Genius Hires and Moronic Rumors

So a lot of action this week.  Rumor-mills about with potentially the lamest rumor ever.  Weis makes a few genius hires - in my opinion - and is working on a third.  Awesomeness.

Firts, the rumor.  Gruden to be hired day after NSD?  This is potentially the most moronic thing I've ever heard in my entire life.  No program would ever do this for any reason.  Ever.  Why?  First, no coach would want to work at an institution that did this. Right after declaring support for a coach, they turn around and boot him?  Any coach hired would never feel secure in that job, and they'd have zero trust in the admin, and that would include the incoming hire.  Which means that the new incoming guy wouldn't take the job in the first place.  Circular?  Yep.  Makes it impossible?  Yep.

The second reason is that the program would lose all credibility with recruits.  The entire class (or almost all of it) would transfer asap, and rightly so, after a move like that.  And the next year's class would bolt.  And rightfully so.  The NCAA would likely grant exceptions that negate the 1-year waiting period for these kids as well.  And rightfully so.

Finally, all those assistant coaches that were recently hired, recently moved, recently started recruiting for Notre Dame would have to go and find new jobs.  They'd HATE the program for uprooting their lives only to flip right around on them.  These people left good jobs for a better one, uprooted their lives.  It would result in ND not being able to hire any quality assistants.  It would result in tons of negative recruiting.  There's ZERO chance that any school worth anything, and especially a Catholic school with moral values like ND, would do something so heartless and mean-spirited. 

This is why ND, and every other school in the country, would never even consider such a move.  This is also why anyone that believes this rumor is an idiot.  It's also why anyone that hopes for this to be true is an idiot, and in no way is a true ND Fan...

From moronic to genius, I LOVE these new hires.

BGS does a great writeup on the hiring of Tony Alford. I won't recreate it all here, as it's a really solid run-down, and I'm not into plagiarism (or spelling that much - is that even spelled correctly?). 

But a few highlights and why I love this guy:

• He's coming on as Running Backs coach.  This keeps things nice and clean, as Weis will clearly be calling the plays again.  I am just hoping that Weis leaves gameday management stuff to Tenuta.  It's a Head Coach-like responsibility, and one I am sure Tenuta can handle along with assisting Brown on the sidelines.
• He's been a running back and running backs coach forever.
• He's a tireless recruiter, and is considered one of the best out there.  More talent hooray thats good and sweet so now lets get every 5 star in the country in 2010 and destroy everyone go irish yay.
• He hates turnovers, and stresses ball security big time.  Best quote ever:  "Those guys have to understand that they're carrying the entire program under their arms at any given time."  Per the BGS article, Iowa State fumbled 13 times in 8 years under Alford.  Absurd.

I also love the hire of Bryant Young.  All-American at ND.  14 years in the NFL.  Young enough (pun intended, hahahahahaha!) at 36 for the kids going to school to at least recognize the name, and be in awe of his hugeness and his NFL stories and his knowledge of the game at the next level.  The fact that a guy with this kind of pedigree is coming on as a grad assistant is huge. It gives the players in one of our thinnest positions, the DL, a new mentor and someone they can relate to and be inspired by.

I see Grunhard in a very similar light, although his hiring is looking less likely.   Which I totally get - I dont know if I'd want to move my entire family with 4 kids in school at that point in life either. 

The strategy, though, is genius.  Grad Assts are often very low-level work-your-way-up guys.  These two hires/potential hires put an awesome spin on the position.  It adds to ND's growing pedigree of being a place that will prepare you for the NFL, and since they're alums they get the program and the school and have passion for it.   CW does a lot of things that I don't get.  He also does a lot of things that I don't think of.  This is one that I am loving.  If Grunhard doesn't work out, I hope he has another similar guy in line.