Recruiting Thread:

[purguy12]

Defense is going to be our weak link this year. No Tuitt or Nix. Oh boy.

 

[Irish7478]

Defense is going to be our weak link this year. No Tuitt or Nix. Oh boy.

Or Shembo, or Schwenke, or Fox, or Calabrese. The front seven is going to have a lot of new names next year. I hope talent overcomes inexperience.

 

[jjc2009]

Or Shembo, or Schwenke, or Fox, or Calabrese. The front seven is going to have a lot of new names next year. I hope talent overcomes inexperience.

Depth is more of a concern. The only real consistent performers we're losing are Nix, Tuitt and Shembo. We'll have a bit of a drop off at NT (assuming we retain a 3-4 alignment), but Jones has shown he can do something there. Needs to be more consistent and needs to have someone who can spell him. Wel'll get back Springmann for depth. Rochel and Day should do fine. The younger guys are going to have to get into the mix sooner rather than later.

Other option is going to a 4-3 and bringing down some of the LBs as another end, like I. Williams or Okwara seem like the obvious choices there.

At LB, if Grace gets healthy and returns to some of his later season form, we'll have two proven starters at LB with him and Smith (I. Williams needs to reach his potential here as well). The issue is the other ILB position. Deeb, Randolph and Morgan all have a shot here, although I think Morgan can battle for, and beat out Grace at the Mike LB spot.

 

[eric5577x]

If these young LB can play, like people think they can, we should be OK. Smith is going to be a beast and if Grace can come back, we should be pretty good there. It is going to be a learning curve with these young guys, and they are going to have to play. Offense might have to win some guys this yr as the def learns. I am excited for this yr that is for dam sure!!

 

[Irish7478]

Depth is more of a concern. The only real consistent performers we're losing are Nix, Tuitt and Shembo. We'll have a bit of a drop off at NT (assuming we retain a 3-4 alignment), but Jones has shown he can do something there. Needs to be more consistent and needs to have someone who can spell him. Wel'll get back Springmann for depth. Rochel and Day should do fine. The younger guys are going to have to get into the mix sooner rather than later.

Other option is going to a 4-3 and bringing down some of the LBs as another end, like I. Williams or Okwara seem like the obvious choices there.

At LB, if Grace gets healthy and returns to some of his later season form, we'll have two proven starters at LB with him and Smith (I. Williams needs to reach his potential here as well). The issue is the other ILB position. Deeb, Randolph and Morgan all have a shot here, although I think Morgan can battle for, and beat out Grace at the Mike LB spot.

If we move to a 4-3, I definately see I. Williams moving to the DE position. I think our new D coordinator seems to like the 4-3, but I think we will have better and deeper personnel at the LB position.

 

[purguy12]

They will also bring Moore back for Depth.

 

[purguy12]

If these young LB can play, like people think they can, we should be OK. Smith is going to be a beast and if Grace can come back, we should be pretty good there. It is going to be a learning curve with these young guys, and they are going to have to play. Offense might have to win some guys this yr as the def learns. I am excited for this yr that is for dam sure!!

Problem with young kids is it takes some time. J. Smith didn't start looking great until game 5 or 6. Offense is going to need to carry us the 1st couple of games until the Defense starts to gel

 

[eric5577x]

Problem with young kids is it takes some time. J. Smith didn't start looking great until game 5 or 6. Offense is going to need to carry us the 1st couple of games until the Defense starts to gel

I agree, not going to be easy that is for sure.

 

[whywork2]

Poe,
I had to reply back today on our Wisconsin weather, just fricking vicious. Earlier today it was minus 42 with the wind chill. Right now we have -17 and wind chill is around minus 39. If the Packer game would have been one day later it would have been the coldest game in NFL history. It's just brutal and couldn't imagine football in this weather. Cars left out wouldn't start. Schools closed. Pretty much no one out.

 

[purguy12]

That is crazy.

 

[purguy12]

Update on Recruiting:

-McKenzie- Its looking really good for ND. Look for him to be !00% Irish by the end of this week maybe early next. This is a great pick up for ND.

JuJu- Smith still talks to ND a lot. He still looks like he will end up at USC but ND is in 2nd right now and ND coaches have a visit with him right after he sees USC. His parents want him to go to ND because of football and education.

Sidenote: Tyler isn't going any where. His mother has been very out spoken about his son going to ND and how much she loves ND.

Quick- ND is hanging in there but the only reason they are still in it is because Denbrock. He is having a great recruiting year. JuJu says this is one of his fav coaches. Quick still looks like a long shot but you never know. Most think he will end up some where else.

ND got OK for 2 new visits. 2 4 star recruits.

-Braden Smith- Weekend of Jan 17. Kid has big up size.
-Terrence Alexander- Weekend of Jan 17. We made up a lot of ground here. Teams to beat Stanford and Ole Miss. ND would use him as a CB to cover the slot guy.

 

[poewelch84]

Sounds like good news with McKenzie, and he may be the last player they get in this class.

 

[purguy12]

ND loses DL Dickerson to UCLA. not good for ND because we are thin at DL. overall bad move by this kid. we are losing 2 DLmen and u leave. oh well we haveto move on

 

[jjc2009]

ND loses DL Dickerson to UCLA. not good for ND because we are thin at DL. overall bad move by this kid. we are losing 2 DLmen and u leave. oh well we haveto move on

Well if rumors are true, they pulled the old, lets see what other sport can offer to your relatives ploy. Jim Mora is the new Urban Meyer when it comes to going after our guys late. The bright spot is I heard MacKenzie met the NCAA clearinghouse. That doesn't automatically mean that he meets ND's admissions standards, but I think they were going to go to the mat for this kid, so I guess thats a positive, especially if we land him. Nobody paid him much attention until the all star game and now some big players are after him late. Part of that was his academic problems part of that was his size, but he showed a lot of speed and quickness that impressed a lot of people that didn't have him on their radars. I just hope he remembers who had interst in him early and stuck by him. Loyalty's a thing still, right?

 

[purguy12]

He will be Irish. Its like 99% done. Nice pick up for us. We are in trouble with DL depth and talent. We have Jones and Day and maybe Rochell. We need another 2-3 guys that can give us Min and I don't think we have it.

We are in big trouble. I don't understand why we can't land a big time DLmen. We have a good track record.

 

[poewelch84]

Trumbetti will factor in, he will be on campus this semester and judging by the Under Armour game he's better than people believed him to be. Maybe the switching of coaches will help land Holley back in Notre Dame's favor. Potentially one of the DE/OLB in this class can develop into a defensive end or someone like Ishaq Williams. At the end of the day I think this team will have to switch to a 4-3.

 

[jjc2009]

Agreed. Purguy I think you're forgetting we get Springman back. We switch to a 4-3 with Day and jones inside, Rochel and Ishaq on the ends. We work in Springman inside as well as Trumbetti and Okwara matsuka and one of the freshman. We lack depth and none of these guys are game changers but we'll see who steps up.

 

[poewelch84]

Agreed. Purguy I think you're forgetting we get Springman back. We switch to a 4-3 with Day and jones inside, Rochel and Ishaq on the ends. We work in Springman inside as well as Trumbetti and Okwara matsuka and one of the freshman. We lack depth and none of these guys are game changers but we'll see who steps up.

I'm looking for Sheldon Day and Jones to step up myself and Rochell to continue his development. Maybe Ishaq will finally hit his stride.

 

[Irish7478]

Agreed. Purguy I think you're forgetting we get Springman back. We switch to a 4-3 with Day and jones inside, Rochel and Ishaq on the ends. We work in Springman inside as well as Trumbetti and Okwara matsuka and one of the freshman. We lack depth and none of these guys are game changers but we'll see who steps up.

I agree. Even though we have little depth in the D line, I think our personnel is better suited to play the 4-3. And our new D coordinator has a history of playing the 4-3.

 

[awclayton]

I just read that 2 big (no pun intended) D line recruits decommitted from Louisville. Maybe an opportunity to add some depth to the D line.