Logan Weeks

With the firing of Charlie Weis, who will be next?

Notre Dame announced yesterday that Charlie Weis will no longer be the head coach of the Fighting Irish. Not only does that raise the question, “Who will coach Notre Dame next year,” you have to wonder what is going on with recruits that have already committed to Notre Dame.

There have been many rumors about who the Irish will be contacting as far as head coaches for next season and interim head coach, Rob Ianello, will be stepping in as head coach and taking over recruiting for the time being.

The list of possible coaches that have been mentioned are current ESPN analyst and former head NFL coach, John Gruden. Florida’s Urban Meyer, Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops, Cincinnati’s Brian Kelly, Stanford’s Jim Harbaugh, and TCU’s Gary Patterson. Now within the next week or so that list should be narrowed down to a few and some of those names will be crossed off, but most importantly, what is happening with recruiting?

Standout receiver and Biletnikoff finalist, Golden Tate, has a decision to make if he will return next year for his senior season, as well as junior Quarterback Jimmy Clausen. Tate told the Chicago Tribune that, “what Jimmy (Clausen) does is very important on my decision. The coaching change is very important on my decision. So I don’t know.” Tate said that he would meet Friday with former head coach Charlie Weis and his family to discuss his decision on whether he will stay or go (to the NFL).

As far as high school recruiting, no one has backed out of their Notre Dame Commitment yet. Tai’ler Jones, a four-star recruit receiver has said that the coaching move will not effect his commitment to Notre Dame. Also, in an article by Erik Brady in the USA Today, four-star recruit Andrew Hendrix, from Moeller High School in Cincinnati, who I have talked about in previous posts, his high school football coach said that he will not back out of Notre Dame. “He’s definitely still a Notre Dame commitment, but a lot hinges on who is the next head coach.”

Also, Giovanni Bernard, another four-star recruit, said in the USA Today article that his decision will not change. “I chose the school, not the coach,” Bernard says, “because of all its tradition and because of how it can help me after football and because it is one of the best academic institutions.”

The article talked about how Notre Dame has not been in the top ten in recruiting, but has struggled as of late to pull in top recruits. That is understandable to a certain extent. Notre Dame doesn’t get the pick of the litter like they used to in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, but they are still ranked in the top 20 just about every year when it comes down to recruiting. Right now they are ranked 11th in the nation (barring no one decommitting) in recruiting so they still don’t have too hard of a time bringing in top talent, but we will see in the upcoming weeks how they do with holding on to guys that have committed, as well as trying to still get top talent to commit that they have been after for awhile now.

Keep checking out the blog and I will try to keep you posted!

This is a good article about Charlie Weis and who could be replacing him as the Notre Dame head football coach next season.(article)

It is not definite, but Weis may have drawn his last straw with a loss to a 4-5 opponent in Connecticut, but more importantly the Irish fall to 6-5. A season that had implications of going to a BCS bowl game and possibly a national championship, Weis and the Irish have grossly underachieved.

Not only does Charlie look to be on his way out, but quarterback, Jimmy Clausen, and wide-receiver, Golden Tate, could potentially be going to the NFL next season. This could all be a disaster for recruiting for next season, especially if the Irish can’t figure out soon what they are going to do for a head coach next football season.

Joshua Shaw from Palmdale, California, committed to Florida last night. Shaw, a four star recruit, was interested in Notre Dame and made his visit to Notre Dame on 10/16/2009.

Shaw will help improve a Florida secondary and recruiting class that has already has four, four-star, and one five-star defensive back commits. Now there are two ways to look at this situation, Notre Dame fans can be upset that they didn’t get a cornerback that could help out the Irish defense that has not played this well this season, or fans of the Irish can now look at a guy like Lamarcus Joyner who is still very much on Notre Dame’s radar as much as Notre Dame is on his, as a definite possibility as a commit.

Joyner has his schools narrowed down to Notre Dame, Florida State, and Ohio State. Notre Dame and Ohio State are the two schools that he has taken visits to so far. Although Shaw did not commit to Notre Dame he still said that he seriously considered coming to play for the Irish, and that is promising (video).

Other recruits for defensive back who are being recruited heavily by the Irish are Marquis Flowers from Goodyear, Arizona, is the 87th ranked recruit in the nation and Dietrich Riley from La Canada, California, is ranked 93rd in the nation on rivals.com.

Flowers has a ton of schools that have given offers, but the only place he has visited has been Notre Dame on 11/6/2009. Flowers, at 6 foot 3 and 195 pounds, could be a great safety prospect who could potentially step in for a guy like Kyle McCarthy who will be graduating after this season.

Riley looks like a guy who could help out at either safety or cornerback. His 4.47 (40 time) shows he has the wheels to play the corner spot as well.

Look for Notre Dame to sign one of these stellar secondary recruits. If they can get a commitment from any of these three guys (Flowers, Joyner, Riley) they could really help the Irish not only in the secondary, but could bump their recruiting class into the top ten in the nation.

Losing #28 Kyle McCarthy next season will be a big hole to fill

The recruiting class for next football season looks solid and could potentially get a whole lot better. With guys like Anthony Barr and Seantrel Henderson (both I have wrote about in previous posts) still undecided, it could really pump this recruiting class to the top five in the nation.

So far the Irish have reached verbal commitments from one five star, eight four star, and nine three star recruits. This ranks them right behind USC who ranks 10th. Despite not having signed one five star recruit the nation, Texas leads the country largely by receiving commitments from 17 four star recruits.

The Irish will have the opportunity to sign more five and four star recruits in up coming months, but so far an 11th ranked recruiting class looks promising even though the Irish have lost two straight games to Navy and Pittsburgh.

With Jimmy Clausen potentially leaving to the NFL next season, backup Dayne Crist out for the rest of the season with an ACL tear, and senior, third string quarterback, Evan Sharpley graduating, the Irish will need to set their sights on a potential starting quarterback, not only for the distant future, but possibly for the start of next season.

Luckily, the Irish have already got the verbal commitment of Andrew Hendrix. The four-star recruit is ranked 222 on rivals and has an grade of 80 from the scouts on ESPN’s recruiting website, and will come into Notre Dame next season with a potential bid for a starting spot. Now that would be a stretch if Clausen were to return or if Crist looks good coming into next season and recovers well from the ACL tear.

Since the Irish did not take a quarterback in last year’s recruiting class, it was imperative that they got a quality quarterback in this year’s class especially with all of the question marks they have surrounding the position.

With a better than average rating and a being a four star recruit, Hendrix has already brought some attention to himself, but this is what I saw when I watched his tape: If you watch the video of Hendrix, you will see that almost all of his throws are on the run, and for a guy who stands at 6 foot 3, that is a huge plus. Many great quarterbacks have trouble throwing on the run, especially guys over 6 feet tall. Hendrix looks like a player that has a ton of upside, because if he gets stuck in the pocket he can roll out and make tough throws on the run or tuck it away and run for a big gain.

Hendrix could be a great addition for the Irish for future years!

Video of Hendrix

Photo courtesy of uhnd.com

After a long day of trying to stop the triple option running attack of the Navy Midshipmen this weekend, Notre Dame needs to be searching for solid defensive play makers that can help stop the run. Navy rushed for 348 yards and 6.1 yards per carry. Much of the Irish defense returns next year, but Notre Dame must be looking to make improvements on a defense that has been less than stellar this season.

Most likely, junior linebacker Brian Smith will be back next season as well as freshman linebacker, Manti Te’o, who has showed signs of brilliance this year on the defense, but clearly has holes in his game that any freshman would experience at this stage. The other linebacker Notre Dame had playing against Navy was junior Harrison Smith who is clearly undersized as a linebacker, but played linebacker due to injuries already sustained at that position. Smith’s original position is free safety/strong safety. So as you may expect, the Irish need help at linebacker, enter: Anthony Barr from Loyola High School in Los Angeles, California.

With the verbal commit of defensive end Chris Martin and possible signing of J.R. Ferguson, the defensive line looks like it may have a few of the pieces that it needs. Barr is listed at 6 foot 4, 230 pounds on rivals.com and is the 22nd ranked prospect overall. Barr is also listed as the 103rd ranked high school player in the country on the ESPN recruiting website. Both sites have Barr listed as an athlete and not listed under any position. What that means is, many teams will likely move him around, especially if they don’t have a need at running back. Although Barr has played running back in high school, he has a lot of upside as a linebacker. His frame is the size you usually start with when producing a linebacker, and rivals.com has compared him to New York Giant running back, Brandon Jacobs.

Barr has taken his only official college visit to Notre Dame and both ESPN and rivals.com show that he has narrowed his choices down to two schools, Notre Dame and UCLA. Barr took his official visit to Notre Dame on 10/2/2009. He has not taken one yet to UCLA.

Although Barr could be exceptional at running back, here are a few reasons why he probably wouldn’t play in the backfield if he commits to Notre Dame.

Armando Allen is a junior who will likely come back next year because of a slew of injury problems that have hampered his success this year. Even though Allen hasn’t played in every game, he has showed brilliance when he has played and has beefed up since last year, which was about the only glaring weakness in his game because Allen can flat out fly. Junior Robert Hughes, the bruising running back will likely return, freshman Theo Riddick has looked good in the few touches he has had this season, as well as sophomore Jonas Gray. Weis has expressed his feelings toward Riddick and really likes what the freshman has been doing so far this season, not only running the ball, but in the return game as well. Even with all of those running backs returning, don’t forget the five star recruit, Cierre Wood, a freshman running back that Weis recruited and has redshirted for the season.

As you can see, the running back position is full and probably will be for years to come, but if the Irish can bring in Barr, they could use him in a variety of ways. One of them could be helping out the linebacking core that gave up 348 yards of rushing to Navy.

With a loss to Navy, this video reminds us why we are still fans.

Toney Hurd Jr., a four star recruit, from Missouri City, Texas, has committed to Notre Dame over other schools like, Texas A & M, Oklahoma State, Oregon, and Florida State.

Hurd is a cornerback who will help out a Notre Dame secondary who has struggled mightily this season. With a senior like Kyle McCarthy, at safety, leaving after the season, has provided not only leadership on a shoddy defense, but has made made a significant impact at the end of big games this season in clutch circumstatces.

The secondary could possibly be a strength in the future for the Irish if they keep bringing in top recruits in the secondary. Their offense has been rolling on all cylinders as of late, especially with juniors Jimmy Clausen and Golden Tate leading the offense (both are heisman candidates) and possibly coming back next year.

Another guy who could possibly help the secondary of the Irish is cornerback, Lamarcus Joyner. Joyner is a prospect from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and played at the same high school as current NFL prospect, and Irish offensive tackle, Sam Young, at the #1 ranked high school in the nation, St. Thomas Aquinas (Florida).

Rivals has Joyner listed as the 14th ranked prospect overall and 3rd ranked defensive back prospect. Joyner could be another guy to help this secondary of the Irish, if not, he could help create some competition in the secondary. Of all the schools recruiting Joyner, he has narrowed his focus to just three. Ohio State, Florida State, and Notre Dame are all in the running for the signing of Joyner. So far Joyner has only taken his visits to Notre Dame and Ohio State.  With the commitment of Hurd, and interest of Joyner, it looks like the Irish are making moves to fill the void that they have in the secondary.

The win over Washington State was a big one for the Fighting Irish this weekend. Not only did they win, but they actually got their second blow out of the season (40-14). Thanks in large part to the recruiting class of 2007.

Jimmy Clausen, Robert Hughes, Duval Kamara, Golden Tate, and Brian Smith all had spectacular games. They were all, also part of a recruiting class that has helped Charlie Weis win over the past few years and this year.

This squad is really coming into its own and the class of 2007 has something to do with that.