Tuitt, Kelly’s Offense, Recruits, & More News

Tuitt is indeed a quality human being; a massive freakishly athletic quality human being. And he’s ours. #winning

Glad to Ferguson and Greenberry blowing up. It validates Kelly’s eye for talent.

I don’t think Davis’ recruitment is over. He’ll probably take an OV to ND, and you never know what effect a campus visit will have on him. But I agree with you that our chances of shaking him loose from Stanford are low; the first half of their schedule is easy, and I don’t see a Luck-led team stumbling early or often.

Great news about Floyd mentoring Daniels. Should be good for both of them.

Good stuff Eric.
We need more than one RB in this class. A fast start for Cierre Wood and the ND ground game would certainly help. If Cam McDaniels gets some PT and does well that would help in recruiting also.
Mike Frank at ISD made a good point the other night. RB’s more than any other the position have been “the Man” since they started playing ball. QB’s don’t come into their own til high school, where as an elite RB has been the fastest, most important player on his team since peewees. Not saying that they’re prima donnas but, they have been the focal point of their offenses. This makes it hard to recruit them for the spread, where they are just another cog in the wheel.
Getting a stud 220lb. RB would be great but, I wouldn’t count on it. My bet is Kelly will at minimum find a couple versitile backs with different skill sets, that will be able to contribute. Another back like McDaniels with good hands and enough size to pass block and a little scat back would be fine with me.

I just want speed, speed, speed, speed at the running back position.

Give me tough guys with banannas speed and we’ll work on putting weight on.

Not that you don’t want a great 220 high schooler, but many guys (like Cierre) are much lighter coming into college and put on the weight properly. Now at 210, I think Wood is a perfect size for this offense.

But rememeber….speeeeeeeeeed!!!

NIce article by the Rock, NDNation. While I think Kelly, Warriner and Diaco have certain types of players they look for on the OL, DL and LB, BK is less predictable on the skill positions of QB and RB. Crist, Rees, Hendrix and Golson all bring different skill sets to the offense. Crist was a Weis recruit, and Hendrix was committed under Weis. But last year’s QB recruiting under Kelly showed a lot of different types – Bubba Starling, LeMay, Wittek, Frazier were all different, preceeding the Golson offer. Kiel and Mauk continue the confusion. What is BK’s type of QB?

Similarly, Wood, Roberson and McDaniel are all different. RB offers last year started with Malcolm Brown, Aaron Green, Hayes, Huggins and Carlisle. See any trend? This year Marshall, Jones, Dunn, Sanders, Kimbrow, Gray, Harris, and Russell continue to block any view towards predicting a trend. He is clearly recruiting speed.

But put me in the camp that leans towards two RBs and no QBs, if our top QB targets escape. I agree with TLNDMA about which types of backs we end up with.

Hmmmm…..No Kiel? I count myself disappointed. I can see the thought of not taking a QB this cycle, but I would make it a higher priority than the staff seems to be. As I have said before, I don’t see Crist coming back in 2012, which only leaves 3 QBs on scholarship. Not a place you want to be (imo).

I understand the comments about Hughes, Aldridge and Allen. Two of the three were plagued by injury, and Hughes suffered from an identity crisis most of his career. If he went to a place like Wisconsin and was forced to be a battering ram, his college career would have been a lot different. As it was, I blame the previous coaching staff (Mike Haywood especially) for not forcing the power back identity on him from day one. Just looking at what he did in late 2010 after Allen went down is enough evidence for me to support my position.

Tuitt is a beast already and his legend grows before stepping foot on campus. Just wait until that group gels a bit over the summer. We gonna be beast indeed.

Night games galore? Who would have thought? I find it a bit funny that ND went from the punch line of ESPN’s jokes to one of their college football poster children almost overnight. I also think it is awesome what BK is doing in bringing two of the louder anti-ND voices (in Mark May and Rece Davis) to the golf outing in June. The guy is a politican at heart an knows exactly how to play his cards. BK for President in 2012? Maybe we can talk him into running in 2016 instead…

At WR, if ND gets Greenberry (which is likely since he is very close with commit Tee Shepard) it would be huge. I haven’t seen anything about Green-Beckham anywhere, so he seems to be holding his cards close and not tipping his hand. Long story short, the WR class should be great, as there is a lot of talent available and interested in the Irish. BK seems to have found another gem in Ferguson, as the interest in him nationally has exploded in the last few weeks. Sounds like a Ben Councell situation all over again.

As for Noor Davis, I don’t think the book is closed, especially if he keeps taking official visits. Remember, the Irish have a history of flipping Stanford commits recently (TJ Jones, Nichols). If the defense plays up to its ability this year, it will really aid in swinging recruits on the fence towards ND.

One final thought—if Michael Floyd keeps up the good work, I think you are right about the suspension being lifted. However, I don’t see how he doesn’t miss at least the first game of the season regardless. If he shows DD the ropes this summer, we could have a new owner of the freshman receiving records at season’s end.

Jim,

You’re always good for extending the conversation. I agree with Michael that it’s hard to identify what Kelly really wants to do on offense, and we’re kind of guessing with a lot of this, more so than with Weis.

I’ve kind of had the thought that this should be a Kiel or nothing cycle for QB recruiting, and it doesn’t look like we’re in the running for his services. Then again, I also had some severe reservations about the No. 1 QB coming into what I think is a crowded depth chart already.

I’m fine with picking more of a project at QB which I think Mauk and guys like Chad Kelly are, I’d even throw Miles in there too (probably needs a lot of work on his throwing for the BK offense). But I don’t think we should take a QB specifically if we only end up bringing in 2 wide receivers and 1 running back, or some such scenario, where we don’t really fix the depth at those positions.

I’ve always had a hard time talking about Hughes as many of you know. There were just too many “what if’s” and excuses…not that some of them weren’t clearly warranted. Even the way we talk about how he ended the year after Allen went down (222 yards, 4.03 YPC, 2 TD) I have a hard time looking at a performance like that and saying, “yeah that’s what we needed out of Hughes,” or “that’s the type of running game we need.”

He had a couple big moments, symbolized in the final TD drive against USC, but on the whole it was still a pretty mediocre performance. We need to get back to the point where we’re looking back at Irish runners and seeing copious amounts of touchdowns and healthy 5.5+ YPC and the like.

BK is a very skilled politician. I like that. Especially since he’s not in politics.

We’ll keep flirting with Davis, but I won’t hold my breath.

Is it legitimate to think Daniels will be our Offensive Rookie Player of the Year?

GA3 and Cam Mac will likely be the other candidates. Place your bets!

Daniels is more polished as a receiver. GA3 still has the athletic flexibility to move to a DB (if absolutely needed). Cam Mac is the wild card (which always makes me think of “Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia” – The Gang Solves the Gas Crisis episode) and largely depends on 1) his fall camp, and more importantly 2) Jonas Gray. I think it is a relatively safe bet that DD emerges in the WR rotation at some point during the season. I would love for him to be starting outside opposite Floyd and allowing for a healthy rotation.

I think BK has said in the past that he wants to adapt his offense to the players he has. While this doesn’t mean a wholesale change of philosophy, it does mean tweaking game plans, formations, and play calling. I know I found CW’s play calling utterly predicatable post 2005.

The whole QB sitution has me a bit concerned if we are passing on Kiel. I think Mauk is a certain verbal in that case, which is a nice consolation prize. I just don’t think you can pass on taking a QB this year, but what do I know?

I know Hughes is a sore subject for many people. Sure the stats aren’t sexy, but in that final drive vs. USC, Wood had one carry for 15-20 yards, MF had a few catches, and Hughes ran up the gut. The thing I love about that is that USC knew the ball was going to Hughes and they couldn’t stop him. After a few plays on that drive, was there any doubt that ND would score? That alone speaks volumes to me. Other than most of the ‘05 season, has there been a point in the post-Holtz era you could say that? I can’t think of any off the top of my head.

I agree a YPC average of 5.5+ across the board is a great goal to set. If the offense can get to a point where they are averaging 150 yds/game on the ground, we should all rejoice. I think that is realistic, but maybe not quite so for the 2011 season.

As far as recruiting the rest of the offense, the more I think about it, the more I think ND needs to sign 3 WRs this cycle. I know the overall numbers are limited, but Floyd is gone for sure and its unlikely that Walker or Goodman would be given a 5th year unless they have a huge season.

Always Sunny…great show.

I agree 3 receivers, and 2 RB’s this cycle, minimum.

Kelly put his stamp on the front 7 last year, now it’s time to re-mold the secondary and skill positions on offense (sans QB).

Deep down, I know Kelly will take QB, but I don’t think it’s absolutely necessary.

Our running game was surprisingly good against USC in 2005, so I would say there were times in that game when you could say we knew we’d score. There were plenty other times post-Holtz where you could say that too, there just has to be.

Deontay Greenberry is a very close freind of Tee Shepards….in a recent article and interview on Irish Sports Daily, Gree berry has said he would love to play with his buddy and at the same time he stated that his parents want him to attend USC…..now is the problem…how close of freinds are they, can Tee convince him to come to ND, or worse case scenario can Greenberry convince Tee to go to USC if he commits there.

Another interview and article on ISD with George Atkinson, he states that Coach Denbrock and Coach Kelly have discussed with him playing running back full time, which Atkinson is very up for and prefers over WR.

Two quick thoughts about USC — 1) this isn’t the same program it was under Pete Carroll, and 2) NCAA sanctions should be in effect for the 2012 recruiting class. Basically, they are looking at sigle digit numbers in their class and have much larger needs at OL and LB. On top of that, they already have 3 WR verbals and 6 total for the class.

GA3 as a RB would actually be a phenomenal fit for the offense. He is a guy who has the size to split out to the slot from the backfield and create serious match-up issues. If he does indeed play RB, then I think you see 1 RB in 2012 and WR becomes even more important and 3 is the definite target number.

The whole “Greenberry’s parents are pushing him to USC” rumor came from some sloppy reporting by a USC recruitnik. If you watch the actual interview (which can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrX7shZPTMM&feature=player_embedded), he says: “some of my family are pushing me to USC.”

Another choice quote:
USC Recruitnik: “So what do you, umm, does your family like about USC?”
Greenberry: “It’s in L.A. (laughs) That’s all.”

When the guy asked who had offered him, Notre Dame was the first school mentioned. He actually had to be reminded that USC had offered him.

When asked what’s most important to him, he replies (1) playing in the spread; and (2) academics. Sorry USC.

It’s not hard to read between the lines here. He has virtually no interest in SC, but was simply being polite to the interviewer. I’m not worried about USC at all.

It’s rumored that Greenberry will verbal to ND very soon, FWIW.

GAIII to RB makes me nervous, because it means we only picked up 1 WR in 2011. We need his speed at the X.