For the past few weeks the status of Notre Dame quarterback commitment Andrew Hendrix has been very much up in the air. The one time solid verbal for the Irish has been wavering on his commitment and took a trip to Florida this past weekend.
According to Irish Sports Daily’s Twitter feed, Hendrix is set to make his decision tomorrow between Notre Dame and Florida so we should know soon where Hendrix is headed.
Outside of Hendrix, a few new names have popped up on the quarterback recruiting front that have made the situation at the position even less clear.
When Texas Tech fired Mike Leach, the commitment of top 10 quarterback Scotty Young to the Raiders became questionable. Young committed to play in Leach’s high flying spread offense and Texas Tech brought in Tommy Tuberville as its new head coach who has brought in his own offensive coordinator. Tech’s previous offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley was a major reason for Young’s commitment to Tech.
The Denton Record-Chronicle reported earlier this week that both Notre Dame and Arizona State have been in contact with Young since the firing of Leach. In taking a look at the scouting video below, it’s easy to see why the Irish coaches have been in contact – Young plays in a system very similar to what Brian Kelly will be installing at Notre Dame.
[youtube]Pt3AzSM5Jjo[/youtube]
Tuberville just hired Neal Brown as his offensive coordinator on Tuesday so it will be interesting to see what happens with the recruiting of Young in the next few days.
Another name that has popped up is Cole Marcoux (6-5, 244 lbs), a New York City native who has been overlooked in the recruiting game but has grabbed the attention of schools based on his performance at last weekend’s US Army All American Bowl.
Marcoux played for the East squad and put up some impressive numbers in the fourth quarter of the yearly All American Bowl completing 5 of 8 passes for 99 yards while directing two scoring drives – the only scoring drives the East squad had in a 30-14 loss.
Marcoux wasn’t even originally selected to the East team, but won his way onto the team by winning a competition on a reality TV show called “The Ride”. The show followed seven quarterbacks for six months with the winner getting a roster spot on the team. Ironically enough, Marcoux wasn’t even one of the original members of the show, but impressed show producers at a camp in Chester, PA over the summer.
Tom Lemming told the South Bend Tribune that he thinks Marcoux is a better prospect than Hendrix and Marcoux himself told the Tribune that, “All I know is that I can’t imagine any high school football player who wouldn’t be interested if Notre Dame ever came calling.”
Marcoux is currently committed to Dartmouth, but his performance at the All American Bowl could very likely change that with the attention he has been getting since.
A third name to look out for is Bret Visciglia – Dayne Crist’s former understudy at Sherman Oaks Notre Dame. Visciglia didn’t play much with Crist in front of him, but he attended Los Angeles Valley Junior College and has put up some impressive numbers. Crist has been petitioning Kelly to give his old teammate a look and reportedly did the same with the previous staff.
Below is some video of Visciglia at LA Valley from 2008.
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Notre Dame also has early enrollee Tommy Rees already on campus as part of this class. Rees reported to Notre Dame earlier this week along with four other early enrollees. He’ll be on the roster for spring practice and should see plenty of action with Crist still recovering from his ACL injury.
It will be very interesting to see how this all plays out. Hendrix could end the speculation and recommit to Notre Dame tomorrow. Should he elect to go to Florida, it at least appears as though Notre Dame has a couple pretty solid alternative options.
Ohio recruit Derek Roback from Waverly, Ohio is below radar. 6’3″ 215lb QB with good mechanics, speed, size and 4.0 gpa. Official visit 1/30
I like QB Cole Marcoux a lot. He looked better than a lot of the more highly tooted QB’s in the All-American circuit. He also has to be bright (because of his GPA and commitment to an Ivy League school) so he seems like he’d fit the Notre Dame type STUDENT-athlete.
Did anyone see the signing of a two star tight end from Kentucky. He is 6’7″ and 278. I bet Kelly is projecting him to be an athletic tackle. Reminds me a lot of what Holtz did with a couple of players.
That is what they are projecting him for. He is also exceptionally bright.
anthony barr is just awesome! i don’t knnow if you guys heard, but he contacted coach kelly and said that he wasn’t feeling wide receiver. so HE offered a solution, how about safety? he said looking at the depth chart, there is a need there and thinks he can see the field quickest there. coach kelly said sounds good. no commitment yet, but sounds like a team player. can you imagine a 6’4″ 230lb safety with his speed and power barreling down on you over the middle?
as far as seantrel is concerned, how would he commit to notre dame on feb. 3 without a qualifying act score when he is not retaking it again until feb. 6? say he did commit to us, but then barely gets the acceptable score or doesn’t even get the minimun? looks like he is headed to osu.
hopefully lombard was able to form a good enough friendship with james at the aaa game. from what i read, they were hanging out together and talking the whole time. i am glad some of these guys official visits at notre dame are right before signing day.
nepachris~
Where did you read ” i don’t knnow if you guys heard, but he contacted coach kelly and said that he wasn’t feeling wide receiver. so HE offered a solution, how about safety? he said looking at the depth chart, there is a need there and thinks he can see the field quickest there. coach kelly said sounds good.?”
I haven’t read anything that sugguests that Barr was going to be asked to play wide receiver. I have only read that his abilities would be best served as an outside linebacker or as a running back.
I don’t seem him playing in the defensive back field either. I’m not sure he’s a “Taylor Mays” type of athlete.
The first time that Kelly spoke to him, he said that he saw him as a receiver.
i have one of those free trials from irishsportsdaily.com and they have it there. to me he seems like a perfect free/strong safety. excellent size, athleticism, speed, if they offered wide receiver, why not safety?
I wasn’t aware of that. I have read several recruiting articles over the past few months that have compared him to a “Brandon Jacobs” type of running back, or a great fit for a pass rushing outside line backer. If he has the tools to be considered at those positions as well as wide receiver he must be one hell of an athlete.
Still though, if you take a look at the typical 6’2” 230 pound kid with his speed, they tend to be best used at positions where they don’t have the start/stop speed and change of direction speed that a wide out or safety is going to need. Especially taking in to account that he is being compared to Brandon Jacobs, it tells me that his athletic skills are leaning toward a punishing, smash mouth type running back, or a fast, powerful outside rushing LB.
But, if you guys are reading that Kelly and some other circles that know positional abilities far beyond what I know are saying that this kid may be someone like a Brandon Marshall of Denver, or a punishing run stopping safety I’m listening. To be honest, I’m blown away and I want him even more than I already did to sign with the Irish.
If indeed he does get the safety job, I hope that he can get that big frame of his where it needs to be while the ball is in the air. Safeties tend to have that fast twitch muscle response to change direction quickly going forward, backward, and laterally. I have no doubt that if Barr comes barreling down the field for run support it’s going to strike fear in the hearts of tight ends and running backs. That’s a lot of man, running really fast…lol!
He must be one gifted kid.
Ok, so I just watched some highlight (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpUEul09)footage of this ANIMAL. For a kid that 6’4″ and 230 pounds, he has an AMAZING ability to make people miss takles. Not to mention he makes everyone on the field look slow in the open field.
The more I think about him coming to ND the more excited I get about next year.
if he is anything like his uncle reggie, then he will be killer. i say, get him on campus, give him a look at safety/wr/rb/olb and go from there. the thing i was most impressed with is the fact that he willing to play wherever the TEAM needs him most and he hasn’t even committed yet! i will be heartbroken if he goes to ucla! if he is as good as advertised, i am confident kelly will showcase him.
I’m going to have to blame some of this on Charlie Weiss. When I listened to the interview with Chris Martin about how he wouldn’t go to Notre Dame if Weiss wasn’t the coach, it made me laugh a little. Weiss doesn’t coach Cal either. So why are you going there???
If Weiss and Martin had such a great relationship, and Weiss loves the University so much, why couldn’t Charlie convince Chris Martin that UND was the best place for him. The interview and the reasons for him switching were laughable.
Urban Meyer quits and his team moves up to number one in recruiting!!!!!
the florida recruiting class is getting outrageous!! i always thought there was a saturation point with a program where the athletes would cease coming for fear of not being able to play…and how does florida have enough scholarships to account for all their commitments? they have 24 with another 10 or so still considering
2 things.
1. It’s Weis, not Weiss. I’m horrible at spelling, but COME ON.
2. Florida can continue to stockpile recruits because unlike USC, they haven’t yet reached saturation. Part of that is due to a large number of players heading to the draft from florida after 3 years. Another part is from the number of thugs they’ve had arrested.
congratulations on winning the spelling every year in elementary school. but please remember that personal nouns begin with a capital letter, like Florida……you’re a clown…..COME ON!!!
Who gives a shit if I spelled Weis with 12 s’s!!!!!!!!!
If you want to see QB Cole Marcoux in “The Ride,” the reality series that led to his appearance in the U.S. All-American Bowl, full episodes are available on HighSchoolSports.net. Click on Photos/Videos and choose “The Ride,” or go here: http://www.highschoolsports.net/thebleachers/theride.cfm.
I can’t see a 2007 repeat, kelly knows how to coach players and the importance of rotating in players to get experience, this is something charlie lacked and led to his downfall. You can’t just coach your starters, everyone has to be ready and kelly will prepare them. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a coach like this guy so we are always ready for the let down, looking at kelly’s resume that’s one thing you don’t see. Keeping the recruits we have right now says enough about him in my opinion, if we lock up Henderson this will give us a good base.
Henderson would be a huge recruiting win, but can you really see it?
If the rumours are true (from another post I saw here earlier this week) and he had a 17 on his ACT, this is not the right school for him. Matt James, on the other hand, might be holding out waiting to see if Seantral commits or not before he commits. He is a solid student. We aleady have a very solid Christian Lombard who looked great at the Army All-Star game.
yea, not good. i thought one could get close to that by just filling in all B’s or something… if it is true, i bet he goes to oh st. it is a lot easier to ‘hide’ football players in a big state school than it is at notre dame, and the education pitch probably won’t work on someone who is struggling to get the minimum act score required to go to college…he would probably excel in tressel’s ‘football science’ class, what a joke
from what I’ve heard, he is planning on retaking it, but if he doesn’t meet the standard, it makes that decision much easier.
QB is looking shaky right now even with Hendrix recommitting, but there’s a very real possibility Crist might be the only returning offensive starter in 2011.
Floyd, Rudolph, and Robinson will have eligibility remaining, but they could all be legitimate pro prospects by the end of next year.
Everyone wants to measure Kelly’s success by counting BCS bowls, but I’ll just look to see that we don’t repeat 2007 after a 4 year cycle.
Start watching film its available everywhere! Andrew Hendrix is a prototype fit for the spread offense. Know your craft UHND blogers. You guys that post need an inservice as to how ND recruits nationally…There are 12 states the Irish focus on. Da Biggins include: Texas,Fla,Ca,Ohio,Penn,Georgia,Illinois,Louisiana,Virgina-Maryland Then maybe NC, Mich then bones to maybe Wash, Az, Tenn, lately Minn. They completely stay out of ALA, Miss, and ARk.So…There are only 20 days left in the recruiting class of 2010. ND has only 9 priority players left on the board. Lot’s of things are changing especially today with Kiffin and his TENN verbal commits… Every top recruit is pissed off at him and several have already decomitted from the TENN vol program. We’ll see if Kelly will pursue that road or not. We got some good news today with the recommittement of QB Andrew Hendrix (11th rated QB in the Country) to ND. Time to move on to a focused agenda:
#1 Seantrel Henderson OL 5 star
#2 Hayes Pullard LB 4star
#3 Dietrich Riley S 4star
#4 Christian Jones LB 4 star
#5 Josh Shirley LB/S 4 star
#6 Matt James OL 4 star
#7 Anthony Barr RB/LB/S 4 star
#8 Ego Ferguson DE 4 star
#9 Bruce Gaston DT 4 star
We have 9 scholly’s left to give with this class. Just to note: ND has successfully outrecruited SC in 2008 and 2010 if with this class we can somehow get the above players to SouthBend. This is a potential top 5 class.So..will keep you posted. Mark February 3rd on your calendar. IE National Signing Day! Until then….Go Irish…
Kelly..If your guys could pull it off…You da Man we’d been lookin for!
We already have 1 QB in school. Are we really going to offer 4 QBs scholarships? Do we have that many letters to offer?
I remember when we took on 4 quarterbacks in 1977. Tim Koegel (last Moeller QB), Mike Corey (RIP), Greg Knafelc and Pete Holohan. Eventually all had a role, Pete was more famous in the NFL as a tight end, Bart Starr had taught Greg how to hold for extra points and field goals as a kid in Green Bay, and Mike and Tim traded starting jobs back in forth after Montana graduated. All were good friends of each other and had a lot of mutual respect. That was back before the 85 scholarship limit, however . . . . I think 1-2 a year is a good mix. Otherwise, we’ll have transfers and we’ll have wasted spots.
Hendrix is on board and so will be Marcoux and Visciglia. Go IRISH!
I’m from Cincinnati and I’ve seen games where this Hendrix would throw for under 150 yards….
I’m no college football coach but if the quaterback isn’t lighting it up in HIGH SCHOOL he probably won’t do it in college against USC.
The only way I’d even recruit someone like that is if they had a rocket launcher for an arm or could run like Mike Vick???
Hopefully he does pick Florida so Notre Dame doesn’t waste a scholarship…
Todd,
I don’t know a lot about Moeller so I certainly don’t know how their offense is run, but you can’t base a player’s potential strickly on stats. If they were a predominantly run-first offense, then obviously Hendrix’s stats would not be through the roof. Now if he’s throwing for 150 yds and throwing the ball 20+ times/games, then you have something. Although, I did see that he only threw for 1353 yds (123 yds/gm), while their top 3 rushers combined for 1,998 (181 yds/gm), which leads me to believe they WERE a run-first offense. I’d like to know what his completion % was, which would give a good indication of how good of a passing QB he can be (as opposed to a game manager). Now, I haven’t seen Hendrix in person, but if he’s got the tools they say he does, then I’m excited. Todd, you could very well be right, but I’m just trying to look at the other side of the spectrum.
Still hope John Goodman gets a look. In a Kelly offense he may flourish and certainly has the speed an skills to excell at QB given the chance.
Not to mention, last year Crist said; “John can throw farther than anyone in the NFL.” However, of course, accuracy would be key, yet in high school he was accurate enough to be a successful starting QB. With his game experience he could possibly make a solid back up to Crist.
Nothing wrong with a Pike and Collaros situation…
Glad to see Andrew made the correct choice last night. Anybody know who the last Moeller quarterback was to attend Notre Dame? Anybody after Tim Koegel back in the late 70’s early 80’s?
Hey just saw where Lane Kiffin is going back to USC. Even more reason to hate them.
I agree, Marcoux jumped in my eyes after the first completion he made. I am glad Frank is bringing this guy up. Great size, great arm, and most importantly a great head on the shoulder. A lot of players are overlooked in New York State. Let me state you as an example for this Dion Lewis. I played High School ball with him when I was a Senior in High School and he was a sophemore and it was no surprise to me to see him where he is now. Even if Dion only got 1 major program scholarship.
Besides, Marcoux has shown was he can do under pressure with poise and leadership. This is a big sleeper and I think Notre Dame would be foolish not to offer him…
GO Irish
I would rather have Marcoux than Hendrix, honestly. Getting Young would be great, though.