Those who know me are very aware that I could care less about living in the middle of Wolverine and Spartan country. Part of the problem comes with having to read and listen to every damn columnist, radio and TV personality throw crap at ND any chance they get. That's what I expected when I saw an article in the Detroit Free Press called "People blasting Brian Kelly's loyalty are hypocrites" by Jamie Samuelsen. I don't believe I've read any of his work, but I figured it would lead to some sort of ND trashing. For example here's a couple of columns by other reporters here in the area:
Its football program's ability to maintain its status as one of the nation's elites, as one of the most coveted jobs in America and the obvious destination of every five-star high school senior in the country, clearly has taken a significant blow the last decade. And, really, maybe even longer.
It begs the question -- can he become a national recruiter? Not only that, can he recruit while being slightly handcuffed by Notre Dame's strict academic admissions policy? And how quickly can he overcome being enamored by the bigness of this job and do what he does best and win?
This was written by Angelique S. Chengelis who obviously doesn't know anything outside of East Lansing or Ann Arbor. She's correct by saying that ND can't get EVERY five star recruit, but in this day and age of college football not even Florida is pulling that off. Other schools are getting more, but with all of the lopsided judgment in high school talent between all of these recruiting websites, who's to say a 4 star isn't a 5 star. She asks the question, can ND become a national recruiter? Well, not sure if she actually paid attention, but even though he wasn't a great head coach, Charlie Weis was pretty damn good recruiter. Fact is he pulled two 5 star QB's out of California, and a 100 star LB in Teo from Hawaii in the last 3 years. All 3 were being heavily recruited by USC. Brian Kelly has only lost one recruit from Charlie Weis' hard work, Chris Martin, and I'm not surprised by that. Martin was visiting other schools way before Charlie lost control of the season. The current class ranks in the top 15 by most websites, way better than what Weis had coming into South Bend 5 years ago. Weis proved what Ty Willingham couldn't, and that was he could still pull in athletes with today's admission standards. Weis' downfall was that he only knew offense and the defense lacked motivation and development.
Here's another quote from one of my favorite ND haters, Drew Sharp of the Detroit Free Press:
But the Irish bailed, justifying their decision as taking the more honorable road following a disappointing season that far fell below early expectations. It didn't bother them a year ago, taking a similar 6-6 record to a bowl game in Hawaii.
Different situations, that's all I have to say to that quote. Weis was still at ND last year, and ND's team desperately needed confidence going into the next season. This year with Weis being fired and Clausen and Tate leaving for the NFL, it just wasn't the right situation for the team. ND's players had voted to not play in a bowl this year, even though Swarbrick had final say, the players did vote not to play in a final game. Just a fact that Mr. Sharp forgot to put in his article.
So with that, now the article by Jamie Samuelsen
