Raking The Muck: Notre Dame Recruiting Round-up, St. Dayne Crist and Brian Kelly's Progress

Happy Monday, everyone, I hope you all had a great weekend.  Not only did the Irish clean up in recruiting, but July has ended, meaning there is just one month remaining before the interminable offseason is over and football finally returns.  It is hard to believe that things kick off a month from Thursday, but that's where we are, a mere 34 days until the Brian Kelly Era opens up against Purdue.  A lot of stuff to cover, so let's get at it.

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We have to spend at least a few more paragraphs covering the recruiting haul Matt highlighted on Saturday.   Notre Dame is down to only a few spots left for 2011, but now holds Scout's sixth ranked class, which isn't too bad for having a new coach who hasn't even had his first game.  Those Irish fans who were absolutely sure that Brian Kelly's work ethic would suddenly disappear and he'd neglect to use the Notre Dame brand to recruit nationally had a disappointing few days.*  Kelly beat out Urban Meyer, Jimbo Fisher and Randy Shannon for one All-Dade pass rusher, then beat out all of those guys plus Nick Saban and dozens of others for another monster Floridian presence off the edge.  Just to add to his weekend, Kelly got a commit from a three-star defensive back out of Texas who had offers from Texas Tech, Texas A&M and defensive powerhouse Nebraska.  Justice Hayes, a four star running back wanted by most of the Big Ten and Rocky Top might have been the easiest of the four gets all things considered, and his name is freaking Justice.

*This isn't directed to anyone outside of the Notre Dame family, just to the dark, sad corner of the Irish internet that thought anyone short of Bob Stoops or Nick Saban meant DOOOOOM for the future.  If you are unfamiliar with their arguments, I addressed most of them here.

Some of my favorite quotes from the commits:

From Anthony Rabasa:

"What I love the most about them, is the tradition of the school," Rabasa said. "The perks that come with getting a degree from Notre Dame, opens so many doors. It's unreal. If you say you go to Notre Dame, everyone is going to be shocked. If you say you play ball for Notre Dame, everyone is going to be shocked.

"This is unbelievable, and something I couldn't let go."

From Aaron Lynch:

"When I visited Notre Dame, I wanted to take all the other visits to all the other schools, and I felt love from all the other schools, but I left my heart at Notre Dame, and that's where it's going to stay."

From Justice Hayes:

"The exposure, Notre Dame has crazy exposure. They're on national television every Saturday. Notre Dame is a big-time program. When I went down to visit, both times I loved it. I talked to coach (Brian) Kelly a couple times, and felt the love from the coaching staff. I talked to the players and I loved that. All of them were down-to-earth guys, all about being successful in life.

"All that mixed together was a Justice Hayes wonderland."

If there isn't a Notre Dame blog called "Justice Hayes Wonderland" starting up in the next few years, you all should be ashamed of yourselves.

Kelly obviously still needs to attract one top-flight wideout, and if he's passing on a quarterback this year he needs to lock into a stud for the next cycle, but so far, limited complaints about this year's class.

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When Dayne Crist committed to Notre Dame and settled on the Number 10, there were talks of him becoming Brady Quinn 2.0.  Everyone's favorite beat reporter Brian Hamilton had a Crist profile in Sunday's Chicago Tribune, and he seems to be well on his way to fulfilling that prophecy:

On a July afternoon, Crist arrived early for an appointment at the Guglielmino Athletics Complex, wearing red workout shorts and a black T-shirt. On the shirt's front, in large white lettering, was a slogan: "StaND Against Hate."

Of course.

It was a week on campus dedicated to ending hate against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Crist had a tough time remembering it. But then he has served McFlurrys to terminally ill children, worked with the homeless in San Jose, read to children in South Bend-area libraries, recruited 50-plus teammates to shave their heads in the name of childhood cancer research.

It all tends to blur together. Next thing you know, he will go to Africa to build libraries. No, really. He might do that.

Linebacker Manti Te'o labeled Crist "a perfect Notre Dame role model," noting he often bails out less eloquent teammates in meetings with recruits' parents, offering "those answers that you're just like, 'You're the golden boy.'"

One staffer, with affectionate sarcasm, referred to Crist as "Saint Dayne."

All of that is well and good, but the best piece of news from the story is that the surgically repaired leg is 100% structurally and at 93% strength.  (I don't know how they know it's at 93% strength, but I'll take Crist's word for it.)  Considering the youth behind Crist on the depth chart, his health is key to a successful Notre Dame season.

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Speaking of Brian Kelly, he got his own Tribune profile last week.  Mostly just some fun anecdotes about adjusting to life as a Notre Dame head coach.  Some of my favorites:

Before reviewing the cart rules and pin positions, George the Starter has a message for Brian Kelly: "We've cleared the course of all Michigan and Michigan State fans."

Seconds later, the starter's phone goes off. The Notre Dame fight song.

"George," Kelly says, "you've just made yourself a big fan."

...

"At our fantasy camp, the MVP proposed to his girlfriend on the field," Kelly recalls. "Then he wanted me to be part of the wedding. I didn't even know him. That's when you know you're big-time."

...

On this day, Kelly and I team up to win a few bucks from Kelly's agent, Mike Wilcox, and Al McKellar, who runs the Kelly Cares Foundation.

Kelly tries to reciprocate by paying for a post-round lunch, but the waitress has another idea.

"This will be complimentary, but would you mind signing the bill?" she asks.

Puff piece profiles for everyone!

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As we get closer to the season, we're going to start focusing more and more on Irish opponents.  As I skimmed through my Phil Steele on the beach and started diving into the myriad of countdown previews going on across the internet, a few bullet points of stuff that jumped out to me.  We will of course explore these all more in-depth as each particular game gets closer:

• Purdue is replacing four starters in the secondary. Considering their quality last year, that might not be the worst thing in the world, but you've got to think that's an advantage in the opener. Less thrilling is the return of Keith Smith, who had 91 catches for 1100 yards last year, although we can hope for some communication difficulties with new quarterback Robert Marve.
• Notre Dame is going to face some tremendous linebackers this year, as they take on three of Phil Steele's top six units. Mark Herzlich is rejoining Boston College to complement Luke Kuechly, who was a revelation last season as the number two tackler in all of college football. Greg Jones is back at Michigan State, flanked by Eric Gordon. Southern Cal has the usual freak show at linebacker, as Chris Galippo, Malcolm Smith and Michael Morgan are all back (nearly 200 combined tackles last season on a very young Trojan defense.)
• Not to be a hater, but I keep seeing Andrew Luck's name pop up as one of the top quarterbacks in the country and a shoe-in as a top selection in the NFL draft. His numbers last season are not bad (21^st in the country in passer rating, 13:4 TD:INT ratio, 56.3 completion percentage and another 300+ yards on the ground), but shouldn't it be mentioned he was sharing the backfield with a Heisman finalist who isn't around anymore? Look at his game log, which is not particularly inspiring, even for a rookie QB. It's always easier for a quarterback with a good running game, and Luck had one of the best in the country to carry him last year. I would not be surprised if Luck came out and had a great season, as he has the pedigree, the size, the coaching and the numbers as a redshirt freshman last year to suggest he will. But I haven't seen anyone consider that a relatively tough opening slate (at UCLA, Wake Forest, at Notre Dame, at Oregon and USC before the mid-October bye week) could put a much-hyped coach and QB combination in a below .500 hole.
• The Dion Lewis/Jonathan Baldwin tandem in Pittsburgh is going to be scary, scary good. The two combined for about three thousand yards of offense and 26 TDs last season. If I know Dave Wannstedt - and I think I do - Lewis will probably average between 55 and 70 carries a game.
• Ricky Dobbs is also a freak, and is actually starting to get a little Heisman buzz.  You would think that nothing would come of this unless Navy comes close to running the table, but the schedule is very runnable.  Opener with Maryland, trips to Air Force, East Carolina and Wake Forest and a home game against Duke.  The Notre Dame game in the Meadowlands is their biggest hurdle, and the Midshipmen shouldn't be lacking in confidence after winning two of the last three.  /gentlesobbing
• The Utes bring back 80% of their offensive line and their entire backfield, but must replace seven defensive starters and five of their top six tacklers. Notre Dame also catches them a week after their home game against the Horned Frogs, most likely their toughest matchup of the season.
• Anyone who attempts to predict how USC will look or be playing at the end of the year is just trying to show off and will likely be wrong. They will have an amazingly talented QB and all sorts of high-end players around him, but they're only returning ten starters. Looking at their schedule, it's hard not to see them getting double digit wins (they play at Hawaii and therefore are playing thirteen games), but who knows what we'll see after the biggest change of them all: Kiffykins taking over for Pete Carroll.

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If you'll allow, I'm going to close with a little mini-rant.  As I've stated dozens of times previously, I am not a devout follower of recruiting.  If something involves stalking the Facebook pages of sixteen year old boys, I'm going to try and maintain my distance, but I do check in often to see how the Irish and their annual opponents are doing.  So I'm reading MGo's summary of all the Big Integer recruiting (plus Notre Dame and Nebraska) and something just struck me as too ridiculous not to comment on.

ESPN and Rivals are now using various numbered scales in an apparent attempt to be more accurate, ESPN going from 0 to 100 and Rivals from 5.1 to 6.1  What does that mean?  Can you tell me how much better a 81 player is compared to a 80 or 78?  Why is someone a 5.9 and not a 5.8?  They're attempting to turn evaluations of a dozen games a season when the talent on either side of the field is a total variable and make it into chemistry or calculus.  I think the recruiting services do a great job of identifying the top talent, but we don't need specific numbers on a 100 point scale assigned to players.  You're just pretending you know more about these recruits than you do, and it is bullshit. 

Just use stars.  They're simple, they're not too fancy and they give a general idea about where a prospect ranks.  This isn't an exact science, so just give us a general idea of where a player falls compared to his peers, list his other offers and some 40 times.  Anything else is just guesswork and an attempt to look too smart.