Notre Dame Recruiting Springs a ‘Little’ Leak

(UHND.com) – Tuesday was a day full of rumors and speculation about a few Notre Dame recruits wavering. A day later the Irish lost both of the Little’s, Greg and Chris, leaving them with just 18 recruits. Meanwhile, Ian Williams – another recruit rumored to be wavering – was one of the first recruits to fax in his letter of intent to Weis and Notre Dame.

Charlie Weis, clearly bothered by the defections his program has seen over the last three weeks (including Justin Trattou’s flip two weeks ago), questioned just what a commitment meant in recruiting these days. “My biggest problem in recruiting really comes down to what the word ‘commitment’ really means. I think that really is the bottom line. What my commitment is, what the player’s commitment is, their parents, what our university’s commitment is to them, what their commitment is to us.”

The decision by Chris Little to not sign with the Irish didn’t catch many by surprise after he originally committed to Florida State before backing up and picking Notre Dame a few days later. The decision by Greg Little, however, took me by surprise for the simple fact that he had publicly stated he was solid with Notre Dame over the last few weeks.

Both recruits will be sorely missed in this class. I am not of the school of thought that Chris Little was just another offensive lineman in this class. Little has the tools to become a great tackle on the college level. He might be a bit out of shape, but with the right motivation, he could be a dominating tackle on the collegiate level. Granted the Irish still have tackle prospects in Matt Romine, Taylor Dever, and potentially Emeka Nwankwo, but the loss of Little still hurts.

Greg Little has all the tools to become a great college receiver making his last minute switcheroo even more disappointing for Notre Dame fans. While many may have speculated that Little was headed for defense, the Notre Dame coaches had told him he was going to be a wide receiver. Little could have made an impact with the Irish almost immediately because of his pure athleticism.

Both of these decommitments will have Notre Dame fans calling for an early signing period all off-season long and Weis echoes those sentiments. “I’m a big proponent of an early signing period. Two years in a row now I’ve had one mission when I went down to the head coach’s meeting, was to change instant replay. This year it was early signing period,” Weis told the media when asked whether he was in favor of an early signing period or not.

Weis would later add, “I think the first way, starting on the proactive, is our own view towards people that are committed to us because obviously sometimes what a commitment means doesn’t hold much water.”

The events from Wednesday will change the way Weis and his staff recruits for 2007 and beyond. There won’t be any more silent verbals or soft verbals or anything like that anymore after a slew of supposed silent verbals this year (none of which ever progressed into actual commitments). Weis ended his press conference rather bluntly with “If they’re looking, we’re looking. That’s it.”