Former head coach Lou Holtz was named an inductee into the College Football Hall of Fame on Thursday headling this year’s class along with former UCLA quarterback Troy Aikman.

Holtz, a studio analyst for ESPN’s college football coverage, coached six schools to 249 victories in a career that spanned more than 30 years. He won a national title with Notre Dame in 1988. - AP

Apparently winning a Heisman Trophy is not enough to get inducted into the Hall of Fame as Tim Brown was snubbed again this year.  Dave Casper and Jim Seymour were also on the list of finalists but did not make the cut.  How Brown isn’t inducted when Don McPherson, the Syracuse quarterback he beat for the Heisman in ‘87, was this year is a bit curious.

Here is a quick look at how Notre Dame’s opponents in 2007 fared in sending their players to the NFL this past weekend.

2007 Notre Dame Opponent Draft Results
	Opponent	Players Selected	1st and 2nd Rounders	2007 Record
	Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets	3	0	7-6
	Penn State Nittany Lions	2	0	9-4
	Michigan Wolverines	6	2	9-4
	Michigan State Spartans	3	1	7-6
	Purdue Boilermakers	3	1	8-5
	UCLA Bruins	3	0	6-7
	Boston College Eagles	3	2	11-3
	USC Trojans	11	7	11-2
	Navy Midshipmen	0	0	8-5
	Air Force Falcons	0	0	9-4
	Duke Blue Devils	0	0	1-11
	Stanford Cardinal	0	0	4-8

A couple of notes:

• The first thing that jumps is out the 11 prospects USC sent to the NFL - that is as many as we have sent over the last two drafts combined.
• Then when you consider that USC had 7 players drafted in the first two rounds alone it really shows you just how much talent Carroll has stockpiled out in LA.
• Other than USC, Michigan (6) was the only 2007 opponent to send more players into the NFL this year.

The fact that USC and Michigan sent more players to the NFL than the Irish should come as no surprise.  It is, however, a bit surprising that seven other teams that beat ND in 2007 had less NFL players.  Now, these numbers don’t tell the entire story though. 

Notre Dame only had 15 fourth and fifth year seniors in 2007 - Laws, Carlson, Zibby, Sullivan, Thomas, Price, Brockington, Jansen, Wooden, Stephenson, Crum, Bragg, Brown, Ferrine, Jabbie, Lambert, and Vernaglia.  Of that group, Crum, Brown, and Lambert came back for 5th years and Ferrine transfered to Delaware (where Jabbie may be joining him). 

Also note, none of the players selected from Notre Dame were “true seniors” - all were 5th year guys.  That brings us back to one of the reasons for Notre Dame’s stuggles in 2007 - a lack of a senior class. 

The first two undrafted Notre Dame players to sign free agent deals are long snapper JJ Jansen and running back/special teamer Travis Thomas.  Jansen signed with Green Bay and Thomas signed with Cleveland.

Both probably have a pretty good chance at making a roster because they can fill niche roles on a team.  Jansen is a pretty good long snapper and if he finds the right place, he can make an entire career based on long snapping.  Mike Batrum is a guy who comes to mind who has lasted in the NFL for years because he’s been able to be a very effective long snapper.

Travis Thomas will make an NFL roster if he can show in camp that he can be a special teams standout.  His running back skills alone will not get him on a roster and those skills alone probably wouldn’t have gotten him drafted.  Because he’s played a lot of positions though, he has a chance to make a squad as a utility/special teams guy.

UPDATE: Joe Brockington has now also signed a FA deal with the Buffalo Bills.

The Minnesota Vikings were the 4th team to select a Notre Dame player in this year’s draft when they took John Sullivan #187 overall in the 6th round.

Sullivan was the 4th center selected in the draft and the first Notre Dame center drafted since Jeff Faine went 21st overall to Cleveland in the 2003 draft. Vikings center Matt Birk is reaching the end of his career so it is likely that Minnesota drafted Sullivan here in the hopes that he can learn behind him and eventually take his place.  That is assuming Sullivan makes the roster.  Snapping problems in the shot gun formation plagued Sullivan over his final season at Notre Dame and will need to be corrected in a hurry if he is to make the Vikes 53 man roster this fall.

The 3rd Notre Dame player was drafted early Sunday when the Baltimore Ravens used a 3rd round pick on former Irish safety Tom Zbikowski.

Baltimore is fairly set at safety with Ed Reed and Dawan Landry, but Zibby will be able to make an immediate impact as a special teams player and punt returner for the Ravens. 

Being selected in the 3rd round is about as good as Zibby could have hoped for coming into the weekend.  In any other year, a 3rd round pick would be a first day pick, but because of the format change in this year’s draft, the 3rd round was early Sunday.

The Eagles have posted some quotes from Trevor from his conference call with the local media last night.  Here are some highlights - you can read the full release here.

On whether he plays defensive end or defensive tackle: “I would definitely say I’m a tackle.”

On whether he has played any defensive end: “I played end in a 3-4 scheme, but in Philadelphia, who plays a 4-3, I’m definitely an inside guy.”

On who he talked to the most when he visited with the Eagles: “The whole staff. We sat down for a little bit and talked to a few people. They were some pretty positive meetings.”

On how close he is with DE Victor Abiamiri: “We’re real close friends. We were roommates for over a year. I talk to him on a weekly basis almost. It’s really exciting to go to the same team as him.”

On whether he was worried that his stock would drop in the draft after Notre Dame struggled: “Yes, definitely. But, I think with my strong Senior Bowl and combine performances, teams kind of looked through the season and saw the player I really was.”

Again, it’s great to see Laws land in Philly where I’ll get to watch his NFL career take off.

The Philadelphia Eagles selected former Notre Dame defensive end/tackle Trevor Laws with the 47th pick of Saturday’s NFL draft. Laws was the 4th DT drafted after LSU’s GLen Dorsey, USC’s Sedrick Ellis, and North Carolina’s Kentwan Balmer.

If you read this blog on a regular basis, you know how big of a Philadelphia sports fan I am, so needless to say, I was very pleased with this pick. In Philly, Laws will be pared up with his former defensive line mate at Notre Dame - Victor Abiamiri who the Eagles drafted in the 2nd round of last year’s draft.

The Eagles have a number of defensive tackles on the roster, but it’s likely Laws will step right in as the #3 or 4 DT behind starters Mike Patterson and Broderick Bunkley. Patterson, however, was arrested this off-season for a marijuana charge and could be facing a suspension from the league if he is found guilty of the chargers.

We were lucky enough to have Trevor answer some questions for us back in March and we’ll try and get in touch with him again now that he’s been drafted.

On a side note - the Eagles also added DeSean Jackson two picks later, the Flyers beat the Canadians 4-2, and the Phillies collected their 6th win in their last 7 games with an 8-4 win over the Pirates tonight as well making for a preeeeeety, preeeeeeety good night of sports for yours truly.

Earlier this off-season the Seattle Seahawks signed former Notre Dame running back Julius Jones and Saturday they picked former tight end John Carlson #38 overall.

Carlson is the first Notre Dame player to be drafted this year and really helped himself with a a good 40 times at Notre Dame’s Pro Day after a poor showing at the NFL Combine.  Seattle’s offense is a very nice fit for Carlson’s skills and should be a big weapon for Matt Hassleback.

Carlson was the second tight end drafted overall after Purdue’s Dustin Keller.

Many thought Carlson may have been a potential first round pick last year so it is great to see that coming back for a 5th year and enduring the season the Irish did hasn’t really affected his draft stock all that much.

According to ESPN, a potential 6 game series with Rutgers has been called off because the Scarlet Knights did not want to play home pages at the new Giants Stadium

According to a source with knowledge of the situation, the Irish wanted Rutgers’ three home games in the series to be played at the new Giants/Jets stadium in the Meadlowlands — a compromise that Rutgers, which is undertaking a $102 million renovation of Rutgers Stadium, was unwilling to make, according to the report.

Can’t say I blame Rutgers here.  Unlike the UConn series, Rutgers isn’t a new Division 1A football school and have made a lot of progress with their program in the last few years.   Having a “home” game in your own state where the opposing team has more fans would do them more harm than good in recruiting - especially considering how well the Irish already recruit in New Jersey. 

ProFootballTalk.com had a post on its rumor mill tonight about NFL Scouts getting a little leery of USC proscpects.

The concern is that too many of the players who emerge from the Trojan program love the SoCal lifestyle more than they love football.

Though it’s always dangerous to generalize (but what the hell, we’ll do it anyway), there have been a surprising number of busts to emerge from Pete Carroll’s no-pay (by the school) paradise.

In 2003, the Trojans sent a trio of solid players into the league:  Carson Palmer, Troy Polamalu, and Justin Fargas.  Since then, however, the only guy who has proven to be a consistent high-end talent is linebacker Lofa Tatupu.  The growing parade of busts includes Keary Colbert, Shaun Cody, Mike Patterson, Mike Williams, Darnell Bing, Dominique Byrd, Frostee Rucker, Winston Justice, Reggie Bush (relative to his draft status and hype), and Dwayne Jarrett.

Should this be the case, it certianly is something that could be used against USC on the recruiting trail.  Of course USC’s rebutal would be that those players were drafted high because they were coached up, but none the less, it is interesting to see people begin to question USC like this.

Note to any USC fans who happen to come across this - the “no-pay” reference is directly from PFT so don’t complain.