irishunclebill
02-07-2008, 01:53 PM
What a difference a year makes!
Fortunately for Notre Dame Fans, the difference between NSD 2007 and NSD 2008 was a difference of significant improvement, and little or no angst. Now let’s hope that same trend will follow between the Notre Dame 2007 and 2008 football seasons.
NSD 2008 turned out to have little drama, and a surprise commit that by the time he publicly announced for the Irish was not a surprise at all. What little drama that was there coming into NSD concerned the status of Deion Walker, and that was quickly squashed by Deion himself by 7 A.M., and affirmed by his sending of his LOI Fax before 8 A.M. Fifteen minutes later Kapron Lewis-Moore made his choice of the Irish public, and Notre Dame had its’ 23rd and as it turned out final recruit of the Class of 2008. The rest of the morning thankfully consisted of a steady stream of LOI faxes until by 10:35 AM Notre Dame had all 23 of their verbal commitments with signed Letters of Intent. The only item that remained was to wait almost 12 hours to find if Milton Knox would become #24. Ultimately, Knox selected UCLA to provide the only disappointment of the day, albeit a slight one as Knox would have been a welcome but luxury addition to an already stacked class.
By the end of the day, Charlie Weis had accumulated the best recruiting class to date of his Notre Dame tenure, a significant improvement even over very highly rated classes in 2006 & 2007. The Notre Dame class of 2008 finished with a #2 rank on both the Rivals and Scout recruiting boards. When you discount the fact that Alabama has no chance of actually enrolling all of their 32 LOI’s, Notre Dame’s class would have been #1 on both recruiting boards.
Even without the recruiting board’s stamp of approval, the 2008 Class is at least on paper obviously and clearly superior to both the 2006 & 2007 classes. It is deeper and of slightly higher quality than the 2007 class, and is loaded with much more potential starting talent than the bigger 2006 class. Let’s look at Rivals rankings of the 2006-2008 Notre Dame classes, and remember that Rivals traditionally tends to rate the Notre Dame recruits slightly lower than the other boards.
Class of 2006- 28 Recruits, Two 5 stars, Ten 4 stars, Fifteen 3 stars, One 2 star- Average Star Ranking 3.46- Final class rank #8.
Class of 2007- 18 Recruits, One 5 star, Twelve 4 stars, Four 3 stars, One 2 star- Average Star Ranking 3.72- Final class rank #8.
Class of 2008- 23 Recruits, Three 5 stars, Sixteen 4 stars, Four 3 stars, - Average Star Ranking 3.96- Final class rank #2.
Each class has shown a significant improvement in quality. A lot of people give little credence to the star rankings, but the fact is they do tend to accurately reflect on a summary basis how successful a recruit will be in college. It is obviously not always correct as some five stars will be duds, and some three stars will become superstars in college, but for the most part it is a pretty good barometer of what is to come.
As an example, take the Notre Dame Class of 2006 which was and still is a highly touted class. However, keeping in mind that the 2006 guys still have only 2 years in the system, this class still has undeniably had some problems fulfilling its’ potential to date. Part of the problem with the Class of 2006 is that it had too much depth at certain positions. The consequences of that are seen in the fact that there have already been 5 transfers from the class. In addition, the 2006 class has lost another recruit for medical reasons, and currently has one on suspension, so it is likely that only 21 of the original 28 will suit up for the Irish in the Fall of 2008. However, quality is also an issue here. If you look at the fifteen three star recruits from the Class of 2006, only 6 have made the two deep, and only three have actually started for the Irish. This is despite the fact that the cupboards had been left very bare at many positions because of the horrendous final recruiting efforts of Ty Willingham. With the influx of talent from the 2007 and 2008 classes, the other nine three stars from the class of 2006 are unlikely to ever make a significant on field contribution.
The increased quality in the 2007 class was also reflected on the field last year as nine players from that class had significant playing time in their Freshman year. It should also be noted that although the 2007 class had only four Rivals three stars, only one of them, Ian Williams, even played at all. Williams as it turned out not only played but made a significant positive contribution to the team, and stands out as one of those three star players who could attain elite status as a college player. However, it was or should have been pretty obvious that Williams was underrated by Rivals, otherwise it is doubtful that Urban Meyer would have pursued him so doggedly right up to NSD 2007, when he had already assembled a very highly rated Defensive Line recruit class for 2007.
The 2008 Class is clearly the best of these three. It has more quality than the 2006 class and more quantity than the 2007 class. It has been noted that the 2008 class filled almost all of the required needs of the Notre Dame football team. The only need that did not get completely filled was on the Offensive Line where an additional body would have gone a long way to help at an area still lacking in depth.
However, it should also be noted that this class not only filled just about every need, but it also filled just about every position on the football field with 11 Offensive and 12 Defensive recruits, all of high quality talent or potential. In my opinion, every one of these twenty three recruits has the ability to be a starting player for the Irish at some point in their career. Only three of the twenty three recruits are not ranked a four star by at least one of the recruiting boards. One of those three is Hafis Williams, who to me is another potential Ian Williams. The other two are a couple of guys named Posluszny and Golic, and I would never question the potential of recruits with that lineage. From a physical standpoint Golic would seem to be the biggest question mark as a potential starter because his size and Braxston Cave may prevent him from playing the position he was recruited for. However, from what I have seen of Mike Jr., he is a typical Golic, and I see him overcoming any obstacle in his way.
I guess the most interesting aspect of the 2008 Notre Dame 23 is that there is a scenario where 21 of the 23 could be on the field at the same time. That fact virtually eliminates the possibility of transfers due to one position having too much depth, and also creates the possibility of a Notre Dame squad in the future that would have an extraordinary amount of experience in the starting lineup, which would be completely the opposite of the 2007 team. How does the 21 out of 23 scenario play out? In a three Wide Receiver set, with either Golic or Cave becoming a OG, and Fauria playing OT, all eleven of the 2008 Offensive recruits could conceivably be on the field. On the Defensive side, it is even more plausible with less positional change, as you could have EJ, Newman/Williams, and Cwynar on the line, Fleming, McDonald, Poz, and Filer backing them, with Blanton and Slaughter at the CB’s, and McCarthy at a Safety position, or Blanton at a CB, with Slaughter and McCarthy at both Safety positions. All that is missing is one DB. Now this is very unlikely to happen, but it could, and it makes me for one feel very excited about the future of Notre Dame football.
Bottom line is all the quality talent and potential in the world means nothing if it does not show up on the field. I know there are a lot of you out there that poobah the recruiting board’s rating systems. That includes a lot of Head College Football Coaches. I am sure that Charlie Weis does not refer to Rivals when he is determining who he wants to offer a Notre Dame scholarship to because he does not have to, however at the end of the day, especially in 2007 and 2008, the vast majority of the recruits that received offers from Notre Dame were very highly rated by the recruiting boards. Moreover, the trend of those ratings in the Notre Dame classes of 2006 and 2007 indicates that the higher the quality of the recruiting class, the higher the quality of on field performance. If that trend continues it bodes very well for the contributions from the 2008 class, and when added to the two previous classes bodes even better for the future of Notre Dame football. Notre Dame should have success in the 2008 season, and should be even more successful in the 2009 season. By the 2010 season when the recruits from the 2007 and 2008 classes will be dominating the Notre Dame starting line-up, I have confidence that they will also be dominating the opposition.
Welcome aboard to the Notre Dame 23 of 2008, the future looks exceptionally bright.
Fortunately for Notre Dame Fans, the difference between NSD 2007 and NSD 2008 was a difference of significant improvement, and little or no angst. Now let’s hope that same trend will follow between the Notre Dame 2007 and 2008 football seasons.
NSD 2008 turned out to have little drama, and a surprise commit that by the time he publicly announced for the Irish was not a surprise at all. What little drama that was there coming into NSD concerned the status of Deion Walker, and that was quickly squashed by Deion himself by 7 A.M., and affirmed by his sending of his LOI Fax before 8 A.M. Fifteen minutes later Kapron Lewis-Moore made his choice of the Irish public, and Notre Dame had its’ 23rd and as it turned out final recruit of the Class of 2008. The rest of the morning thankfully consisted of a steady stream of LOI faxes until by 10:35 AM Notre Dame had all 23 of their verbal commitments with signed Letters of Intent. The only item that remained was to wait almost 12 hours to find if Milton Knox would become #24. Ultimately, Knox selected UCLA to provide the only disappointment of the day, albeit a slight one as Knox would have been a welcome but luxury addition to an already stacked class.
By the end of the day, Charlie Weis had accumulated the best recruiting class to date of his Notre Dame tenure, a significant improvement even over very highly rated classes in 2006 & 2007. The Notre Dame class of 2008 finished with a #2 rank on both the Rivals and Scout recruiting boards. When you discount the fact that Alabama has no chance of actually enrolling all of their 32 LOI’s, Notre Dame’s class would have been #1 on both recruiting boards.
Even without the recruiting board’s stamp of approval, the 2008 Class is at least on paper obviously and clearly superior to both the 2006 & 2007 classes. It is deeper and of slightly higher quality than the 2007 class, and is loaded with much more potential starting talent than the bigger 2006 class. Let’s look at Rivals rankings of the 2006-2008 Notre Dame classes, and remember that Rivals traditionally tends to rate the Notre Dame recruits slightly lower than the other boards.
Class of 2006- 28 Recruits, Two 5 stars, Ten 4 stars, Fifteen 3 stars, One 2 star- Average Star Ranking 3.46- Final class rank #8.
Class of 2007- 18 Recruits, One 5 star, Twelve 4 stars, Four 3 stars, One 2 star- Average Star Ranking 3.72- Final class rank #8.
Class of 2008- 23 Recruits, Three 5 stars, Sixteen 4 stars, Four 3 stars, - Average Star Ranking 3.96- Final class rank #2.
Each class has shown a significant improvement in quality. A lot of people give little credence to the star rankings, but the fact is they do tend to accurately reflect on a summary basis how successful a recruit will be in college. It is obviously not always correct as some five stars will be duds, and some three stars will become superstars in college, but for the most part it is a pretty good barometer of what is to come.
As an example, take the Notre Dame Class of 2006 which was and still is a highly touted class. However, keeping in mind that the 2006 guys still have only 2 years in the system, this class still has undeniably had some problems fulfilling its’ potential to date. Part of the problem with the Class of 2006 is that it had too much depth at certain positions. The consequences of that are seen in the fact that there have already been 5 transfers from the class. In addition, the 2006 class has lost another recruit for medical reasons, and currently has one on suspension, so it is likely that only 21 of the original 28 will suit up for the Irish in the Fall of 2008. However, quality is also an issue here. If you look at the fifteen three star recruits from the Class of 2006, only 6 have made the two deep, and only three have actually started for the Irish. This is despite the fact that the cupboards had been left very bare at many positions because of the horrendous final recruiting efforts of Ty Willingham. With the influx of talent from the 2007 and 2008 classes, the other nine three stars from the class of 2006 are unlikely to ever make a significant on field contribution.
The increased quality in the 2007 class was also reflected on the field last year as nine players from that class had significant playing time in their Freshman year. It should also be noted that although the 2007 class had only four Rivals three stars, only one of them, Ian Williams, even played at all. Williams as it turned out not only played but made a significant positive contribution to the team, and stands out as one of those three star players who could attain elite status as a college player. However, it was or should have been pretty obvious that Williams was underrated by Rivals, otherwise it is doubtful that Urban Meyer would have pursued him so doggedly right up to NSD 2007, when he had already assembled a very highly rated Defensive Line recruit class for 2007.
The 2008 Class is clearly the best of these three. It has more quality than the 2006 class and more quantity than the 2007 class. It has been noted that the 2008 class filled almost all of the required needs of the Notre Dame football team. The only need that did not get completely filled was on the Offensive Line where an additional body would have gone a long way to help at an area still lacking in depth.
However, it should also be noted that this class not only filled just about every need, but it also filled just about every position on the football field with 11 Offensive and 12 Defensive recruits, all of high quality talent or potential. In my opinion, every one of these twenty three recruits has the ability to be a starting player for the Irish at some point in their career. Only three of the twenty three recruits are not ranked a four star by at least one of the recruiting boards. One of those three is Hafis Williams, who to me is another potential Ian Williams. The other two are a couple of guys named Posluszny and Golic, and I would never question the potential of recruits with that lineage. From a physical standpoint Golic would seem to be the biggest question mark as a potential starter because his size and Braxston Cave may prevent him from playing the position he was recruited for. However, from what I have seen of Mike Jr., he is a typical Golic, and I see him overcoming any obstacle in his way.
I guess the most interesting aspect of the 2008 Notre Dame 23 is that there is a scenario where 21 of the 23 could be on the field at the same time. That fact virtually eliminates the possibility of transfers due to one position having too much depth, and also creates the possibility of a Notre Dame squad in the future that would have an extraordinary amount of experience in the starting lineup, which would be completely the opposite of the 2007 team. How does the 21 out of 23 scenario play out? In a three Wide Receiver set, with either Golic or Cave becoming a OG, and Fauria playing OT, all eleven of the 2008 Offensive recruits could conceivably be on the field. On the Defensive side, it is even more plausible with less positional change, as you could have EJ, Newman/Williams, and Cwynar on the line, Fleming, McDonald, Poz, and Filer backing them, with Blanton and Slaughter at the CB’s, and McCarthy at a Safety position, or Blanton at a CB, with Slaughter and McCarthy at both Safety positions. All that is missing is one DB. Now this is very unlikely to happen, but it could, and it makes me for one feel very excited about the future of Notre Dame football.
Bottom line is all the quality talent and potential in the world means nothing if it does not show up on the field. I know there are a lot of you out there that poobah the recruiting board’s rating systems. That includes a lot of Head College Football Coaches. I am sure that Charlie Weis does not refer to Rivals when he is determining who he wants to offer a Notre Dame scholarship to because he does not have to, however at the end of the day, especially in 2007 and 2008, the vast majority of the recruits that received offers from Notre Dame were very highly rated by the recruiting boards. Moreover, the trend of those ratings in the Notre Dame classes of 2006 and 2007 indicates that the higher the quality of the recruiting class, the higher the quality of on field performance. If that trend continues it bodes very well for the contributions from the 2008 class, and when added to the two previous classes bodes even better for the future of Notre Dame football. Notre Dame should have success in the 2008 season, and should be even more successful in the 2009 season. By the 2010 season when the recruits from the 2007 and 2008 classes will be dominating the Notre Dame starting line-up, I have confidence that they will also be dominating the opposition.
Welcome aboard to the Notre Dame 23 of 2008, the future looks exceptionally bright.