Kelly, on the time it takes to recruit a player

by Jay, San Diego, Thursday, February 04, 2010, 10:52 (5970 days ago)
edited by Jay, Thursday, February 04, 2010, 10:59

Q. What did you learn out of this short cycle that's going to help you moving forward in the next recruiting cycle?

COACH KELLY: We've got time. We've got to have time. I mean, two months is not enough time to get the kind of guy that I want at the University of Notre Dame. You need time to build a relationship. You need time to evaluate transcripts. You need time to make sure that they're the right fit in our community and our campus. And we've got the time to do that.

I think we've got our system in place in terms of our recruiting system. That is absolutely crucial. And now our coaches know their geographical areas. And I think now it's not a scramble.

We have clearly identified prospects for 2011 that we have had conversations today with a number of juniors. And recreated the signing day, essentially for them with those phone calls today, and offering scholarships to the University of Notre Dame. Really getting them to think, hey, the culmination of this in the next 365 days is going to be you signing your national letter of intent to come to the University of Notre Dame. So that is really the most important thing.

[...]

Q. When you go into the next cycle or you have the time, does it change for the elite guys, or whatever elite guys would be, I assume in two months it's hard to get at those guys as everyone else has tried to get at them? Is that what you're getting at, that we can go after more highly rated elite guys?

COACH KELLY: I think, again, we're going to recruit the very best players out there. If they happen to have four or five stars, beautiful. That's great.

It's really still going to be about they have to hit six things for us. One, they've got to make profile. Two, they've got to have the academics. Three, we have to clear their medical history. That's tough to do in six weeks to get all the MRIs. To make sure that they don't have debilitating injuries that are going to come back to hurt you later.

They've got to have the academics. They've got to be socially a young man that we trust. And, finally, they've got to have the right character.

So if you're looking at, you know, those areas, it takes time to hit home runs in all of those areas. I don't want any red flags in those areas, and time allows you to get to that.