If that were the case, Kentucky would have the number one rated recruiting classes each year in CBB.
Don't buy that reasoning at all.
If that were the case, Kentucky would have the number one rated recruiting classes each year in CBB.
Don't buy that reasoning at all.
This win should vault them into the top 12 or so.
0 Value Over Replacement Poster
"Sit over here next to Johnathan (Bench)...sit right here, he's smart."--Sparky Anderson
When I see the 2016 Reds, I see a 100 loss team and no direction.
My apologies, I got the Fat Charlie term from a Patriots fan.
I figured it was a term of endearment.
And you're right, Navy's turned their program around, while Notre Dame's attempting to keep their head above water (playing a cupcake schedule, no less).
Kudos to Navy, but Notre Dame's sense of entitlement is amusing to me, and the fact they celebrated beating a military academy is IMO laughable.
Actually, thats not true - the reason so many of us were so happy to see Willingham gone was because he could not recruit. Just didn't care. The reason Notre Dame is down right now is because Willingham left the cupboard absolutely bare with lower classmen. He had the Quinn/Stovall/Jeff S. junior class and then nothing below it. He completely stopped recruiting linemen of any kind.
So, you do have to work to recruit at ND - Urban Meyer (that no good SOB, good Catholic my butt) went to Florida because of recruiting. He asked for more latitude in allowing kids in and thus niether side got really anywhere in him coming to ND. But make no mistake about it, he had it written into his contract at Utah that he could bolt with no buyout at any time for one job and one job only - ND.
To Weis - he is a top notch recruiter. I mean absolutely top notch. You can say all you want that sites overrate ND kids, or its money driven, but what you have to realize is that ND won't even recruit a kid who can't qualify with their standards (and its more than just GPA, they have to have taken certain courses at the High School level, so even if they have the GPA if they haven't taken these set classes they are not eligible). It really limits the pool that say an Alabama class will take.
Anyway, again, the ability of Weis to coach these kids that are so highly rated is what will determine if he gets more than one more year. He was an amazing coach in year 1, but since then he has been average at best as an in game coach (and I'm including prep work) and he needs to get better. A lot better. So we'll see.
"I came here to kick ass and chew bubble gum... and I'm all out of bubble gum."
- - Rowdy Roddy Piper
"It takes a big man to admit when he is wrong. I am not a big man"
- - Fletch
But then again Charlie Weis took Willingham's players to two BCS games. They didn't deserve to go but they went regardless.Actually, thats not true - the reason so many of us were so happy to see Willingham gone was because he could not recruit. Just didn't care. The reason Notre Dame is down right now is because Willingham left the cupboard absolutely bare with lower classmen. He had the Quinn/Stovall/Jeff S. junior class and then nothing below it. He completely stopped recruiting linemen of any kind.
One of the main reasons ND is where they are now is Weis hans't been able to transition a top notch recruit into a top notch football player. The best coaches in college football take the freshman who walk into the door day one and improve them every day in every practice. Weis has had a problem taking a player and developing him.
The thing I like most about Charlie Weis is that he's making Gerry Faust look good by comparison. Faust was the polar opposite of Weis when it comes to humility and is widely-regarded as a fine human being, but his ND teams couldn't win. I was never sorrier to see a coach fail so miserably than I was about Gerry Faust.
Charlie's got the whole negative package.
/r/reds
Thats true - but you still need upperclassmen to bridge some of the gap. Notre Dame lacked three things - team speed, line play on both sides of the ball, and defensive playmakers.
Speed, you can bring in. Line play - thats the area where freshman and sophomores can't come in and make immediate impacts. We still lack defensive playmakers and thats Weis' fault.
And ND absolutely deserved to go to a BCS bowl in Year 1 - They were 9-2, beat a very good Michigan team, took a great USC team to the last play of the game, beat Penn State. Year one they were good.
Now, year two, I'll agree - but a 10-2 ND team will always go to the BCS, deserving or no. Just like an 11-1 OSU team will always go - sure ND has an extra loss to play with, but thats life.
"I came here to kick ass and chew bubble gum... and I'm all out of bubble gum."
- - Rowdy Roddy Piper
"It takes a big man to admit when he is wrong. I am not a big man"
- - Fletch
Interesting.
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/...43/1065/SPORTSNotre Dame, Meyer seem like perfect fit
November 20, 2008
It was a parenthetical pause. An aside in a column I wrote last week comparing the differing coaching styles between the University of Florida's Living Legend (Steve Spurrier) and current legend, or Urban Legend, (Urban Meyer). It was an opinion I threw into the churning sea that is Gator Nation, which was quickly treated as chum.
Oh, the e-mails.
Why do I think Urban Meyer would go to Notre Dame?
First, let me interject to say that just because I think Notre Dame is in Meyer's future doesn't mean I want it to be. It'd be great to see him spend the next 20 years of his coaching life at UF. I just don't think he will.
Again, that's just an opinion; an opinion that got heavy reaction.
A common contention in my e-mail in-box is that in 2004, Meyer turned down Notre Dame in favor of becoming Florida's coach. Why, then, would he leave a school he once chose over Notre Dame to go to Notre Dame?
Why?
Because things change.
After winning the 1996 National Championship, Spurrier went to bed prepared to wake up the next morning and take the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' job. He didn't. But five years later, he did jump to the NFL. Things change.
In his authorized biography "Urban's Way," written with former FLORIDA TODAY sports editor Buddy Martin, Meyer refers to his Big Three coaching jobs, the only three his wife Shelley has no veto power to block him from taking a job at. They are Notre Dame, Ohio State and Michigan.
Of those three, Meyer's self-proclaimed "dream job" -- his quote, not mine -- is Notre Dame, where he was once an assistant under Lou Holtz, spending five years with the Golden Domers. Meyer also spent the first two years of his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Ohio State, where he earned his master's degree. He is an Ohio boy who grew up revering Woody Hayes.
So why didn't Meyer take the Fighting Irish job in 2004? Because the timing wasn't right. His authorized biography explains, "Florida's biggest advantage would turn out to be Urban's and Shelley's desire for a strong family life, because he could recruit closer to home."
At Notre Dame, you recruit nationally, which means flying around the country, away from home a lot more. At a state school like Florida, you can recruit a kid, or several kids, during the day, and still be home for dinner, or at one of your kid's practices, that night. With a young family, that mattered a lot. But even with that in play, turning down Notre Dame was very difficult, as Meyer notes in this passage in his biography:
"I wanted to go to Notre Dame," Meyer admitted, "but my family wanted to talk about going to Florida."
Shelley knew how tough the decision was for her husband because "he left his heart at Notre Dame when we left there last time -- he really, really, really loved Notre Dame."
That's "really" loved three times, if you're scoring at home.
So, again, the main reason Meyer chose Florida over Notre Dame in 2004 was because he had a young family.
Memo to Gator fans: The family isn't that young anymore.
Oldest daughter Nicole is 18, getting ready to leave the nest and head to Georgia Tech on a volleyball scholarship. Next oldest is Gigi, 15, a high school sophomore. Then there's Nathan, who turns 10 Monday. Soon, he'll only have one child at home, which makes it much easier for him to balance his professional and personal life -- i.e. the rigors of coaching the Fighting Irish.
All of this is relevant, of course, because Charlie Weis continues to struggle at Notre Dame. You just know that if Notre Dame could trade Weis for Meyer, they'd do it in a heartbeat.
If you're the Fighting Irish, you must have a short list of candidates in mind if you do make a coaching change. And if you're the Fighting Irish, Urban Meyer absolutely has to top that list.
In my opinion, Meyer is one of the country's three best college coaches, along with Southern Cal's Pete Carroll and Alabama's Nick Saban.
For Notre Dame's purposes, Meyer is the guy who repeatedly, and even in his current biography, calls coaching your football program his "dream job." He's also, and this is no small consideration, devoutly Catholic, even named after a pope.
For Notre Dame's purposes, Meyer runs a clean program, wins, works like a maniac, is passionate about recruiting, and cares deeply about what kind of men he produces off the football field.
In short, he is everything Notre Dame would want.
He is -- dare I say it? -- Notre Dame's dream coach.
Better yet, your dream coach calls your school his dream job. How often does that happen?
And people wonder why I think a marriage is inevitable?
For what it's worth, I discussed the topic yesterday with Buddy Martin, author of "Urban's Way." Buddy's gotten closer to Meyer than any journalist I know, and he reiterated to me that "Notre Dame is Urban's first love."
Will it be his last love?
Martin said he doesn't see Meyer coaching the Gators beyond the length of his current contract, which has five years remaining.
Me?
I don't see him lasting that long.
Again, just an opinion.
What a shocker today - Syra freaking cuse?
Yikes
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