Even if Stoops leaves, he's built a really solid organization. They would prob promote from within or bring Kevin Sumlin back. He's a great coach but I wouldn't mind seeing OU go through some bad years.
Honestly, I hope he does. I'd like to see ND return to glory, but more importantly, Stoops out of the Big 12.
Please site the source of those false claims nd has been tops in recruiting. When ND was good, they could walk into dallas and get tim brown. They could go get jerome bettis from detroit. They could basically go into any living room and compete because they played on tv every week. Now, kids want to see guys going into the draft, weather,and winning. If a kid has to choose ut,usc,florida or notre dame, its not even a fair contest. Go look at the facilities of those programs and compare them to ND. Go look at the players drafted in the 1st rd and compare them to nd. Kids are open and see all these factors and they don't care about the four horsemen. What they can see is ou,ut,the entire sec, and the other powers puttin guys in the draft. The last 1st rd pick for nd was quinn and he went late. In that same draft, lsu had like 3 or 4 1st rd picks. Kids want to know if you can get them into the nfl and so far, nd cant answer that question.
2010, ND currently has the #11 ranked recruiting class. 2009, ND had the #21 ranked recruiting class. 2008, ND had the #2 ranked recruiting class. 2007, ND had the #8 ranked recruiting class. 2006, ND had the #8 ranked recruiting class. http://footballrecruiting.rivals.com/TeamRank.asp?postype=0&sort=0&year=2010
Thats should tell you those recruiting class grade magazines aren't worth a wooden nickel. I judge recruiting clases by how many games they win because even if you have talent and the program is losing, the scouts see these guys and draft them Look at virginia,ole miss and even some of the non high profile programs. They may not have won alot of games, but the players got drafted because they had talent. In ND's case, they haven't had talent note coaching.
Obviously the recruiting services are not fool-proof, but they do a fairly good job of predicting future success. I read an article that ran the numbers, and they were pretty favorable. One thing you must realize is that recruiting classes don't pay dividends immediately. Their 2008 class will probably pay dividends next season or the season after. Texas' legendary 2002 class resulted in a championship in 2005.
A lot of the good players from those recruiting classes are just now becoming sophomores or juniors. I agree that ND hasn't put out a lot of NFL talent lately but the NFL talent in the recent classes are really just now becoming available. Clausen is likely to be a high first round pick. Both Golden Tate and Michael Floyd could be picked pretty high as well.
I think you're underestimating the power that a coaching change can have on a program. Look at OU after Stoops, UT after Mack, Bama after Saban, Florida after Urban, etc...OU, UT, and Bama all went through stretches of being very mediocre and not putting out NFL talent but the right coaches got these programs back. I agree that kids look at the whole package now a days but ND still has a TON to offer, especially if they can get a high profiled coach like Stoops. ND still has the t.v. schedule and still gets a TON of media regardless of their win %. I don't think their facilities are as bad as you make it seem. And with the right coach, they could get back to winning and putting out NFL talent. I am by no means a ND fan, but I do think the right coach could turn the program around much easier than you think.
Dr. Lou said that ND had a new $25 million dollar athletic facility. And it's true their recruiting classes have been highly ranked. If they just get their fair share of Catholic players they will do pretty well. (why Baylor can't get baptist players I don't know) Coach Stoops absolutely HAS to make the definitive statement that he is staying at OU whether he is thinking about ND or not. The mere hint of a rumor effects OU recruiting. In fact there are probably several Big 12 boosters posting "inside knowledge" on blogs that he is as good as gone.
Not related to Stoops but not sure it deserves it's own thread. Charlie Strong, Florida's Defensive Coordinator, looks to be close to being named Louisville's Head Coach. The carousel is turning.
The sources were cited above, and I know you then attacked them. My question would be, why are those reports accurate when they rank the recruits highly from USC or Alabama, but horribly inaccurate when they rate the recruits of Notre Dame (who also get recruited by other schools)? Is it perhaps that they are not being coached right at Notre Dame? Is it that Notre Dame is recruiting players that don't fit what they want to do? I don't know the answers to those things, but I'm going to refuse to say it's because they are recruiting scrubs because that's all they can get. As to your point, you make the same idiotic mistake that all the pundits keep making. "If you can go to these select few awesome weather and babe schools or ND where are you going to go?" Sure, those schools have a big edge over ND. But, why can't Notre Dame beat out Michigan State, Michigan, Ohio State, West Virginia, Louisville, Purdue, Penn State, Boise State, Pitt... etc. People act like the only schools in the country are USC, Texas, LSu, and Florida when they discuss the problems for Notre Dame in recruiting, but that's just silly. As I mentioned on the other page, many programs have been successful THIS decade that do not have natural advantages of ND such as the weather, beaches and big breasted blondes.
It's amazing to me that someone could suggest that ND is behind the 8-ball when it comes to recruiting. The only reason they don't have a top 5 class every year is because of the coaches they've had over the last decade. Bob Davie, Ty Willingham, Charlie Weis....these aren't exactly household names in the world of college football. Bob Stoops, on the other hand... What kid wouldn't be excited having Bob Stoops walk into his livingroom wearing a golden visor telling him he wants him to come play football for him? If he were to go to Notre Dame, I can see him turning around that program as fast as he did at OU.
As I stated earlier there has been one non sec or warm weathered school to win the championship in the last decade. You can't expect to be a national power year in and year out in a cold weather school. The days of Michigan and OSU being a real threat every year to the national champs is over.
Was the north much warmer 10 years ago? Did kids suddenly just decide they like warm weather? The fact that 3 or 4 southern schools are really, really good right now is not any kind of evidence that it's impossible to do well in the north. That's just non-sensical analysis.
Just because you stated it earlier doesn't make it so. You don't think there's ANY other factors to consider? Like coaches, perhaps? How do you explain traditional (warm weather) powers like Florida State and Miami sucking so hard for the last 10 years? What about Tennessee? Auburn? Arkansas? What about Alabama pre-Saban? All programs go through ups and downs. I don't think it has anything to do with weather.
10 years ago there weren't 8 billion channels showing college football. You might have wanted to go to ND because they were always on TV. Now days that is not the case. Now to due to the internet and youtube anyone can be a star, therefore that advantage is gone for those schools.
