recruiting roundtable

by Jim (fisherj08) , A Samoan kid's laptop, Friday, February 13, 2009, 06:31 (6087 days ago) @ Jay

Biggest Get: While the easy answer is our Polynesian Superman, our Linebacking Corps was still in pretty good shape before he jumped on board. I would've been perfectly fine with a group of Filer/Neal/Fleming/Smith/McDonald/whoever. Manti Te'o is icing on the cake. No, I'll say that our biggest get was big Tyler Stockton. On top of having one of the more intimidating Stock Photos ever

he fills an immediate need, and he is already on campus. If we see recruiting as a function of Need x Awesomeness, he is our biggest get by far.

Biggest Miss: That being said, our biggest miss(es) was/were folks like LaLota, Roh, Bonds et al. We needed more big dudes down low, even with the outstanding D-Line haul we brought in last season. Safety is a small worry, but not as pressing.

Class Sleeper: Edwin Johanness (Need to check on those initials...) Banks. He's already an outstanding athlete, if he can really figure out how to play DB, the sky is the limit for him. I trust our coaches to be able to make this happen.

Favorite Recruiting Moment (Non Manti division) Cierre Wood commits to ND. After the craptacular season in 2007, there was literally no reason for a top 25 Offensive Skill Player to commit to ND so early in the process. When he decided to come to South Bend, it gave me hope that somehow, something good would happen in 2008. It didn't, really, but still.

Parting Thoughts A good class. Most definitely some holes here and there, but with the shitshow of 2007, I'm not sure if we could have done much better. This coming recruiting class is already shaping up to be out-freaking-standing, so maybe, just maybe, Charlie will get this ship righted.