Matt Carufel Transfers from Notre Dame

Matt Carufel decided to make his leave of absence from Notre Dame permanent on Sunday when he notified Charlie Weis that he would not be returning to campus according to the South Bend Tribune.

The sophomore offensive guard left the team Wednesday to contemplate his future, a day after being leapfrogged on the depth chart by classmate Eric Olsen. Irish third-year head coach Charlie Weis excused Carufel from Wednesday’s and Thursday’s practices as well as Saturday’s game against Boston College to go home to Forest Lake, Minn., and consult with his family and high school coaches.

“I spoke via telephone with Matt Carufel Sunday evening,” Weis said in a statement. “And he informed me he was going to leave the team and withdraw from the University of Notre Dame. I appreciate all Matt has done for Notre Dame and wish him nothing but the best.”

Fellow sophomore guard Chris Stewart went through a similar episode at the end of September, before deciding to rejoin the squad. Carufel reportedly has Iowa and Minnesota, two schools in his final five two years ago, high on his list of possible transfer destinations.

When reached by cell phone late Sunday, Carufel hung up.

Olsen looked ok in place of Carufel out there Saturday.  The timing of Carufel’s transfer is certainly interesting.  He got jumped on the depth chart Tuesday and decided to go home Wednesday?  If he decided to transfer just because Olsen passed him on the depth chart that will definitely raise some eye brows.  Whatever the case, this transfer is bad news for Notre Dame because we need all of the offensive linemen we can get right now.  Had Chris Stewart decided to leave the team permanently a couple weeks ago as well, we would be in even worse shape.

Carufel’s departure should open up another scholarship in this class which Weis will likely use to target another offensive linemen.

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22 Comments

  1. It’s ok DD. I could no longer hide behind my phony name and location that I gave.

    As such and as a USC fan I retracted any and all previous comments and opinions expressed on this site by myself.

    Go Trojans.

  2. I have not been busted I just chose not to respond to the ramblings of an insane person. I am not pro-USC just anti-Weis.

    Maybe Robert T. Gilleran is actually Charlie Weis! How else can you explain someone defending that track record so vociferously. If only the Irish defended so well.

  3. I suppose with DD busted now I should come clean.

    My name is not Nick. And I am not a Notre Dame fan. I am in fact, a fan of USC and have been for quite some time.

    With my identity now exposed and my name and team affiliation now exposed as fraudulent I will leave this blog.

    In effect I retract all posts and comments made on this blog concerning all subjects.

    Go Trojans! Good luck Notre Dame, you will need it.

  4. qcnick,
    1. we have already traced dd. he is a usc spy who gets on notre dame fan sites looking to provoke nd fan bashing of coaches, players, and recruits and feeds that material to people at usc for use in driving recruit away from notre dame. we found him using a different phony internet id on a usc site bragging about how he had stirred you up with his comments about notre dame fans being jealous of usc fans.
    2.unfortunately for you, your statements made online do constitute libel per se. you might as well hire an attorney right now to limit your future damages. there is nothing that anyone can help you with with what you have already done and whatever dd may have put you up to.
    3. if you would like to look at just one of the many famous cases that i have won, start with united energy owners et al vs united energy management et al 837 F.2nd 356(CA 9, 1988), a grounbreaking case in the civil rico area which, to this day, is cited by courts all over the us, including the us supreme court as the authority on how to plead a civil rico case.
    4. with a real jerk like you, it will be a great pleasure putting you on the witness stand in front of a judge and jury and letting you make an even greater fool of yourself than you already have online.
    5. i look foward to seeing you in court and then relieving you of your material possesions to be donated to notre dame.
    6. you sound like a real pompous jerk who has been getting away with outrages like this for your entire life.
    7. well, those days of your pushing people around without paying the economic consequences will soon be over.

    have a great day and thank you for giving me this opportunity,

    bob gilleran

  5. Ha yeah. The mere fact that you construe anything on here I said as “libelous” is laughable and goes to show your ineptitude at pretending to be an attorney.

    Nick is my real name. There is nothing phony about it. It’s a pretty common name.

    Odd, seeing as you challenged me to come to a parking lot with you after you picked me out of a crowd and would offer me the first punch. The word “first” implies that there would be subsequent punches thrown by yourself. Thus a threat of violence. Also the word “offer” would imply I have the option to throw the first punch but if it is passed on you would take it. This, coupled with the confronting of me in a parking lot also, under the law, presents itself as a reasonable threat to my physical safety. Man, the law is fun. You should try it sometime.

    I’m glad you printed them out Bobby.

    Ha ok. Now you are threatening me with a lawsuit over discussions had over the internet. Awesome. Too much time on your hands?

  6. qcnick,
    1. as you may, or may not, be aware, it is relatively easy to obtain your real name and address through the courts.

    2. do not worry. i will not be showing up at your house. i will simply have a process server serve you with a lawsuit.

    in over 30 years, i have never lost a jury trial and you have made this one easy.

    3. people like you engage in the type of conduct that you do because you have been able to push other people around for years.

    4. this time, you made a huge mistake and tried your tactics with someone who can and will make you pay in the courts.

    5. i will donate the funds and assets i recover from you to notre dame.

    have a nice day,

    bob gilleran

  7. qcnick,
    1. obviously, you have never known any good attorneys to be able to act as a judge on writing styles, any more than you have earned the right to issue directives to people to shut up or to hurl insults at people which constitute libel per se and expose you to civil damages in the courts.

    2. your internet id is phony because you are afraid to use your real name. i understand why you are afraid.

    3.you should also learn to read and some things about the law. there were no threats of any violence from me. you must have imagined any such threats in one of your paranoid delusions.

    4. i told you that, if i ever ran into you, i would invite you out to the parking lot and invite you to take the 1st punch. i never start fights. i do finish them if someone else starts them.

    we both know that wimps like you would never have the guts to start a fight.

    5. you should be aware that any misrepesentations by you to any legal authorities are also actionable in the courts under the civil rico statute, one of the areas of law in which i am one of the nation’s leading experts.

    6. i have printed out all of your diatribes and my responses for my records.

    we will continue to pray for you,

    bob gilleran

  8. Ok Bobby. Odd, I’ve never know an attorney with such a horrible writing style or weak grasp of both grammar and syntax.

    I also still find it funny that such a great attorney as yourself would threaten violence via the internet knowing full well the legal ramifications of doing so.

    Your paranoid delusions and now your fake identity make for some real great comedy.

    Once again my ID here is not fake. My name is Nick and I am from the Quad Cities(QC). Nothing phony about it. Again the irony of you saying that my ID is fake is both ironic and hypocritical seeing as you are not who your ID says you are.

    Anyone find it funny that a guy who wears a silver tin foil helmet roots for a team with a gold helmet? He should really be an Ohio State fan.

  9. dd and qc,

    1. unlike the 2 of you, i do have the guts and integrity to use my real name.

    2. yes, you will find a 3 line order stamped by the chief justice of the californis supreme court stating that i was disbarred in 1997, but not stating that i did anything wrong.

    3. being the idiots that you are, you probably think that such a thing means that i did something wrong or unethical.

    4. nothing could be futher from the truth. i am very proud of that order and of what has happened afer the order was stamped.

    5. based on the information which i fowarded to gov. wilson, gov wilson was so disgusted by the corruption in the california state bar that he vetoed the ca state bar’s appropriations bill in the fall of 1997, forcing them to lay off 95% of their employees.

    6. the ca state bar, having been exposed for what they were and still are, went crying to the california supreme court and got nothing.

    7. for the 1st time since 1991, when the ca supreme court illegally delegated matters of attorney discipline to something they called the state bar court, the supreme court was forced to address certain issues.

    8. in several published opinions, they had no choice but to admit that the state bar court was not a real court at all and that none of its opinions or findings of fact were not admissible in any civil or criminal proceeding.

    9. several ca supreme court justices minced no words about the ca system for attorney discipline “.. under the current system, hairdressers have more right to due process of law than do attorneys in the state of california..”.

    10. certain other members of the ca supreme court, afraid of actually having to do the work in attorney discipline matters which was their sole responsibilty, claimed that they were simply using this illegal state bar court system as private investigators.
    11. then, the california legislature got involved and radically changed the whole system so that very little, if anything, remains of the california state bar and what remains will not be around much longer.
    12. what were the reasons that brought me to the attention of certain corrupt individuals at the ca state bar?
    13. it was very simple. i refused to back down from publicly exposing certain dishonest and incompetent judges in the california superior court and to let them ruin the business and life of a good friend of mine in a court case.
    14. one of these judges was even stupid enough to put his threats in writing. if i refused to back off and leave my client to be chewed up by their illegal system, which involved kickbacks from dishonest people in the securities, he and his colleagues were going to use their contacts at the state bar, including the brother of one of these judges, to arrange for me to be disbarred.
    15. after all, in that system, where there were no hearings and no trials,and being falsely accused was the same as being disbarred.
    16. i refused to cave in and i won the case for my client, knowing full well what the short term price would be.
    17. the california adminstrative office of the courts came in to that crooked courthouse and broke up the crooked operation by transferring out of there every single judge who had been taking kickbacks or watching the process go on for years.
    18. those crooked judges obviouly dismissed me the way that you 2 jerks are trying to do.
    19. sure, they knew that the la county da, a usc grad, would protect them. after all, they are all part of the usc mafia.
    20. however, the fbi and the us dept of justice did not feel that way and arrested 2 of those judges so far for multiple felonies.
    21. i made a point of being in federal court when each of them pled guilty and cried, as they were led off to federal prisons.
    22. in the meantime, my career and businesses have prospered. i do not have any criminal record and i continue to expose and bring down the thunder on the crooks who deserve it.
    23. naturally, when i received those bogus and baseless accusations from certain crooks at the ca state bar, i sent them all to ca attorney general dan lundgren and reminded him that it was his duty to prosecute me as a criminal if there was any truth to any of the accusations.
    24. knowing that there was no basis for any of the accusations and the extent of the corruption in the ca state bar, lundgren did his job. he took no action against me.
    25. in brief, my friends and i are the worst nightmare that any of the crooks in the california legal system( and people like you 2 who pimp for them) could have imagined and the worst nightmare the the crooks in college athletics and big business could have imagined.
    26. we are elite, only in the sense that we have the guts and the courage, like the us marines, to take on the crooks, beat them, and punish them economically in the courts, unlike people like you 2, who do not even have the guts and and the courage to come out from behind your phony internet identities.

    even though the 2 of you are very sad cases, we will pray for you since no one is beyond salvation,

    bob gilleran

    ps if either of you has the guts to come out from behind your phony internet ids, we will see you in the courts, where you will ridiculous insults will not even be admissible into evidence, including the disbarrment matter, which is not a criminal or even a civil matter and will soon be expunged in any case, along with what remains of the california state bar.

    pete carroll indicted by the feds, along with crooked refs? impossible, you 2 would say, writing it off as the paranoid delusions of some insane kook in california.

    however, if you put the name reggie bush in your search engine, you will find all of the evidence that some very brave reporters at yahoo sports collected in the face of garbage thrown at them by people like you. since the michael vick case, the crooked nba ref case, and the recent guilty plea of one of our olympic track medalists after 7 years of coverups and stonewalling, corruption in spectator sports has become a hot growth industry in fedworld, just as corruption in the legal system has always been, despite the distractions of 9/11.

    well, that is exactly what those 2 ex superior court judges before they broke down and cried as they were led off to federal prisons. there are a lot more coming, including steve cooley, the current la county da.

    yes, it takes guts and courage for charlie weis and notre dame to play college football with integrity and to take all of the hits in the media and from some very fair weather notre dame fans.

  10. DD,

    keep in mind that Bob here is a fake and the name he is using isn’t real. He is using the name of a disbarred lawyer from the Los Angeles area.

    He’s just some kook.

  11. First of all, I am not yelling and screaming insults and falsehoods. Everything that I calmly stated is true about this football team.

    Secondly, you are seeing things that just aren’t there. Such as the job that Weis is doing. No matter what standards you apply could a reasonable person say that he is doing an amazing job. Also, I never insinuated that you went to Notre Dame only that I did not.

    Thirdly, integrity and Charlie Weis don’t belong in the same sentence, or you for that matter. You speak like an elitist snob which you probably are not, elite anyway, and you talk down to and negatively about anyone and anyplace that is not Notre Dame.

    I am glad that you are convinced that Weis will succeed because not many other people do. You and some other pie-in-the-sky ND fans are sure pinning a lot of hope on these future recruiting classes that he is assembling but even 5 star recruits need to be coached and he hasn’t shown that he is up to the job.

    Finally, I do not hang out in sewers and would not be happy to do so nor do I find the USC’s, Michigan’s etc (any school with a winning football team it seems) disgusting. Talking down to people does not make you intelligent just immature and petty. You must think you are something special using your full name, middle initial included, I am impressed. I choose to use my initials, what is the big difference? Besides you may want to hunt me down, sue me and bring me to financial ruin just like everybody else that you threaten when they speak the truth about your beloved football team.

    Enjoy another loss this saturday against USC, those uneducated slobs who have no future ahead of them.

  12. dd,

    1. you really are an idiot. serious academics are not an excuse for notre dame. as you will find out when the classes of 2008 and foward arrive, they are an advantage.

    2. no, i did not go to school at notre dame. i graduated from yale, one of the many schools which would have laughed at your application had you applied.

    3. no, i am not jealous of usc and the other football factories, i find those places to be as disgusting as you are.

    4. i admire notre dame and the other schools that are playing college football with integrity and with a real interest in the welfare of their student athletes’ lives after football, instead of just using them like raw meat on the football field and casting them aside with no real education.
    5. as we both know, the statistics simply do not back you up.

    6. all of your yelling and screaming insults and falsehoods cannot change those simple facts.

    7. i am convinced that notre dame and charlie weis will succeed with integrity while people like you are happy in the sewers to which you are accustomed.

    have a great day hiding behind your phony internet identity,

    bob gilleran

  13. Dear Bob,

    Poor Bob, your endless criticism of these other schools is jealousy, nothing more nothing less. Notre Dame does not have a very good football team. Their poor record over the last 15 years has nothing to do with academics. These other schools, the football factories with the enviable records, have their share of fine student athletes. They also have some terrific football players who, if not for football, would not go to university anyway so why should you care what courses they take?

    You have the audacity to criticize every school except the ones with poor football teams that Notre Dame may still be able to beat such as Duke, Stanford etc. If your behaviour is representative of Notre Dame educated person no wonder their team and fans are probably the most hated in all of college football.

    You always seem to throw in a nugget or two that completely defy rational thought and in this case that would be – 8. all of these factors make what charlie and corwin are doing even more amazing, despite the ugly start this year.

    Do you really consider what they are doing to be amazing? An offensive genius who can’t get his team to score touchdowns, a defense that can’t stop anybody and a nonstop carousel of transfers. The transfers are the real indication of how things are going. One or two and maybe it is the kids but more than that and I would be looking at who is in charge. But that is just me and although I do not have a Notre Dame education I think I can spot amazing when I see it and this is not it.

    Sorry Bob, good luck against USC, you will need it.

  14. 1. with minor exceptions, football players at usc major in something called ethnic studies, which involves watching movies, using crayons to color in books, and such things.
    2. when informed that auburn’s library had burned down, coach spurrier commented ” what a shame and some of those books had not even been colored in yet.”

    of course, the same is true at florida and south carolina and michigan and ohio state and every other school that plays division 1 A football, with very minor exceptions.

    3. with the exception of notre dame, stanford, the service academies, boston college, duke, and wake forrest, and a very few other schools, the football players come only to play football. they have no real academic obligations, as every student athlete does at notre dame.
    4. the very thought of having to take calculus, still required at notre dame of all students, drives away the bulk of the 4 and 5 star spoiled dumb jocks who end up at usc and these other football factories.
    5. this approach, nfl or bust, ends up in total disaster for most of these spoiled jocks. if injured, as so many are in the demolition derby type of practices that take place at places like usc, they find their scholarships cancelled and their lives over.
    6. even for those who make it to the nfl( not for long), their lack of any real education or moral grounding which every student gets at notre dame makes them victims of dishonest sports agents and of their own hubris, like michael vick and oj, among others.
    7. those stories that you hear about football players getting degrees from these places without even knowing how to read are, quite sadly, very true.
    8. all of these factors make what charlie and corwin are doing even more amazing, despite the ugly start this year.

    go irish!! beat usc

    bob gilleran

    1. “3. with the exception of notre dame, stanford, the service academies, boston college, duke, and wake forrest, and a very few other schools, the football players come only to play football. they have no real academic obligations, as every student athlete does at notre dame.”

      This is a ridiculous statement. Florida State had a Rhodes Scholar candidate on their football team last year.

  15. I appreciate Bob’s comments and wish to make concerns known and only known as concerns. My wife gets me Blue and Gold Illustrated and one of the reasons I am concerned is that there seems to be a lot of advice to coach Weis from former coaches relating to coaching college kids and leading and motivating them. I still think coach Weis is an excellent coach, and bringing in coach Brown is his best move yet. But I still have my concerns over the overall state of the program and these go beyond the scope of the coaching staff. Regarding academics, I truly think most highschool graduates can handle any non technical major at any university. I majored in engineering at Notre Dame, but also took Arts and Letters and Business classes. They were very interesting, but also not any more difficult in the thought process or work load than in highschool. I have known others who went to Ivy league and other top academic institutions. They have all told me that unless you want straight A’s, it’s easy even in these schools to pass or strive for a B average. That’s not an indictment, but rather a statement that a reasonably intelligent football player can succeed anywhere. My comments about Notre Dame speak more to the academic culture. Would a D-1 football player easily fit in socially at Notre Dame or an Ivy league type of school?

  16. 1. for anyone still concerned that matt carufel’s transfer was anything other than a personal decision of matt’s and not an indication of any systemic problem in the notre dame football program, you need only look around the internet to find the explanation given by his high school football coach.
    2. matt is a very quiet guy, who keeps to himself and who never developed the friendships necessary to make him feel at home at notre dame. it was just a bad marriage that did not work out for matt.
    3. i do not blame notre dame or any of the coaches at notre dame for matt’s decision and i will not hesitate to suggest that any of my players who are interested in notre dame go there to visit and give notre dame serious consideration.

    have a great day,

    bob gilleran

  17. 1. the question about whether or not notre dame, or any other school with high academic standards, can compete in major college football is being answered as we speak and, despite the disasterous start this season, it sure looks as if coach weis, corwin brown, their staffs, and these fine, courageous, notre dame players on this 2007 team have already answered that question in the affirmative, especially with that 2008 recruiting class coming in after 2 other top 10 classes.
    2. we do not feel that matt carufel owes us any explanation. it was the double d defection that smacks of illegal outside influences which we will hunt down.
    3. we would not color konrad as completely gone from notre dame yet. after all, he is taking jr college courses out her in california, but not playing football. konrad is a young man of fine character and with a lot of talent on the football field and in the classroom.
    4. perhaps, konrad just needed some time away from south bend to see that the grass is not greener elsewhere.
    5.perhaps, konrad wants to join his brother, who wanted to come to notre dame, but did not get an offer, at stanford.
    6. we do not see any systemic problems with these transfers. let’s face it, playing major college football and carrying a tough academic load is a tough road to take and it is not for everyone.
    7. we do know that no one could be doing a beter job for notre dame than coach weis, corwin brown, and their staffs.
    8. the type of effort that they have put in and will continue to put in could not be purchased from any other group of coaches for any amount of money.
    9. in the face of overwhelming adversity and being vilified in the media every week, they have visited the high schools and reestablished the realationships with high school coaches who had not seen anyone from notre dame since lazy bob davie took over recruiting during the later holtz years when lou’s wife was ill and davie sat in his office in south bend admiring himself in the mirror and let the notre dame recruiting network die on the vine.
    10. one example very close to one of my residences is notre dame high school in sherman oaks, ca. coach rooney at that high school had not seen anyone from notre dame for decades.
    11. well, he and his players did this year and the results are, so far, 2 solid verbals from dayne( moose) crist and anthony mcdonald. both come from usc families, with the mcdonalds having gone to usc and played football at usc and in the nfl for generations.
    12. that same phenomenon is going on all over the us and no other group of coaches could have done it.

    have a great day,

    bob gilleran

  18. I agree that Matt’s choice is his and no one should begrudge him that. But these defections should be a concern as to the state of the program. Not the record but the nature of the losses in a concern. Yes the record is a concern, but also of concern is the defections, and the inability to find something of a success and build upon it. Not to use Penn State as an example since they haven’t truly been a near top team since the 80’s, but last year was rough for them, yet Paterno had them going in the right direction by year’s end. Now even with some setback’s they look solid. Weis’s propensity to talk and make grand statements that he’s had to back track on, doesn’t lend confidence in what he’s doing. Blocking and tackling is basic. The most vanilla of offenses can block and run the ball consistently. This team looks unsettled, especially on offense which lends itself to leadership. At least the defense has rallied around itself. Is Notre Dame too Ivy league-ish to compete with the power football programs?

  19. frank,

    1. we will all miss matt carufel.
    2. we wish him the best in his future endeavors on the football field and in life.
    3. we do think that he made a serious error in choosing to leave notre dame and will find that no other school can offer him the type of education that notre dame offers him or the experience on the football field.
    4. however, we do not know all of his reasons for making this decision and we probably never will.
    5. during tough seasons like this one, coaches and boosters from other schools illegally approach nd players like matt and paint them phony pictures about the grass being greener elsewhere.
    6. such phony pictures and representations rarely turn out to be true. however, we hope that they do for matt.
    7. we do not believe that matt left because he was informed the eric( the brooklyn brawler) olsen had temporarily passed him on the depth chart since matt is simply too talented and too tough to let something like that get him down.
    8. the real cause might have been some romantic entanglement that did not work out( something that hits all of us at matt’s age at least once) or something else that we do not know about.

    in any case, we will always remember may and his family in our prayers and will always wish him well,

    bob gilleran

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