Rockne's Roundtable

Why would a kid like VH3 do this??? He had everything and now he'll likely be serving Mickey waffles at Disney World in a few - won't have to leave Florida so that's good.

Anything is possible with this kid. Hcwillie could be correct here, but it wont be to ND.

COME ON MCKENZIE!!!

Takes a true man to come up north and play football in the cold. That's not football weather in the South. Oh well on to next.

At least it's better than a few weeks ago when it coulda been U$C. Tunnel Vision this week set the tone to refocus us fans on what and who to expect moving forward.

I'd be interested in hearing the opinion of the staff on my views of recruiting during this period: In between summer camps and the end of the season, I feel like the recruits are very fluid.
You have the post signing day period in spring/early summer where kids commit and stick. This is where Texas excels. Teams come out hot and heavy on recruits, get them on campus and sell them. I'd guesstimate the success/retention rate at roughly 85% buoyed by UT's success w/ Texas kids. The Jaylon Smith's and Maliks fall into this category for ND. They know where they want to go to school for whatever reasons and they commit.

Next comes this period between summer camps and opening day. The commits here are doing so based on recruitment and summer camp visits with guns blazing and no distractions. Often, they're looking to lighten the load before their SR season starts to avoid distractions in school and for HSFB season. I feel like these are the ones susceptible to swings of the pendulum. If UF faceplants this year, kids like VH3 might look elsewhere. If they faceplant and show a huge void at CB, VH may be prone to sticking it out knowing he's in line to start. I'd guess these kids committing right now are closer to 65-70% and most likely to go elsewhere. The upcoming season is still to come, new offers may come in, and many will still schedule on campus visits "to be sure." VH3 falls into this category, Sherit will probably be in this or the next.

The next 2 time periods are in-season visits where you can make up ground with success on-field and gameday visits. This is the area ND has to knock out of the park this year. If success comes on Saturdays, it's so much easier to sell players on next year especially in the head to heads with UM, $C, Stanford, etc. The gameday visits are the overachieving little brothers of the summer visits. They show the recruit what they have to look forward to and lay it all on the line for them. It's NDs only chance of landing a Tenpenny or others. The atmosphere and success go hand in hand to make these kids fall "in love." It's how we got Manti Te'o, even during a loss in a snowstorm. Sometimes it even can sway those earliest commits. Recruits will be on campus with the Irish Mob present to sway them. This period is roughly 90% binding since it's so much later on and you're back to selling real product.

The last session is post-season where you can stress depth chart and next year while poaching those with cold feet. Cierre Wood went pro? Oh hello Ryan Green, look at this shiny starting spot. We went 9-4, closing on a 5 game win streak including a win over 10-0 SC? Complete the puzzle Priest Willis. Florida went 7-5, Luke Fickell left as DC of O$U, Joe Smith Jr. has TE locked down at Blank U? Hello recruits X, Y, and Z of those schools. Those kids stick 95% of the time due to the finality and proximity to NSD.

My main point being is that we've lost VH3 for now, but out of all the recruits that are slipping off the radar, it's these kids that commit in July-August that I feel the least worried about. This time last year Houston's FR WR and FSUs FR CB were solid verbals, neither came to ND.
GTC=Get Them on Campus: things can and will change.

Can we stop the stuff where every kid who doesn't commit to ND is either headed for the poorhouse or getting paid?

Really?? Have you spoken to anyone who went to UF?? Massive school where the football team is treated as a separate franchise. Players rarely engage in either serious academic work and rarely experience much of a traditional campus life. ND graduates almost all it's football players because the kids MUST go to class, pass exams, interact with other students who are all brilliant (present company - me - excluded). So it does pain me when a kid chooses a place where robbery, domestic violence, on field brutality, grade finagling are the norm. If he is a bust he'll be putting on the Pluto costume to make a living, if he went to ND he'd probably be a lawyer, banker, doctor or manager.

As far as getting paid, is it likely - no but at Florida that stuff is NOT such a crazy thought.

Thanks for the downvotes. Sometimes I wonder why on an ND board if you don't show proper deference to other schools you get a downvote - how about we get back to these schools kneeling at out altar?

You must be the same guy who shushes me and tella me to sit down at ND games when it gets 'too rowdy'.