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Bad week for ND defensive recruiting.

 

Four star DE Justin Trattou decommits from ND to commit to Florida. This is a huge blow considering that Trattou was one of the few potential difference maker type defensive recruits, and he would have likely started from day one at ND. I always thought that Trattou was underrated, especially by Rivals. He had another big year stats wise, lead his team to an undefeated season, and really impressed during the AAA week. One coach said that he was the most dominating DE on the East squad and was beating the OT so often that they moved Marvin Austin to OT to try and slow him down in practice. Scout recently moved him to a five star recruit and rivals will likely upgrade his rating to a high four star and possible even a five star rating when their new rankings come out. To sum up, a huge blow for ND.

 

With all that said, while I am upset that ND is losing a great recruit, I have nothing wrong with a player decommitting. I think these kids have a right to change their minds and find the school that they feel is the best fit for them(or the one that pays the most). A verbal commitment is not written in stone, and until these guys sign the dotted line they have the right to change their minds. Lets not forget that these are still boy/young men and the decision they make will have a drastic effect on the rest of their lives. That is why I have no problem with Trattou decommitting, or Benn supposely being a silent commitment to ND and changing his mind, or Gordon deciding that IU was a better fit for him(although basketball is a little different).

 

ND took another hit when four star athlete(likely to be a LB) Malcom Smith choose SC over ND. This wasn't a huge surprise considering all the writing on the wall was pointing to SC(him being from Cal, his brother playing for SC, ect), but it was ND's last shot to get a potential difference maker at the LB position.

 

ND is still in the running for four star safety Wright, although word on the street is that his visit to ND was not great and ND is not in good shape with him(will likely come down to OSU and Miami).

 

Four star DE/DT Peters is planning on taking a visit to ND, but word on the street is that they have to really impress on this visit to have a legit shot with him. He would lessen the blow from the loss of Trattou, but I think he ends up in the South(if you are making pick one school I would say GT).

 

Some think that ND will go hard after DE Wilson with new defensive cord. Brown's ties to Chicago and Hughes committing to ND, but I think that it is an extreme long-shot and he will stay at Ill.

 

It looks like another top ten class for ND, but still some questions about the defensive side of the ball.

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Man recruiting in the South is freakin wild. I have only followed recruiting passively until this year, so it may be this way all the time, but it seems like verbal commitments are being ripped to shreds by the hour, especially down South. Some examples:

 

Alabama gets a solid commitment from former LSU commit DL Luther Davis.

Alabama loses commit 4-star QB Robert Marve, who now lists Miami as his leader.

Alabama is getting a visit this weekend from Kentucky commit, 4-star RB Demetrius Goode.

Alabama is getting a visit from 5-star UNC commit Dwight Jones, who is also looking at Tennessee very heavily.

Alabama is also getting a visit from Clemson commit, 4-star WR Markish Jones.

Notre Dame loses 4-star DE Justin Trattou to Florida.

Auburn commit, 3-star DT Josh Chapman is visiting Alabama this weekend.

Ole Miss commit, 4-star RB Robert Elliott is visiting Miss. State this weekend.

Alabama 4-star DE commit Kourtnei Brown is visiting UNC this weekend and is also considering Clemson.

 

I'm sure there are many others I have missed. I know it's not only in the South and much of this is likely due to the late naming of Nick Saban as Head Coach at Alabama. It just seems wild this year.

 

Thoughts?

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It's normally crazy, but not quite this crazy. There has been an inordinate amount of coaching changes that have caused chaos with recruiting. Take UNC for example, 5 star Dwight Jones has been drifting off a little, but I still feel good about it. But in his place guys like 4 star Kourtney Brown, 5 star Marvin Austin etc have really started to like UNC a lot. Both Saban and Butch should finish with top 20 football classes and have caused quite a few players committed other places to re-think their choices. Saban is trying everything in his power to woo #1 RB McKnight.

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Some teams want a recruit to wait and enroll the next January to not count towards the 25 enrollment maximum for a class in February. Basically it's for players that have either been hurt, or aren't as highly rated as some of their current prospects/commitments.

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ND finally got some good recruiting news. Unfortunately, they lost out on Peters(GT) and Wright(Flo) as expected, but they were able to take away two other recruits.

 

Walker(K) - Was committed to Louisville, but was wavering after Petrino left. Answered that he will change his commitment to ND today. This is a nice addition considering that ND's kicking game was bad to say the least last year, and freshman kicker Burkhart didn't instill much faith last year.

 

Smith(LB) - Was committed to Iowa, but was always a big ND fan after his father played for the Irish. ND originally didn't offer him, but new DC Brown liked what he saw in Smith and ND offered him. He changed his commitment last night and gives ND a good looking four star LB for their new three-four defense.

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QUOTE(whitesox61382 @ Jan 31, 2007 -> 09:09 AM)
ND finally got some good recruiting news. Unfortunately, they lost out on Peters(GT) and Wright(Flo) as expected, but they were able to take away two other recruits.

 

Walker(K) - Was committed to Louisville, but was wavering after Petrino left. Answered that he will change his commitment to ND today. This is a nice addition considering that ND's kicking game was bad to say the least last year, and freshman kicker Burkhart didn't instill much faith last year.

 

Smith(LB) - Was committed to Iowa, but was always a big ND fan after his father played for the Irish. ND originally didn't offer him, but new DC Brown liked what he saw in Smith and ND offered him. He changed his commitment last night and gives ND a good looking four star LB for their new three-four defense.

f***...I like ND but the Hawks are #1 in my world (ND #2) and they just nabbed our stud LB (but I guess at least he's going to my other team).

 

Iowa just landed some new guy apparently from Ohio and I'm sure he isn't a 4 star. Our recruiting class isn't looking too good (from the Iowa perspective) after we lost on our 2 4 star RB's (and everyone out there had us getting at least one of them) and now Smith. At least we still have a stud safety and stud tackle.

 

Iowa did sign a 3 star RB Jevon Pugh out of Florida and to replace Bryan Smith we signed a LB who was Ohio's defensive player of the year Bruce Davis (3 star, a bit undersized at 5'11).

 

I'm guessing the loss of Smith will drop our recruiting class out of the top 25. Maybe Ferentz has a few last minute things up his sleeve though.

 

And all that said, this is probably Ferentz 2nd best recruiting class ever.

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Eric Gordon playing on ESPN right now agasint Loyola Academy from Illiois, which sports Michael Jordan's two sons. Gordon has 21 with just under six minutes left before halftime, FWIW.

 

On a side note, IU recruit Eli Holman has been reinstated and will play tonight. An excerpt from the Rivals story:

 

There has been no official word from the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) but Richmond High official confirmed this morning that Elijah "Eli" Holman has been reinstated. Richmond assistant coach Lonnie Coleman co-authored the statement which indicates that Holman will meet with the press immediately after tonight's game to talk about his return to the court.

 

Sampson added:

 

"I talked to Eli," said Sampson. "He is doing good and that's the main thing. That's a scary situation. Where he lives, that's an every day occurrence. We are here in the Midwest and in a safe place. He doesn't live in a safe place. He lives in a very violent place. Richmond, Calif., is tough. We have heard how dangerous Oakland is. Richmond is worse. He is doing good. I told him that there are certain things in life you can control. You can control your friends, your decisions, it's not like he's not going to make a mistake like all of us. A mistake is not a problem, it's repeating it. He has learned from his mistakes. He's in an unfortunate situation, but the main thing of his concern now is his grades."
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Gordon has been so good tonight, I truly have been glad to see him miss some shots just so I can believe he is really human. Tonight has been phenomenal.

 

On a side note, I thought Aboz' buddy Doug Gottleib was spot on in his comments on Gordon and his recruiting. He said he had no problem with the fact Gordon decided to go to IU. He said it was understandable and no one should have a problem with the decision he made.

 

He did say, however, that Gordon and his family showed a lack of maturity in not communicating more openly with Illinois. He said that Gordon did a very mature thing in making his own decision and having a press conference to announce his commitment to Illinois. He should have been equally as mature in how he handled his change of heart. I'm paraphrasing, of course but I think I got the general gist of his point.

 

And I completely agree with him on this.

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Michigan lands two football commits today. The big one is Donovan Warren a 5-star CB from CA long thought to be in the hip pocket of USC. The bigger one (at least in terms of size) is 6-4 320lb DT Renaldo Sagesse from Canada. Sagesse was a former Illinois verbal, but recently reconsidered when Michigan came calling.

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IU recruit Eli Holman played his first game in two seasons Thursday night, and just missed a triple-double in helping to lead Richmond to a 79-74 victory over Encinal. Holman had 27 points, 11 rebounds and nine blocked shots.

 

Not bad for his first game in a year and a half.

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Wow, I'm not a big fan of Mayo, but that was rediculous. I mean, he shouldn't have recieved either technical in the first place from the looks of it. Also, that was one of the biggest flops I've ever seen. That ref should be an NFL punter.

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