People Who Live in Caves.

[The Ancient Enemy]

I didn't even click the link. I think it's the same article I screamed about the other day, anyways. I didn't even need to click it to get irritated. Look at the teaser for the article on ESPN.com:

One year ago Notre Dame entered the season unranked and unnoticed. What a difference a year makes, writes Gene Wojciechowski.

Am I the only person who goes outside the cave once in awhile to get some fresh air, or what? Don't people remember how much of a big deal was made over Charlie Weis's hiring? I guess no one remembers the guessing game the college football world was playing when they were looking for a new coach. On top of that, there was tons of controversy over the Willingham hiring, which just took place!!! Notre Dame was hardly "UNNOTICED".

[frostlion]

0-3, 1-2 possibly by the end of September, with additional possible losses to Purdue, USC, Michigan State...

The national sports media (especially NBC) wants, needs, and prays each year for a ND national title run. Just look at Ty's first year. He was the darling of the college football world. When the ship started taking on water, they (meaning the ND faithful and the media) pushed aside old broads and children to get into the life boats. The same will happen with Saint Charlie of South Bend. Another 3 or even 4 loss season or two, and he's headed back to the NFL.

[The Ancient Enemy]

It really is baffling how stupid people can really be. I know Weis is doing a good job recruiting right now, for the upcoming season. But this ND national title run, which wont take place, is being led by players... recruited by Tyrone Willingham. Yet, Willingham is seen as such a horrible, terrible recruiter. You cannot tell me that Charlie Weis, in one season, took a roster of, say, 3-star players and turned them into 5-star ones. That's impossible. I dont care about Willingham or his firing, but the guy was the one who brought these players in. Obviously he knew something. Plus the fact that Quinn was pretty dang good even before Weis got hired. I think people kinda knew Quinn's upside was very bright, even in his first year as a starter, under Willingham. Charlie Weis is not necessarily the guy who turned Quinn into a champion. Let's not forget that David Cutcliffe was fired at Ole Miss and took a job as an assistant at Notre Dame. Because of health concerns, Cutcliffe had to retire from coaching last season. Oh, Cutcliffe is personally responsible for Tennessee's offensive success over the past 25 decades, where he was offensive coordinator. Maybe you heard of some of the QB's he's coached, since he specialized in quarterbacking. Peyton Manning, Casey Clausen, T. Martin, 50 other serviceable TN quarterbacks, and coached Eli Manning to his success at Ole Miss. Then he went and worked on Quinn. So before we stick our hands down Charlie Weis's pants, let's reconsider what we're doing. I don't even know why the media writes these articles about ND. They should just publish articles that say this: "Notre Dame!!!! Notre Dame!!! Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Notre Dame!!!" Make sure you routinely fail to mention how much ND's defense sucked last year, and how there's holes there, too.

[vman]

[quote="The Ancient Enemy";p="124853"] Yet, Willingham is seen as such a horrible, terrible recruiter. [/quote]

That is because it is true! He thought the kids recruited themselves, he was @ ND & could golf everyday!

Willingham’s Stamp on Irish Fading, For Now
Written By: Frank Vitovitch | Posted:June 27, 2006 01:15 A M Printer
Notre Dame, Ind (UHND.com) –

With the transfer of David Wolke, 11 Notre Dame players have now left the Irish football team since Charlie Weis took over 18 months ago. Not all have left the university entirely, but with each defection, Tyrone Willingham’s stamp on this team is fading fast. That is of course, until the overall lack of depth caused by Willingham’s recruiting catches up with the Irish.

Overall, two players from this year’s senior class have left – Freddie Parish and LaBrose Hedgemon; eight players from the junior class – Chauncey Incarnato, John Kadous, Tregg Duerson, Chris Vaughn, Junior Jabbie, Justin Hoskins, and Brandon Nicolas; and one from the sophomore class – Joey Hiben.

Players such as Joey Hiben and Tregg Duerson have remained enrolled at Notre Dame but have simply left the football team. Hiben cited his reason for leaving as needing to focus on his architecture degree.

Others, like Wolke have left to pursue their football careers at other schools. Wolke’s transfer in particular was because of the increase in talent that Weis has developed in his 18 months on the job.

For the last two years Wolke has been the backup for Notre Dame, but with the players Weis has brought in, he has dropped on the depth chart. In fairness to Willingham, Evan Sharpley committed while Ty was the coach, but if Sharpley were his only competition, Wolke would probably still be at Notre Dame. The two extremely talented freshman, Zach Frazer and Demetrius Jones, most likely had a little bit to do with Wolke’s decision to transfer.

While it’s a good sign of the overall talent level at Notre Dame that players are leaving because they can’t get on the field, the lack of depth that this situation creates will allow Tyrone Willingham’s presence to be felt on this team next year when the senior class will have just nine players left and the junior class will have just 14 players.

While I am confident in the coaching staff’s ability to develop the young talent they have brought in in time for next season, the fact that Weis and staff will go to battle with just 21 players in his junior and senior classes combined next year is reason enough to continue to harp on the lousy job that Willingham and his staff did while at Notre Dame.
You can call it sour grapes or whatever other term you’d like to use. Or, you can call it what it is – the simple truth that Willingham’s inability to recruit effectively was reason enough for his dismissal last year.

Now while Notre Dame has a legit chance at a national championship run this year, the Irish will need to break in a new quarterback, at least three new offensive linemen, and their top two wide receivers on offense alone in 2007.

Ok, so it may be a bit early to worry about the 2007 season beings as camp hasn’t even started for the 2006 season, but it still warrants discussing now since the pundits who based Notre Dame to firing Willingham in the first place are sure to have a field day if the Irish struggle out of the gates with all the new starters in ’07.

The only silver lining here is that Weis has shown he is prepared for anything and I am sure he and his staff are aware of the depth issues that will exist in 2007 and while they may not admit it openly, it’d definitely in the back of their minds.

Weis has also shown that he is willing to work harder than any other coach which is good since Willingham created a lot more work with his last two classes. So while Willingham is practicing his chipping and putting next off-season, Weis will be busy working to fix the mistakes of those before him. _____________________________________________________________

Since that article Nate Schiccatano has left (with degree) & one yr. of eligibility. Rumored to be going to camp with Temple! That's 12 kids in a yr & a half!!!

Related to this & your other ND jealousy post, I read this on a ND board:

"Why are some of you guys so hung up on Notre Dame? Do you
spend every waking minute thinking about ND? Do you see
Notre Dame fans constantly talking about PSU? Your envy and
obsession with Notre Dame shows deep inside fear and respect
of Notre Dame. Take a deep breath and worry about the Lions.
Some of you must be so bored with life that all you want to
do is argue and make personal attacks. Lighten up have fun."

Y usted?

[The Ancient Enemy]

Some of you must be so bored with life that all you want to
do is argue and make personal attacks.

So what??? I like making fun of people!!!


Yeah, kids left ND. No denying that. That doesn't change who recruited the players for this upcoming season!!! Who recruited Quinn and all the rest of these supposed 5-star players? T-WILLY DID!!!

Look, Ace, Weis's recruiting success is good for what it is. But that's not under question, here. We are talking about 2006. Kids recruited by T-Willy, and are supposed to make a national title run. That's all I'm saying. And I'm refuting what bozo sportswriters are doing for Weis: giving him all the credit for Quinn. Not true, Holmes. Cutcliffe is the best QB coach in the past 20 years probably. He is now back at Tennessee as O-Coordinator. Remember all the questions surrounding Erik Ainge's worth, and the split time he had with Schaffer (now at Ole Miss) and Rick Clausen? Watch and see Erik Ainge this season and you'll see I'm right. It's not Phillip Fullmer, dude. Cutcliffe got axed at Ole Miss because Michael Spurlock couldn't match Eli Manning's productivity, because Michael Spurlock sucks. They didn't even give Cutcliffe a chance to recruit a QB. He got the shaft at ole Miss, for sure.

I have respect for Notre Dame's past, and their tradition. I have said numerous times on this message board since Quinn's first season that he is very good, and I routinely praise him as a player. My beef is with Kevin White's completely asinine comments in that interview, the future of ND scheduling which has NO morals and NO ethics, and absolutely unfounded hype over a team who has just as many holes everybody else. But you dont hear that. You don't hear about their defensive concerns. Can you even name ND's coordinators? No, because you never hear about them. You hear about how great Weis is. How'd Weis do last season?