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He had crazy interviews before the USC ND game, came out before then that ND was out of the mix, just going for the experience. I am sure it was a sour experience for a top ranked guy.
Some other article
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ESPN insier has a fresh article up from today.
ND is one of his top choices.
Four star safety Shaq Thompson (Sacramento, Calif./Grant) has made a few minor changes in his recruitment but still plans to make his college choice in early January.
Thompson, No. 22 in the ESPNU 150, has taken three official visits thus far with the most recent trip being to Notre Dame two weeks ago. He had earlier visited Washington and Oregon.
“All the trips are pretty similar to be honest,” Thompson said. “You do a lot of the same things in terms of the campus tour and watching the game. Notre Dame was cool though because of all the tradition they have. That really stood out to me, just being on campus and learning about all the great players that have played there.
“The distance was a little different obviously, Notre Dame is a lot further from home than any of my other trips but I was all right with that. Overall, I had a good time, I liked it and I’m definitely still looking at them as one of my top schools.”
Thompson was slated to visit Michigan later this month when the Wolverines host Nebraska but those plans have now been altered.
“I’m just focusing on our team right now,” Thompson said. “We have the playoffs coming up and I don’t want to take any more visits until after the season is over. I’m still talking with Michigan and could visit in December but I don’t have a date set right now.
“I will visit Cal (Dec. 9) for sure, that’s a big weekend for them. They’re bringing in a lot of top players so that should be a good time. Right now, I really don’t have a leader and I’ll make my commitment at the Army All-American game in January.”Comment
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Cave out for the season; he needs foot surgery.
Riddick out this week with a hamstring injury.Comment
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Golic did pretty well when he stepped in for Cave, but I'm not sure if there is anyone else ready to step in at center.
I'm guessing we'll see a lot more of Toma too. I'm honestly not too concerned about Riddick's injury.Comment
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Yeah, Toma is the guy taking his place. Will be interesting to see ig a guy like Deion Walker gets on the field or even Daniel Smith. Kelly already said he's not going to burn Devaris Daniels "redshirt" season.
Fun memory. Remember when Floyd and Walker came to campus people eren't sure who would end up being better?Comment
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As a side, I'd love to see Deion Walker come back for a 5th season and just dominate at 6-3 210lbs.Comment
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Depends who ND gets.
Floyd and Goodman leave.
That leaves coming back or eligible to come back:
Riddick
TJ Jones
Daniels
Toma
Massa
Daniel Smith
Deion Walker
Farley
Plus committed so far at WR:
Justin Ferguson
Chris Brown
Deontay Greenberry
I can see Walker being invited back because frankly the kid is uber talented but just hasn't been able to see the field. Kelly was really high on him in spring ball but Walker had a tough depth cahrt to crack basically being behind Floyd and Goodman.
There's a good chance in my mind that Walker comes back but if he doesn't I'd be surprised. I hope he does though.Comment
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I always lol when I see Deion on the sidelines in full uniform. Like are you hoping today is the day?
I doubt Deion gets invited back, Kelly would rather play his guys. Floyd leaving only leaves 1 opening in the starting rotation. TJ and Theo are the other starters. I would assume Daniels and Smith get first shot at it before Deion. And probably Greenberry too.Comment
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Awesome awesome take on ND moving into the new age
Notre Dame is behind the times.
I'm sure there will be a good portion that will disagree with me on that statement, citing that Notre Dame's "tradition" should trump things such as new helmets, field turf, or even, *gasp* a jumbotron. Those things aren't "tradition", they are simply how "we've always done it". The two are not equivalent.
Before I came to Her Loyals Sons, I wrote about a costly result of staying in the mindset of "this is how we've always done it", the death of Declan Sullivan. And, no, I'm not equating the tragic death of a fellow Domer to something as trivial as a jumbotron (even though I've read/heard opinions on the matter that suggest such an issue is far from trivial); however, I can think of no better example of this mindset that I've already happened to write 1,000+ words on.
Want to know what the real tradition is at Notre Dame? Innovation and change.
Notre Dame is often mistaken for the inventors of the forward pass thanks to the Dorais regularly hitting future coach, Knute Rockne, with a slew of down-field passes in an upset of Army. While the Irish were on the outside of conferences looking in (thanks Michigan! [no, seriously, thanks]), we created a national schedule, unheard of at the time, allowing for our biggest rival to be from Southern California instead of across the Indiana/Michigan border. The famed student manager program came into existence thanks to Rockne, who even allowed them to sneak on to trains so they could assist the Irish football team on road games. Rockne also made sure to promote ND as a profitable entity and even became a pitchman for Studebaker.
To this day, there is still not other school that has been crazy enough to put real gold into their helmet paint. While the green jerseys had been around before, it wasn't until Devine's Irish warmed up in blue and came out in green (in a Trojan horse no less, a move I'm sure that would be called a "gimmick" today) after an 11 year absence that the jerseys became the most famous alternate jersey in all of college football. Before the Big Ten and Longhorn Networks were even a thought, the Irish had their contract with NBC.
But changing the uniforms, piping in music, thinking about installing field turf and a jumbotron? BLASPHEMY!
For some reason, ND slammed the brakes on innovation or change around the Lou Holtz era. And what were other programs doing during that time? Changing, adapting, playing catch-up to programs like ND and eventually passing them. Training tables, new facilities, new stadiums, suites, and yes, even jumbotrons and field turf. The result was that other programs started to become more appealing than they had before.
To anyone else outside the Notre Dame bubble, the entire Notre Dame tradition seems to have stopped with the last championship in 1988 and no one has bothered to completely move on since. Now consider the mindset of 17-18 year old kids who weren't even alive when Notre Dame was at the pinnacle of the college football world. Unless they have some sort of previous affiliation with Notre Dame, lived in the Midwest, or happened to stumble across Rudy, they have absolutely no concept of what the place is like even in comparison to current young alumni when they were the same age. The Notre Dame that everyone else grew up with might as well just be a myth to them.
This is the uphill battle the Irish have been fighting for years when competing for the best talent in the nation. With a lack of major improvements to the stadium, football facilities, and some awful coaching and recruiting, Notre Dame suffered greatly in the post-Holtz era. The talent dwindled and the losses piled up, further pushing recruits away to other football programs.
That trend didn't stop until Charlie Weis, who proved that you can indeed recruit to South Bend. You know what else changed though? The Gug was finally opened for Weis' first year, which was the first major change to any football facility since the stadium renovations in 1997, nearly a full decade.
With new world class facilities, a cocky attitude, BCS run, love and understanding of ND, and a shiny Super Bowl ring, Weis had the power to lure kids back into the program and rebuild Notre Dame. Ultimately, Weis feel short, but stopped the bleeding of the Notre Dame football program from a talent level perspective. Even Weis messed around with tradition, having the players sing the alma mater in front of the student section and standing behind the service academies during theirs.
Now in comes Kelly (and Swarbrick) for a new era, with a spread offense, a newly instituted and long overdue training table, new helmets, piped in music, the Shamrock Series, and talk of field turf and jumbotrons. Somehow, these proposed changes are morphed into either ND selling out and debasing themselves for either revenue, pandering to kids/recruits in ways that we shouldn't, or somehow a combination of both. Even when prompted by suggestions that said changes could result in wins, that thought is dismissed as well as we should be wining without such changes that are apparently beneath us.
The Holy Land of the NFL, Lambeau Field, has field turf, specifically a blend of grass with synthetic support that ND has been rumored to be looking at. Kyle Field, home the Texas A&M Aggies, a school with ad much tradition, rituals, and a rabid fan base as the Irish, has a jumbotron that has failed to detract from their gameday atmosphere.
Yet installing field turf on our own frozen tundra is wrong? Instant replay reviews are now law in college football, yet fans inside the stadium shouldn't be allowed to view them as well? Would it be so bad to see clips from ICON during TV timeouts instead of an endless parade of strangers on the 20 yard line? And if all of it happens to be just enough to add on to Notre Dame's already fantastic traditions to get a 5-star to send in a fax in Feburary, is that so wrong?
The fact is that Notre Dame has a gap to fill that spans over a decade long. Notre Dame created it by using our storied tradition as a crutch to keep us in the top tier of the college football world, even during times when the wins didn't add up. This inactivity was a message to the rest of the college football world that Notre Dame was content to have our future legacy be our past.
Notre Dame coaches have traditionally rocked the boat a bit and ignored parts of the past to leave their own imprint and legacy for the future. Rockne was ready to resign if his house wasn't built. Leahy ruffled feathers by throwing out Rock's playbook and installing his own system. Ara was the first non-ND graduate to take the helm. Devine resurrected the green jerseys after Ara sealed them up for 11 years, made them his own, put names on the back of them, and even had an endzone logo of the fighting Irish during his tenure. Holtz then proceed to rip those names off the jerseys and went completely old school, seemingly leaving his personal imprint as the one many "traditionalists" long for.
Kelly, like any of ND's great coaches of the past, wants to live a similar personal imprint. His suggestions and changes made thus far should not be viewed as earth shattering. Field turf, especially the kind installed at Green Bay, would be a monumental improvement to Notre Dame Stadium. While I'm not the biggest fan of the Shamrock Series helmet, as Kelly said, the only opinion that matters are the 105 players in the locker room and they loved it. He's right. The whole green jersey tradition was to get the players motivated, a pop from the fans is just an additional benefit. Even the biggest divisive issue, a jumbotron shouldn't be a crazy "tradition breaker", especially seeing as how the basketball and hockey teams have nice shiny new screens.
I'm sure most of this will be dismissed by certain parts of the fan base, citing my age as the determining factor for why I "just don't get it". They will point to the one-time overplaying of Crazy Train as proof Notre Dame can't get new technology right (even though it aired one more time during Navy as a punchline to their own joke they inadvertently created). Some will say that Kelly and the current administration, Swarbrick included, have proved they don't "get" Notre Dame and are too concerned about the ever changing whims of the kids which the University is supposed to serve.
The tradition of Notre Dame is much more than some grass, a helmet, a uniform, the type of music played in a stadium, and the absence of a jumbotron. Arguments can be made about the speed, timing, and the execution of such changes (MQ did just that yesterday); however, attempting to use "tradition" as the central basis for an argument against change isn't genuine and dismisses the history of the Irish.
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Wake Forest
The Good
-Michael Floyd. After missing one early in the game on a wide receiver pass, Floyd responded with a workman like game. Nothing was overly spectacular about his performance until the great touchdown catch that gave Notre Dame the lead late in the game. A numbingly effective effort, but another great day at the office for Mr. Floyd.
-Stephon Tuitt/Aaron Lynch. The freshman dynamo’s stepped in and performed wonderfully. Lynch was an absolute monster in rushing the passer and Tuitt played a tremendous all around game. Whenever a big played occurred it seemed as though one or both of them was around the football. Lynch deserves a lot of credit as well for shaking off two ankle injuries and coming back into the game both times.
-Robert Blanton. His homecoming to North Carolina went about as well as you could ask. While he did not tally an interception Blanton was tremendous in pass coverage all night and stepped up and was his usual strong presence in run defense. With each game that goes by Blanton will be missed more and more next season.
-The running game. With Rees having a less than stellar evening the offensive line, along with Cierre Wood and Jonas Gray stepped up and dominated the second half. Wood showed some amazing burst and agility while Gray was a nice size and speed combo as usual. Milking over five minutes off the clock on the final drive to seal the game was a thing of beauty and something like that hasn’t been seen from a Notre Dame team in what seems like ages.
-The defense. On the road, down by 7, they threw a second half shutout. You can’t ask for more than that.
The Bad
-Tommy Rees.
While Rees made two very nice throws on his touchdown passes he missed quote a few others. His two interceptions were absurdly bad passes, and he almost got T.J. Jones killed on the sideline. Rees did some really nice work checking into running plays away from pressure to spring Wood and Gray but Rees did not throw the ball very accurately Saturday night.
The Ugly
-The officiating. This was the worst officiated game all season so far. The pass interference call on Harrison Smith on a ball thrown five to ten yards out of bounds was bad enough but factor in the flag for unnecessary roughness on the interception return when an Irish lineman hit the Wake Forest player while he was returning the interception was inexcusable. The other huge blown call was on the long Gray touchdown run. I understand taking another look at the call to be sure would love to know what “indisputable video evidence” the booth saw in order to overturn the call of a touchdown and place the ball on the one inch line.
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Notre Dame now enters another ACC road game at 6-3. Even if it’s considered a neutral site game Brian Kelly said he is treating it as a road game, and with good reason. While Maryland is having a less than stellar season under first year coach Randy Edsall this is still a team that won nine games last season and features some very solid talent, especially at quarterback. Danny O’Brien hasn’t lived up the hype thus far but does have some ability. Davin Meggett will provide someone to respect out of the backfield as well. Maryland has beaten Miami this season, although it was in week one, and played Clemson, West Virginia, and Georgia Tech tough. While not as good as Wake Forest Maryland will not be a push over and will be looking for a huge win over a storied program. Preferably, Notre Dame shouldn’t look past Maryland but if we can get past Maryland, Boston College at home for senior day doesn’t seem like a very tall task. The matchup with Stanford still looms large on the horizon on Thanksgiving weekend where the Irish should be 8-3 heading into the game.
Go Irish.
Beat Terrapins.Comment
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ND finally getting serious about their facilities in the past few years is helping I'm sure.Originally posted by JayRockComment
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Wut?Comment
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[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wspYe5m09lY"]Melissa Henderson - Student. Athlete. Irish. - YouTube[/ame]
Apparently she's a soccer player or something.
Don't care. EnjoyComment
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