1 pass defended

2006 Season Stats:

• Rushing: 172 carries for 1,352 yards (7.86 avg) with 19 TDs and a long of 75
• Receiving: 13 catches for 157 yards (12.1 avg) with 3 TDs and a long of 20
• Kick Returns: 4 for 154 yards (38.5 avg) with 1 TD and a long of 90
• Defensive: 46 tackles , 5 INTs, 1 fumble recovery, 3 passes defended

Read the rest of this entry »

According to the Courier News Online running back recruit Theo Riddick is going to pick Notre Dame as his college choice today.

Immaculata High School star running back Theo Riddick is expected to announce Wednesday during a news conference that he will play at Notre Dame University.

Riddick would be the second running back to commit to the Irish this week after Cierre Wood committed over the weekend.

We’ll have more Wednesday night after Reddick officially makes his announcement.

Notre Dame picked up a huge commitment early Saturday when five star running back Cierre Wood picked the Fighting Irish over  UCLA.  Wood is listed as a five star back on both Rivals and Scout and had offers from the likes of Auburn, Cal, Florida,  USC, and Oregon among many others.

Notre Dame will have four scholarship running backs for the ‘09 season - James Aldridge, Armando Allen, Robert Hughes, and Jonas Gray - so it’s likely that Wood could be the only running back the Irish take this year.  If anything, i would guess that any other back ND pursues would be someone who could play multiple positions.

Here are a couple YouTube clips of Wood.

Read the rest of this entry »

The following was posted on the UHND Football Forum by Lawnmower8. Here are all of the Rivals250 prospects with interest in Notre Dame.

• #2 DT Jamarcus McFarland (TX): low interest
• #3 RB Cierre Wood (CA): medium interest
• #6 LB Manti Te’o (HI): medium interest
• #8 DE Devon Kennard (AZ): medium interest
• #12 WR Marlon Brown (TN): medium interest
• #14 LB Dorian Bell (PA): medium interest
• #20 DB Craig Loston (TX): medium interest
• #26 OL Marcus Hall (OH): medium interest
• #34 WR Shaquelle Evans (CA): medium interest
• #43 QB Aaron Murray (FL): medium interest
• #45 QB Josh Nunes (CA): medium interest
• #46 DT Corey Adams (AZ): medium interest
• #49 OL Eric Shrive (PA): medium interest
• #54 LB Frankie Telfort (FL): medium interest
• #60 OL Chris Watt (IL): medium interest
• #66 RB Tyler Gaffney (CA): medium interest
• #76 OL Xavier Nixon (NC): medium interest
• #79 LB Jelani Jenkins (MD): medium interest
• #81 RB Theo Riddick (NJ): medium interest
• #83 DE Nick Kasa (CO): medium interest
• #85 DB DeVonte Holloman (NC): medium interest
• #87 OL Nick Alajajian (FL): medium interest
• #94 ATH Brandon McGee (FL): medium interest
• #95 ATH E.J. Banks (PA): medium interest
• #108 DT Isaac Holmes (NJ): medium interest
• #110 OL Xavier Su’a Filo (UT): medium interest
• #123 OL Peter White (DC): medium interest
• #133 WR James Jackson (MI): medium interest
• #135 OL Corey Linsley (OH): medium interest
• #146 RB Stepfan Taylor (TX): medium interest
• #147 DT Chris Bonds (SC): medium interest
• #154 DE Craig Roh (AZ): medium interest
• #162 ATH Corey Brown (PA): medium interest
• #164 WR Terrance Davis (OH): medium interest
• #167 DE William Ming (AL): medium interest
• #170 RB Raymond Graham (NJ): medium interest
• #173 QB Nathan Scheelhaase (MO): medium interest
• #179 RB Jordan Hall (PA): medium interest
• #192 WR Cameron Jordan (MI): medium interest
• #219 RB Trabis Ward (FL): medium interest
• #221 OL Brennan Williams (MA): medium interest
• #238 LB Dan Mason (PA): medium interest
• #241 QB Richard Brehaut (CA): medium interest
• #244 DE Dillon Quinn (NY): medium interest
• #248 DT Tyler Stockton (NJ): medium interest
• #250 DB Damien Thigpen (VA): medium interest

Click here to see a position by position breakdown

Notre Dame picked up it’s first verbal commitment of the year on Saturday when Jake Golic, the second of Mike Golic’s kids, committed to Notre Dame.  Jake, a 6′5″, 215 lb tight end, will join his brother Mike Jr in following in their father’s footsteps.

Check out the the homepage for a full article later tonight/early tomorrow.

Some more YouTube clips of Michael Floyd. Kid looks like a natural at wide receiver and has BIG TIME play making ability. I will be absolutely shocked if he is not a starter by seasons end. Heck, I think I’d be mildly shocked if he wasn’t a starter against San Diego State.

Here’s some highlights of Deion Walker similar to the ones I posted of Kyle Rudolph last week. Nothing really earth shattering here, but it does look like Walker is pretty good at the quick hitter plays that Weis used to run to Jeff Samardzija quite a bit.

My favorite part of these highlights, however, is how Walker celebrates his touchdowns. He simply drops the ball and turns around towards his teammates. No hot dogging or taunting or any of the other crap that has become the norm by wide receivers these days.

Here’s some highlights of Kyle Rudolph courtesy of Takkle.com

And here they debate whether or not Rudolph is the best tight end in the country.

I was a little surprised with his run blocking in these videos as it was better than I expected. Rudolph could end up seeing the field very early if Will Yeatman is not back on the team in the fall.

Here are some highlights of five star wide receiver Marlon Brown out of Memphis, Tennessee. Notre Dame has already offered Brown a scholarship and after viewing the video it will be easy to see why.

Speaking of his Notre Dame offer:

Last Friday, Notre Dame offensive coordinator Michael Haywood personally delivered a written scholarship offer for Brown to the school.

“The funny thing about it is I opened the letter, and it was gold,” said a blushing Brown, who added that “he doesn’t really care” about being ranked among the nation’s top junior football prospects.

And from the same article:

Last fall, he registered 41 receptions for 861 yards (21 yards per catch) and six touchdowns, numbers that included an eye-popping eight-reception, 305-yard receiving performance in the Lions’ 48-44 Week 2 loss to Southern Baptist Educational Center.

When defenses employed two and three defenders to cover him on pass routes, Derrick moved Brown into the Lion backfield, where he thrived as well, rushing for 629 yards and 10 touchdowns on 58 carries (10.8 yards per carry).

“Teams would assign two or three guys to keep us from getting it out (to Brown), so we had to find ways to get him the ball,” Derrick said.

“We’d direct snap it to him, kind of like they used (Darren) McFadden at Arkansas, just trying to get him the ball. He’s completely different than he was (as a sophomore), and he was already great (as a sophomore).”

After signing 3 wide receivers in this past recruiting class, it’s likely the staff will be a bit more selective this year and not take as many.  Getting a prospect like Brown would be an ideal fit because his talents seem to compliment the current wide receivers very well.  He possess excellent open field skills much like Jeff Samardzija did.  He doesn’t appear to be a burner, but he makes people miss and he makes leaving defenders behind look absolutely effortless.