Brian Kelly Isn't Recruiting Like Charlie Weis. Isn't That The Point?

It’s a sad day when Italians like Giovanni Bernard spurn a Catholic school for Florida sun.

Brian, not to be too critical, but could you maybe have put the loss of recruits in some perspective? How well have other major programs fared during transitions? Is three decommits higher or lower than average? As an Irish fan, I’m pretty unconcerned – I’m in the camp that thinks that Kelly himself was our most important get this season – but I’d like to see some comparison and analysis. I know printing vitriol from the Nation is easy and frequently entertaining (those guys are scary crazy) but I kind of expect slightly higher discourse here.

I will never cease to be amused by B. Cook’s devoted vigilence when monitoring the myopic, knee-jerk reactions on NDNation’s message boards, while ignoring or actively encouraging activity of the same type on his own blog’s boards.  Let it never be said that sports hate is not the purest, most irrational form of hate.

@eirishis

You call shutting down the message boards to all but the most trusted users on his blog after losses to Illinois and Ohio State ignoring or encouraging knee-jerk reactions?

Your description of Brian could not be further off the mark. He actively disdains that type of activity, which is why his blog has such stringent rules re: posting.

I think your reaction to this post is the same kind of knee-jerk reaction that you accuse Mr. Cook of ignoring or actively encourageing

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@MCHammer:

(a) So, trusted users don’t have kneejerk reactions?  Last I checked, the guys at NDNation are frequent posters too.  Even those who are rational 90% of the time go off the reservation occasionally.  That said, since a more frequent critique of Brian is that he shuts off debate (his site, his right), your response is fair and I concede.

(b) The point of my post, however, was to point out that Brian’s hate of ND leads to fairly obsessive/irrational monitoring of NDNation message boards as if they accurately represent ND’s fan base.  I read Brian’s blog because, though I dislike Michigan, I appreciate his writing and insight.  Brian reads NDNation for little purpose than to ridicule opposing fans.  There’s a difference.

Just an opinion, but the top eschelon of BCS teams like, USC, UF, OU, LSU, OSU etc have a combination of very talented 4 & 5 Star recruits and a great staff of assistants who develope that talent over 4-5 years—and sometimes only 3 years when they leave early for the NFL.

Reading about Kelly’s history shows he has a good eye for talent (Dan Lefeavour-Pike— Mardy Gilyard etc), he has a staff who can certainly develope it and he had been actually getting some 4 star talent at Cincy recently.

As long as he competes with all of the other top programs for the 3-4-5 Star talent from his new position at Notre Dame, he should make them very competitive.

This year—"it is what it is" as far as trying to close out a recruiting class that he inherited after two 6-6 seasons and a 3-9 one before that.

If he shows real progress and excitement this Fall—-all that bad history will fade quickly and they should do very well for the 2011 class of recruits and going forward.

I wouldn’t worry too much about losing recruits this year.  If it is only three recruits, that’s not too bad.  If he has a 7 win season or better this year, the recruits will come pouring in.  I bet he turns ND around in 3 years or less.  The schedule is a little tougher this year, so I wouldn’t expect 9 wins.  UC won 33 games in the last 3 years, he’ll figure out a way to do that at ND with better talent.