"Notre Dame isn't good because of Tyrone Willingham's sub-par recruiting," goes the excuse.
Yes, Willingham's 2004 Notre Dame recruiting class was ranked #30 in the country by Scout.com, and didn't include a single player in Scout's top 100.
So maybe you can argue that Charlie Weis was at a disadvantage when his 2007 Irish played USC (#1 in 2004, with 7 top 100 recruits), Michigan (#5 in 2004, with 6 top 100 recruits) or Michigan State (#13 in 2004, with 1 top 100 recruit).
But Navy?
Scout.com ranked Navy's 2004 recruiting class 109th in the nation. Not only didn't Navy have a single player in Scout's top 100, they didn't have a single player that Scout even rated as high as three stars.
Notre Dame's 17 recruits, on average, got a 2.94 star rating, while Navy's class, which was only 11 players, were all two star guys.
Here are the rankings for each recruiting class that made up each team's roster in Saturday's game:
Class of 2003: ND, 5th. Navy, 110th
Class of 2004: ND, 30th. Navy, 109th
Class of 2005: ND, 27th. Navy, 117th
Class of 2006: ND, 5th. Navy, 93rd
I'm not one to treat recruiting rankings as gospel, but c'mon! If Willingham didn't put Weis in a good position to beat USC or Michigan, he certainly gave him enough weapons to beat Notre Dame Navy. Weis couldn't even manage that.
Monday, November 5, 2007
Can We Put the "Willingham Was a Bad Recruiter" Excuse to Bed Now?
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6 comments:
Oops, I think you meant to say NAVY at the end of the post. Weis has already beat the snot out of Notre Dame.
Ha--fixed it. Thanks! Freudian slip, perhaps.
You're absolutely right when it comes to Navy. Weis has done a crappy job this year and should be called on the carpet for it.
That said, the damage that Willingham did by choosing to golf rather than recruit is still the central issue here. Just because Weis shit the bed in a game that always gives ND problems, doesn't take Ty Willie off the hook. If UW hasn't already learned how devastating his recruiting efforts can be, they will soon.
Folks, Kansas is ranked #4 in the country with 2- and 3-star recruits. It's not about the star rankings. It's about the coaching. Charlie Weis sucks.
"Just because Weis shit the bed in a game that always gives ND problems,"
oh really - 43 nail biters in a row where ND came out on top? Talk about luck of the Irish! Willingham was recruiting just fine for ND until the ND alumni started torpedoing him and sabotaging his recruiting efforts in the process. If you still think Willingham's recruiting efforts are the central issue for Notre Dame football now, what will it be when ND reels off a few 4-win seasons in the next few years?
So, I guess the other 8 games "Always give him problems, too ?"
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