Yes it does because ultimitely, thats where the kids want to be. When you have a college program and it has a reputation for getting guys drafted and has a pipeline of coaches that know how the college coach runs his programs, that part of the recruiting pitch. Pete carrol can go into a living room and say look at last years draft. he can say sanchez,cushing,matthews jr and all the other cats getting drafted. Thats a selling point and if you don't think it is, you're not being realistic. Saban can not only sale the crimson tide history, but he can use the bilichek-parcells relationship and notice how the patriots guys and now dolphin guys go get groh's,saban,and miles players. Young kids know that, they read that, and they see that kind of action. When ND go into a living room, what is their selling point? I remember bobby taylor,mike miller,tim brown all leaving texas to go to ND because they were producing nfl caliber players. The Bus came from detroit when it wouldve been easy to go to michigan or michgan state. 3 first rd pck in 10 years and you're going to tell me that has nothing to do with recruiting?
Maybe the $5 magazines aren't worth a damn and are premature. There are plenty of maybe, but for all those who think i'm wrong, go look up the last time the irish were title contenders, lets say 93 when they beat charlie ward and crew and see how many of those guys were drafted. The 94 draft they had 3 1st rd picks. In the last 10 years they had 3 total.
I've tried responding 5 times to his last argument about how ND can't tell recruits they'll get drafted like USC can so, therefore, they don't recruit as well. I just can't do it. I'm baffled at how he just doesn't understand.
I know what you're saying, believe me, i do, but thats what i'm saying, the sell point. What can ND tell the kids south of the mason dixon that will get them to come to ND? My nephew was the top 4a football player in texas. I've known casey and rogers their entire life and when they got leeter from nd, they didn't even open them or respond. When a school like nd is working with such a small base to begin with, the sell job becomes even more difficult. I think they should be better for sure and maybe the new coach can clutivate those highly touted classes and turn them into high end prospects, but there is a correlation to program strength and nfl prospects.
And how did they get that history? Oklahoma wasn't known as an NFL powerhouse in 1999. Texas and A&M were on the rise, controlling recruiting Texas. And yet Bob Stoops was able to recruit and succeed just fine - winning a national title in 2 years. Your opinion seems to be that you have to be good to be good. And yet all sorts of places consistently prove that wrong by becoming good. Cincinnati is a perfect example of that, having won 10, 11, and 12 games the last three years - without any facilities, without any history, without any NFL pipeline, and right in Ohio State's backyard.
And....they still got him. For those who say ND can't come back or isn't a good job, which one of these programs looked better than ND looks now before they got their current coaches? - UT before Mack Brown - Alabama before Saban - Florida before Meyer A&M should also be a great job IMO.
All those are big state schools in fertile recruiting areas. I see what nd is trying to do just like texas before brown, but in the same instance, tamu was killing ut in recruiting and mackovick couldn't beat them or ok on a consistent basis. Mack brown coming from unc is similar to the cincy coach in respects to coming to a place with better everything and a better base. The problem in that is going from a big state university like cincy that can take all kinds of kids and texas which can take alot of the same kids to a school that cant take the same kind of kids is huge. UNC has a fertile base also, but more importantly, they're a public school vs ND. Alabama had problems mainly because of cheating and saban brought his championship and pro pedigree with him. Urban meyer didn't think twice and it was in his contract, but when he saw the kids he can get from florida and surrounding states, it was a easy decision. In college football, its more about talent than coaching. There are alot of games when a powehouse can roll their helmet out there and its a mismtch. The overral team speed on some of the southern teams rosters and usc and then match them to some of the northen schools and its not close. ND hasn't even competed with the top tier teams in awhile. Yeah, they can play all three of the service academies and thats good for history, but usc has mopped the field with them and its clearly talent. Yeah they can get a top recruit here and there, but can they layer and have the depth needed to keep the programs on top?
I'm not making excuses, but it couldve been a case where the kid saw the depth chart and didn't think he wouldn't play for a while. I mean booty and sanchez were already there if i'm not mistaken and maybe the kid saw a chance to play.
We will see. 3 yrs later and the 07 class shouuld have draftable elite talent according to rivals. I guess we will see in this draft.
People need to burn Kelly for leaving early. Do I care? Not at all. Had to make a career choice. But one could say it shows he was not emotionally vested in Cincinnati's season. Here is the deal, why I want him burned. What if Sergio Kindle says hey I will not play in the bowl game, I am protecting my NFL stock and looking at the next level. People would burn him to a crisp. Same scenario. So make it fair. Burn Kelly's ass.
Please tell me what Cincinatti, Boise State, Rutgers, West Virginia, Virginia Tech, Oregon, Oregon State, Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State and Utah are able to sell to the kids of the South to get them to choose those schools over places like Texas? I don't know what Notre Dame's reasonable peak is, but they should be just as good as the elite teams of the Big East or the Big 10.
What they turned out to be has nothing to do with whether ND can recruit. At the time, these were the top prospects that all the big schools were after. ND was able to compete with those big schools and still get them. Unless you believe all those other schools really didn't want these kids and were just pretending and hoping they wouldn't accept, it disproves the point that ND can't compete on the recruiting trails.
According to Tom Dienhart from Rivals.com twitter account, Cincinatti has asked permision to talk to Kevin Sumlin.
You don't judge a recruiting class by whether or not they play in the NFL. That is absolutely ridiculous. I guess by that logic, Tommy Frazier wasn't a very good recruit. Or Charlie Ward. Or Eric Crouch. The list goes on and on...
From Twitter: RT @TomDienhart: Cincinnati has asked for permission to talk to Houston coach Kevin Sumlin.
I guess Tebow was a terrible recruit because he's not projected to have much NFL success? And being a private school doesn't seem to have affected Stanford's ability to go 8 - 4, with a Heisman candidate. Or TCU's six 10+ win seasons in the last 8 years.
