Archive for the ‘Notre Dame Recruiting’ Category

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported today that offensive lineman Chris Little, a USA Today 1st Team All American, is all but headed to Florida State.

The winner of the Chris Little sweepstakes appears to be Florida State.

“I’m thinking FSU but I’m having trouble getting in touch with the coaches because they’re all out at the bowl game,” Little told the AJC’s Jeff Hood shortly before 4 p.m. Wednesday.

Little was supposedly down to Notre Dame and Florida a few weeks ago and it looked like the Irish were sitting pretty well with Little, but this report certainly makes Notre Dame’s chances look quite dim.

The loss hurts this year’s offensive line recruiting quite a bit since he was widely considering the most talented line prospect the Irish were in on. Florida State has essentially come out of no where to win this recruiting battle.

“I know they need help on the offensive line and it’s close to home,” Little said.

Recruits have certainly been known to change their minds at the last minute in the past, but it appears the Irish are going to lose this recruiting battle. Notre Dame still has Matt Romine and Matt Summers-Gavin still left on the board and both have Notre Dame among their favorites, but with the loss of Little, the margin for error here has gotten a lot smaller for Weis and his staff.

Notre Dame offensive line commit Taylor Dever was recently bumped up to a four star recruit on Scout.com.  Dever was previously a two star, but this week he was bumped up to four stars.

Dever came on late in the recruiting process with programs such as Nebraska, Miami, and Notre Dame seriously pursuing the tackle prospect.  Dever committed to Notre Dame last week, the 15th commitment of Notre Dame’s recruiting class.

Some other Notre Dame commitments moved around in the rankings as well.  Golden Tate moved down a few spots to the 33rd ranked wide receiver and Duval Kamara dropped a few spots to the 14th ranked receiver.

In a Chicago Tribune article from today about the commitment of Martez Wilson to Illinois, Wilson talked about the influence college coaches have on NFL coaches in terms of prospects.

“Ron Zook said, ‘They don’t listen to those college coaches. I can call them about someone right now’ and he made a face,” Wilson said. “For me to get to the NFL, I have to put in the work myself.”

Sorry Ron, but maybe the NFL coaches just don’t listen to you because you’ve proven to be a poor gameday coach and an even worse developer of talent. Or, maybe they don’t listen to you because you simply don’t know too many of them in a position to make draft decisions.

Now, let’s see… I think Bill Belichick would listen to Charlie Weis if he told him something. Maybe it’s the three Super Bowl rings Charlie helped Bill win, but something tells me he might listen to him.

What about Eric Mangini who was on the same offensive staff as Weis with the Patriots? Think he might, just might listen to what Charlie had to say about a particular recruit? Romeo Crennel, head coach of the Cleveland Browns, who was the defensive coordinator on all those Patriots Super Bowl teams, might just listen to Weis as well.

How about Andy Reid? The head coach of the Eagles, who happened to come to the Notre Dame-USC game last year and who just happens to be close friends with Weis, he may listen to the Charlie has to say.

Something tells me that Bill Polian just may elicit the advice of his son Brian, who happens to coach special teams for Notre Dame, if he had a question about a prospect who played for the Irish. I could be wrong there though.

And then there’s Bill Parcells, the man who gave Weis his first big break in coaching when he made him his running backs coach with the Giants. Parcells drafted Notre Dame tight end Anthony Fasano in the second round last year, but other than that, there’s no reason to suspect he’d listen to anything Weis would have to say.

I’m sure there’s plenty of other examples of other college coaches with some similar connections such as Pete Carroll who also coached in the NFL. My point is, how is Zook able to sell such asinine statements to recruits?

Of course an NFL coach is going to listen to a college coach if they know him personally.

I guess you have to give Zook some credit for being able to convince these recruits that Weis and his staff’s NFL connections don’t mean much. It’s too bad that Illinois expectations will be much lower than Florida’s were with Zook. The Gators tossed Zook after three seasons when they saw he could recruit but couldn’t win. The Illini, however, are likely to keep Zook around considerably longer since a six or seven win season would be an improvement for them right now.

With the commitment of Armando Allen last week and the recruiting of Robert Hughes and Golden Tate at running back, a name that’s been lost in running back recruiting for Notre Dame this year is Joe McKnight, but according to Allen Wallace of SuperPrep, the Irish are among his five favorites…

“Notre Dame fits that description,” McKnight said. “It means a lot to go there and they are used to winning games. They’ve been improving every year under coach Charlie Weis. I also really like their offensive coordinator (Michael Haywood). He’s the coach recruiting me.” (LINK)

McKnight is a five star recruit and would me a major addition to this class if Weis could secure his commitment. Robert Hughes has been on Notre Dame fans’ radars for months and despite some positive reports on Hughes’ visit to Notre Dame last weekend, there are still some who think Illinois has the inside track so being in on a recruit as talented as McKnight is huge for the Irish.

McKnight a a very versatile athlete who could play a number of positions for the Irish - running back, wide receiver, or safety. Even if Notre Dame does secure a commitment from Hughes at the All American bowl, look for the Irish to continue to recruit McKnight as long as there is interest from the talented back.

On a side note, its nice to see a recruit mention Haywood by name in a report a like this. Haywood has historically been a great recruiter, but there haven’t been too many recruits who have made mention of him in reports like this one. Haywood’s track record with running backs has to help recruiting an athlete like this as well.

Since not much attention has been paid to McKnight over the last couple months on the board, we’re going to play some catch up here, but here’s some good quotes on McKnight.

The Times-Picayune - December 9, 2006

Against St. Charles he ran for 59 yards and two touchdowns on six carries, caught a couple of passes for 18 yards, returned a kickoff for 29 yards and would’ve returned a punt 58 yards for a touchdown — displaying a jaw-dropping combination of speed, power, elusiveness and desire along the way — if the Patriots hadn’t been penalized for holding on the return.

“I was pretty disappointed,” McKnight said, smiling. “That was my best punt return all year. Not many people have been kicking to me.”

Do you blame them?

If the punt return had stood, it would’ve been three touchdowns on 10 touches for McKnight. And as impressive as that percentage would’ve been, it probably was right along the lines of what he averaged during his senior season, which culminated in Curtis’ 21st state championship. (LINK)

USA Today - December 8, 2006

No. 2 John Curtis of River Ridge, La., coasted to its third straight state championship Friday, beating St. Charles Catholic 41-7 in the Louisiana Superdome for the state’s Class 2A title. (LINK)

The Shreveport Times - November 25, 2006

McKnight scored three touchdowns on only six touches, including a 37-yard punt return, and Seeman rushed for 84 yards and another score to send the Patriots past Homer, 47-6, in their Class 2A quarterfinal playoff matchup Friday night.

McKnight fielded the punt at the Homer 37, sidestepped a tackler and burst through traffic to give Curtis a 7-0 lead midway through the first quarter.

He scored again just before the end of the quarter, this time on a 26-yard sweep where he simply outran Homer’s defenders to the sideline. McKnight virtually skipped into the end zone, quieting a previously rowdy crowd of about 7,000. (LINK)

The Shreveport Times - November 23, 2006

Joe McKnight is a running back. He averaged 16.5 yards per attempt in John Curtis’ first 10 games this high school football season.

Joe McKnight is a wide receiver. He averaged 36.1 yards per reception in the same period of time for the Patriots.

Joe McKnight is a defensive back. He had a pivotal fourth-quarter interception in Curtis’ 28-14 win over previously No. 1-ranked Hoover (Ala.)

Joe McKnight is all of the above. He is also the state’s top recruiting prospect and he leads Curtis (11-0) into Homer on Friday night in a Class 2A quarterfinal playoff game. (LINK)

ESPN - November 17, 2006

McKnight (6-0, 190) only gets a few touches per game and is used almost as a decoy in his high school offense. John Curtis Christian runs a veer-option attack that regularly utilizes two or three backs, and by motioning McKnight around, it opens up a lot of space for the other ballcarriers. When he does get the ball, he produces — he has 19 touchdowns through 10 games this season, including one on a kick return, while carrying the ball just 37 times and making 14 receptions. (LINK)

Jimmy Clausen continues to lead his Oaks Christian team to their fourth straight state title overall - the third while he’s been the starting quarterback. Clausen has still not lost as a starter in high school and Oaks Christian has now won 45 consecutive games.

Quarterback Jimmy Clausen, who has not lost in three years as a varsity starter, had another big game. There seemed to be jubilation for Oak Park fans when his first two passes fell incomplete. But he connected on his next six attempts and finished 19 of 25 for 246 yards and three touchdowns. (LA Times)

All and all, just another day at the office for Clausen.

Allen Wallace from SuperPrep posted a free article last night with an update on Chris Donald.  The full article can be found here, but here are a few interesting quotes from it.

“On December 8, I’m visiting Tennessee,” Donald said. “I expect it to be somewhat different from when I visited Notre Dame (October 7). I’m a Tennessee boy; they treat me like a hero or something. Tennessee is my home state. I love it here and I’ll be close to my mother. Tennessee is a great school, they’re doing well and I’ve been talking to the coaches since my junior year.

Not exactly a ringing endorsement for Notre Dame, but the article did have some positive news for Notre Dame as well…

“I met Toryan Smith (linebacker) who was my host during my visit at Notre Dame and we have, since then, developed a friendship,” he said. “We text each other all the time. We talk about lots of different things. He’d love for me to play for the Irish, but understands that I have to make the decision on my own.”

I find it very interesting that Donald mentioned Smith by name and I think it really helps Notre Dame’s chances that Donald’s found someone at Notre Dame that he’s developed a close bond with.  Smith, like Donald is hails from the South and having a fellow linebacker from down South in South Bend can only help Notre Dame’s chances.

Donald knows where he is going based on a report last week from the Tennessean and said he’ll let the coaches know a couple days before the All American Bowl and then announce publicly during the game.

The article from SuperPrep also has some good quotes from Donald and Weis and Minter and is definitely worth a read.

Notre Dame recruit Golden Tate was named the DII-A/AA Mr. Football in Tennessee for the second year in a row and has now been named to the All-American Bowl in Fort Lauderdale according to the Nashville City Paper

Tate in All-American Bowl: JPII star and Mr. Football winner Golden Tate has been named to play on the East team in the All-American Bowl in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Jan. 4, to be televised by ESPNU. Last week, Tate won his second straight DII-A/AA Mr. Football award and was also named the Lawrenceburg Club Tennessee player of the year. (LINK)

Tate was on hand this weekend for the Notre Dame banquet on his official visit.  There hasn’t been any news of a commitment from Tate this weekend, but the Irish should be in fine shape with the versatile Tennessee native.  He is projected as a wide receiver or running back on the college level but would most likely be a wide receiver in Notre Dame’s offense.

One of Notre Dame’s biggest recruits this year, Chris Donald, has decided where he is going to school, but he won’t announce until the Army All American Bowl next month according a report in The Tennessean…

Donald, one of the state’s top football recruits, is still silent about whether he will play college ball at Notre Dame or Tennessee. The Mr. Football Class 2A lineman said he has made a decision, but won’t say what it is.

“I know and my parents know where I’m going to go,” Donald said. “But that’s all. I’m going to announce it on Jan. 6 on TV.”

Donald will announce his decision during the U.S. Army All-American Bowl, which features many of the nation’s best senior football players. (LINK)

Donald is a huge recruit for Notre Dame this year.  The Irish’s lack of playmakers on defense has been apparent this year and Donald is the kind of big time talent Notre Dame has lacked at linebacker for a while.

Early on it was thought that Donald was a lock for Tennessee over the summer, but Notre Dame made a lot of strides and look very strong here.  No one really has a good idea of where Donald is headed and there are a lot of differing opinions out there right now.  Bottom line here is that Weis has gone into Tennessee and has a very good chance of luring the state’s top prospect away from the in-state Volunteers.