Or maybe that was Asa Turner just trying to figure out his future as he said in his own words. I donno, crootin’ is weird and people get mad.

So come join us on a fun episode looking into the future of our beloved Irish and try and pretend that football hasn’t left us.

Podcast

Twitch Broadcast

Watch Notre Dame Crootin’ Recap with Kevin Sinclair from herloyalsons on www.twitch.tv

The post HLS Podcast: Crootin’ with Kevin Sinclair of Irish Illustrated appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

Irish Illustrated’s Kevin Sinclair joins the show to discuss a rather huge week in Notre Dame recruiting. Plus, as I am admittedly far from a recruiting aficionado, I ask Kevin to give his take and insight on the crazy world that he covers. There’s some great nuggets of info in there, my favorite of which is one rather major difference between how Stanford and Notre Dame approach recruiting.

Enjoy!

The post HLS Podcast: Notre Dame Recruiting with Irish Illustrated’s Kevin Sinclair appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

So in celebration, I decided to give you a complete guide to handling Signing Day. Whether you eat and breathe college football or just casually enjoy your fall Saturday, I’m here to help you. Without further ado, THE LIST:

Drink it in maaaaan (via WWE)

1. Every coach had a great signing day. Yes, even yours. Everyone loves every player they signed. Well, except for Lane Kiffin. He might not be excited about anything.

2. That kid that flipped over to your school at the last minute is the greatest human being on the planet. Bonus points if he spurned a rival. Double bonus if he ran away from Ann Arbor.

3. That kid that flipped away from your school is the worst. There was always something off about him anyways. Either you had it pegged or some anonymous mind-reader on a forum or Twitter knew it and you, you intelligent college football fan, you, knew to believe it.

4. If you are thinking about tweeting at a recruit, even during signing day, here’s a handy flowchart.

5. If you are blessed with a five star recruit, celebrate because recruiting rankings are everything!

6. If you don’t get a five-star recruit, remember that recruiting rankings are worthless. Will Fuller was a three-star and J.J. Watt was a two-star.

7. Speaking of those diamonds in the rough, you definitely signed one. Your head coach will point it out (see also, #1). If he doesn’t, someone on a blog, recruiting beat, or podcast will.

8. By the way, they are signing a National Letter of Intent (NLI), not a Letter of Intent (LOI). Unless you want to troll a compliance director on Twitter. In that case, totally call it a LOI.

9. Yes, fax machines do still exist.

10. Never forget that Lou Holtz broke our hearts on this day.

11. Pretty much every school is going to stream something on signing day. Notre Dame will start at 7:00am ET. If you are in the SEC, you mourn the loss of fax cam girls. Yes, that was a thing that actually existed.

12. Attempt to remember that these are teenagers making a major, life-altering decision. Try to keep a level head.

13. Remember that majority of college football fans will ignore #12.

Go Irish.

The post Your Complete Guide to Signing Day appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

I’m told this fellow attended no fewer than three colleges. Though he learned about criminal justice at one of them, he obviously did not major in communication studies at any of them.

I understand that newspapermen can be a tough crowd. Plenty of Notre Dame officials and student-athletes have had to face the glare of the bright lights and the shouted questions of the rabble, defended by nothing more than a podium and their wits. As an educator, I will take this opportunity to show how one should handle the loyal opposition…er…I mean the media. I present to you a hypothetical press conference.

[We enter in medias res.*]

Coach Kelly’s contract was just renewed for another five years. Since he hasn’t won a championship, hasn’t produced a Heisman winner, and lost his most recent bowl game to a far superior coach whom you couldn’t lure to Notre Dame, isn’t it clear that you’ve settled for annual mediocrity and given up on Irish football greatness?

You must have graduated from the University in the 1960s. Brian Kelly is an excellent coach. He has over 200 victories, 55 of them with the Fighting Irish. We competed for the National Championship in 2012, a season in which we were ranked first on the football field and first in graduation success rate. That had never been done before. He is a good family man, a pillar of the community, and a snappy dresser with a dazzling array of tartan sport coats. Though in the past he may have toyed with the idea of coaching a professional football team, he has come to appreciate what Ara Parseghian knew, Dan Devine experienced, and Lou Holtz learned the hard way – it’s far more rewarding to stay at Notre Dame than to go anywhere else. The NFL isn’t for everyone…just ask Nick Saban.

I have a follow-up screed. But Kelly obviously can’t recruit. He had a lackluster class this year, falling far behind the likes of Alabama, Florida State, and even Michigan. By the way, did you see the glory and majesty that was Michigan’s “Signing of the Stars?” You must admit that Jim Harbaugh is indeed touched with the purest magic.

Since there was no interrogative sentence in there, I can’t really answer a question. But I can reflect on your flight of fancy. Coach Kelly recruits what he needs, and develops what he recruits. Isn’t that the goal? Coach Kelly does not oversign, does not revoke scholarships, and does not deceive his players. They will have to work as hard in the classroom as on the field, and graduation is their ultimate goal. After all, this is Notre Dame, not Alabama.

Since I’m fixated and rude, I’ll continue my panegyric to The Harbaugh, blessed be he. How could Notre Dame have fallen so far, that no less than Lou Holtz joined The Harbaugh on stage to serenade the Michigan recruits and fans with a ballad to the greatness of Big Blue? Clearly Notre Dame’s shameless and dastardly cancellation of the series with Michigan caused one of its most devoted acolytes to convert to the one true faith in The Harbaugh, all praise and honor to him.

While you befoul yourself in ecstasy, let me point out once again, that scheduling difficulties on both sides of the Notre Dame-Michigan series necessitated a temporary hiatus. It is out of the ordinary that Notre Dame initiated this pause in the action, since it was Michigan that created the original 33-year rift after Fielding Yost became inconsolable in the face of his first defeat by Notre Dame. But Michigan fans really need to have some self-respect and stop acting like jilted lovers who hate their former paramours so much that they can’t stop thinking and talking about them. Harbaugh should be happy that he has had the opportunity to get his (clay) feet under him without having to fight the Irish. The series will commence again, and Harbaugh will have his shot, since his electronic leash doesn’t allow him to be farther than 50 feet from his Michigan keepers.

As for Lou Holtz, he was returning a favor as any man of integrity is expected to do. Michigan had him for a day, but since Holtz has a reservation in Cedar Grove, we have him for eternity. Besides which, Holtz was talking about his experience coaching against the Wolverines; he had no part in recruiting players for Michigan. He remains loyal to Notre Dame, but he is free to participate in events of his choosing. That said, I will not be joining in Jesuit Vocation Awareness Week.

Since my colleague from Ann Arbor has collapsed in a spittle-flecked trance, I’d like to redirect our focus to Notre Dame’s real rival, USC. Pat Haden is stepping down as athletic director, meaning that the momentary stumble before Notre Dame in football will immediately return to a decade of Trojan victories. Ready?

Allow me to wish Pat Haden well. He is a gentleman and a scholar. For several years he called Notre Dame games from our press box along with that older Hammond lady who, I presume, is his wife. May they both have a happy retirement together. Pat did the best he could at USC, but he was truly like Daniel in the Liars’ Den. I would need medical attention, too, if I tried to do that job. As for a replacement, I understand the Manziel fellow is looking for work these days. I know he doesn’t have a college degree, but let’s face it – USC athletics has never been about education. And Manziel’s lifestyle would fit quite nicely with the USC campus ethos. In the alternative, Urban Meyer could take over as USC’s athletic director, since he’s been at Ohio State for four years, and that’s far too long for him to remain at any dream job. Besides, if Urban left the Big Ten, Harbaugh would sleep better…in whichever recruit’s bunk bed he is camping out.

A junior on the football team has just been elected Student Body President. How can he do both?

If Knute Rockne could teach chemistry; serve as athletic director; run the business office and the ticket office; coach track and football; design football equipment, uniforms, and the Stadium; write newspaper columns and books; broker stock and sell Studebakers, all while raising four children, I think our Robinson lad can make the Dean’s List, make the catches to score the touchdowns, and faithfully execute the office of Student Body President all at once. That’s why we recruit scholar-athletes – they’re just more interesting.

Back to Harbaugh. Michigan will be holding football practice over Spring Break in Florida. Isn’t that a hoot! How brilliant of them! But the University of Florida is saying that’s not fair. What’s their problem, and why is Notre Dame so backward?

After a long and cold first half of the semester studying and keeping themselves fit, our scholar-athletes have earned a week’s respite. The University of Florida is angry because it is school policy that Spring Break is for lewd and lascivious behavior, hospitalizations, and arrests, not football practice. And Harbaugh needs to get a life and let his players have their own – one of them is going to take out a restraining order against him sooner or later.

At a recent basketball game, your students stormed the court after defeating top-ranked North Carolina. But don’t Notre Dame students rush the field and storm the court too much? Isn’t it too dangerous?

It’s a game, it’s excitement – deal with it. If we have rules for when and how to spontaneously express emotion, we’ve really gone way too far (though I wouldn’t put it past the Oberkommando der Student Affairs). Games are for cheering, yelling, and when you come from behind to win, running onto the court to celebrate. If you don’t like that, betake yourself up to that quaint little club overlooking the court where you can enjoy a genteel aperitif and canapés without those obnoxious students and fans. And just wait until we open the Decadence Boxes in the Stadium addition – fainting couches and intravenous booze delivery will make it more silent that a church on Good Friday.

How can a supposedly Catholic school permit an event like the Keenan Revue which annually manages to insult everybody and crosses every boundary of taste and decorum?

It’s vulgar, obscene, and bawdy. It’s just what this place needs. For those offended, I have extra Holy Water to use as eye-wash and ear-rinse. I would make the Holy Oils available, but the dancing lads would just grease themselves up for that smutty kick-line. It’s filth…but it’s our kind of filth.

That’s all the time I have for now. Your questions have been patronizing, condescending, and offensive. I have tried to respond in kind.

And now I’m going to drink a lot of Budweis cheap red wine.

EFS CSC

* This is Latin, students. You would be able to translate it if we still required you to study the great Classical Languages. If you don’t think it’s cool to study Classics, I would remind you that the Englishman who sang at halftime of the Super Bowl graduated with a degree in Latin and Greek…trusa illud in fistulam tuam et id fuma!

Padre’s book Father Sorin Says: The Founder Comments on Today’s Notre Dame, is available from the Hammes Notre Dame Bookstore and Amazon. Don’t give it to a Michigan or USC fan…or may be you should…

The post Good Fridays w/Padre: Bad Question appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

I’m admittedly a fan of prospects out of California that go on to become great college football players. I especially love it when they buck the trend and go out of state, and take a chance on Notre Dame. From my days of cheering on Kory Minor, I have always had a soft spot for guys on our roster from the Golden State.

Fresh off signing day 2016 and the anticlimactic Caleb Kelly announcement, I wanted to know how Brian Kelly has fared recruiting wise compared to his predecessor, Charlie Weis. My fuzzy memory tells me that Weis had better success in CA and landed a good number of kids from the state.  With the help of my HLS compatriot, @andrewinn, I looked at the data. Here are some summary points:

Charlie Weis in California

• Through Weis’ years (2005-2009) Notre Dame targeted 45 prospects in CA.
• Weis had 12 commits during this period, representing a 27% hit rate on pulling guys from out west.
• 11% of Weis’ commits transferred or left Notre Dame, guys of note – Joe Fauria and Shaq Evans who went on to become good players at UCLA (note that Evans left after Weis was fired, and it seemed he never was in the good graces of the new coaching staff)
• Notable misses from CA: honestly? Looking at the guys we didn’t get and looking at star ratings and what they went on to become – the only guy that could be a ‘miss’ was Mark Sanchez.

Brian Kelly in California

• Obviously Brian Kelly has a few extra years on Weis, but if you just consider his first five years – ND offered 70 prospects. If you include through 2016’s class – a whopping 123 total prospects offered.
• Unlike Weis, we didn’t land as many guys out of our targeted prospects. BK only signed 13% through his first five years, overall through 2016 ND has signed 11% of its CA targets.
• Not a lot of transfers out of ND for CA guys – one guy of note, Tee Shepherd (only for the drama), and most recently Tyler Luatua. Not a transfer but kind of a bummer – Troy Niklas leaving early for the NFL.
• The guys we missed on reads like an all-star roster (or the starting roster for USC): George Farmer, Robert Woods, Anthony Barr (still irks me that we couldn’t get him), Arik Armstead, Eddie Vanderdoes, Deontay Greenberry, Su’a Cravens, Matt Dickerson. It would be an understatement to say that the recruitment of these guys (and others from CA) were eventful and came down to the wire, and then some.

So what can we say about ND’s presence in CA? It would appear that Weis had better success from a bottom line perspective, targeting fewer guys but landing all of our top targets in the state. I mean, the guy called Jimmy Clausen on day one of the kid’s recruitment. Weis had Brian Polian running CA for the most part if I recall, and Polian really worked hard in the state for the most part.

Brian Kelly, although not as successful, is targeting more guys in the state, and going toe to toe against USC, UCLA, and Stanford to a certain extent, for a lot of the in-state talent. We hear of Denbrock running recruiting for CA, which at first seemed iffy. But he’s had a good run in the state and the addition of Mike Sanford is a good sign for CA recruiting.

I’m a believer in hitting to win – and you can’t get guys from CA if you’re not offering. It’s a good sign that we are offering as many guys over time in California; if anything to keep our traditional opponents on their toes (USC, Stanford).  I think as painful as these long recruitment sagas can go, I appreciate that ND is in it for a lot of guys late in the game. I think an energetic guy like Sanford could move the needle a bit for CA recruiting and we can have the best of Weis and Brian Kelly with regards to success out west.

The post Does Notre Dame Have a California Problem? appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

Liam Eichenberg, Courtesy Vimeo.com

The Irish Sports Talk podcast recently hosted Notre Dame offensive lineman commit Liam Eichenberg on its show, and the 4-star offensive lineman from St. Ignatius (Cleveland, Ohio) didn’t mince words when it came to a fellow lineman who was offered a Notre Dame scholarship:

Host: A couple of weeks ago there were reports of a few other linemen that supposedly got offered for Notre Dame. Notre Dame already has three linemen. You want to tell us about that how that went down?

Eichenberg: Parker [Boudreaux] put in the group message between Tommy [Kraemer], him and myself. It said that this kid got offered. I mean, I spent a week with him down at the Under Armour All-American game. He’s a great athlete and stuff. But mentally, I just didn’t think he had what it took. He was always late. He just forgot a lot of stuff. I didn’t think that was the kind of guy that Coach Hiestand would want. We were just surprised that Coach Hiestand would offer him.

Jauan Williams / 247Sports.com

Although no names are mentioned, it’s not hard to deduce who Eichenberg is talking about.

The Under Armour All-America game included 18 offensive linemen, including Eichenberg. Fifteen are already committed to other schools. Of the three remaining players, two hold a Notre Dame offer. Jauan Williams, a four-star offensive lineman, reported a Notre Dame offer on Jan. 5.

For what it’s worth, Eichenberg is considered a better prospect than Williams, with the former being the 9th best offensive tackle and the latter being ranked 17th, according to 247 Sports. So is Kramer, who is ranked third on that list. Boudreaux is ranked lower, but plays guard.

If I’m to speculate, I guess Eichenberg knows Williams is not taking his Notre Dame offer seriously and will probably attend another school. It’s easy to criticize a guy you’ll never play alongside.

It’s refreshing, however, to hear an athlete give his (supposedly) honest assessment of a competitor. Players are being less blunt these days because they’ve weighed the risk and reward of speaking out. The media recognizes that any controversial viewpoint is sustaining fodder for the various news and opinion programs that fill the day – and that their viewers will happily consume it. Thus, otherwise benign comments are sometimes distorted to keep eyeballs on the television or computer screen.

What if I had titled this post “Eichenberg criticizes future coach’s judgment”? That’s certainly one interpretation of Eichenberg’s comments, although I don’t think that was the teenager’s intention at all.

Clemson’s Hunter Renfrow (13) makes a catch over Notre Dame’s KeiVarae Russell (6). SBT Photo/ROBERT FRANKLIN

When Eichenberg joins his college team, Notre Dame will talk to him – and all his fellow student-athletes – about being careful about what they tell the press. Everything can be misconstrued, or blown out of proportion. They may use the example of KeiVarae Russell, who, in the midst of complimenting DeShaun Watson, called the Clemson quarterback “not overly superior” and suggested he’s played against better.

The headline on Tigernet.com, a Clemson fansite, read: “Notre Dame CB on Watson: ‘I don’t think he’s a top five quarterback.'”

It’s an accurate headline, sure. But it intentionally skews the statement to suggest it was a straight dis, when the overall comment is pretty laudatory. Perhaps this headline was put on a bulletin board in the Tigers’ locker room or sent to Watson for extra motivation.

Eichenberg will probably be more measured in his assessment of opponents, teammates or coaches by the time he is allowed to talk to the Notre Dame beat writers. In a way, that will be our fault. We clicked on the articles, which increased the ad revenue, which suggested to writers that, in the competition for eyeballs, outrageous sells much better than nuance. Coaches see the comments – or perhaps they’re asked about them – and they encourage the student-athlete to say fewer things that cause them unnecessary headaches.

What we’re left with is guys like Don Carman, who recognized that most beat reporters don’t care about introspection. They just want to fill column inches and go home to their families. It was easier to say a lot of nothing than a bit of something.

I hope Eichenberg has the courage to continue to be candid with the press and, by extension, the fans, although I wouldn’t blame him if he realizes the juice isn’t worth the squeeze.

Vectorbelly.com

The post Liam Eichenberg’s Refreshing Bluntness appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

When Mel Kiper releases a big board, people pay attention (and Frank Caliendo gets an extended lease on relevancy). Kiper released his “way too early Big Board for 2016” ($$) today, and the Irish were well represented in the top 25. The players are unsurprising. Finding himself in Kiper’s top 10 is returning receiver offensive tackle Ronnie Stanley. Stanley’s draft stock rose towards the end of last season and by the time the deadline to declare for the NFL draft neared, Stanely seemed perhaps more likely to go than stay. Many draft professionals/analysts have suggested that had Stanley come out this year, he would have been the first offensive tackle off the board. With players like Laremy Tunsil (Ole Miss) and Jack Conklin (Michigan State) also draft eligible after next season, Stanley may no longer be a lock to be the first lineman off the board, but barring a serious catastrophe (someone please light a candle at the Grotto for me saying this), Stanley’s a near lock to go in the top 10-15 of next year’s draft.

The other player Kiper (and others) are already sold on is favored son Jaylon Smith. Smith’s combination of athleticism and production make him a near lock to go early in whatever draft he decides to wade into. That’s the catch with Smith. I tend to this early in the process be among the people who think Jaylon will comeback for his senior season in order to graduate regardless of what the draft report says about him. He’s had a bright light shone on him for quite sometime being a top national recruit and immediate starter for the Irish following in the footsteps of a similarly touted player, Manti Te’o. It’s a gut instinct based off of Smith’s interviews, but unless his relationship with the university sours, I view him as a guy more likely than not to comeback despite being draft eligible.

Kiper’s colleague and on again, off again lover Todd McShay put out his “Way-too-early 2016 Mock Draft” ($$) recently as well. Similar to Kiper, McShay views both Stanley and Jaylon Smith as early favorites to be first round possibilities.

So I’m not accused of being a corporate shill for ESPN Insider subscriptions, I’ll point you to another early 2016 draft big board that might have ND fans losing their damn minds. Matt Miller over at Bleacher Report’s released his early Top 50 for the 2016 draft, and ummmm…he might be receiving a paycheck from Brian Kelly.

In addition to having Stanley (4) and Smith (8) in his top 10, he also has Sheldon Day (18), Corey Robinson (!)(22), and KeiVarae Russell (28) all as (theoretic) first round caliber players. Both Day and Russell are names that I would expect to gain momentum as the season goes along. Prior to Russell’s off field problems last season, he seemed like a guy in a fantastic position to get himself into the first or second round draft conversation. Coming back to graduate and gain additional exposure while rehabilitating his character has an opportunity to reap major rewards for his stock.

Day’s another guy who I’ve seen written about multiple times. He seems destined to be drafted but has plenty riding on his on field performance this year. No one doubts Day’s technique or quickness. The question will be his weight and durability. Throughout his ND career, Day’s had a propensity to get nicked up at times. Additionally, from what I’ve read, several NFL scouts would like to see him add some weight while maintaining his quickness. A productive and healthy final season in South Bend could lead to him reaching Miller’s lofty rating, but for my taste, his early ranking feels like more of a cap than a starting point.

Then there’s Corey Robinson, who I’ll confess, had my jaw dropping a bit that he was mentioned in any spring early look ahead to the 2016 draft articles. Miller does not have individual write ups, so it’s tough to tell exactly what his thought process was. However, it appears to be based more on Robinson’s potential given his size than on production to this point in his career. At 6’5” and with a strong athletic background, this is not as far-fetched as it may initially seem. After all, Rob Rang at CBSSports also put Robinson into the first round of his early 2016 mock draft. Miller also likes Chris Brown as a potential sleeper candidate.

With all of these write ups, I didn’t even see guys like Greg Bryant, Tarean Folston, or Will Fuller mentioned, and well, that’s fine by me. I will be happy to keep as much talent in South Bend for as long as possible. In the short run though, people legitimately worried about 2015’s 1 draft pick should be able to put those fears to rest because in 2016 it sounds like there’ll be a lot of Irish in attendance wearing flashy suits and hugging the commish.

The post The Irish and the 2016 NFL Draft (Because, Why Not?) appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

Not surprising that an athletic conference, the source and summit of bad ideas, is the water trough from which a particularly preposterous notion has begun to drip.  It seems the Big Ten (or Big .714, which is what you get when you try to force 14 into 10) is spending all the extra cash it made from Ohio State’s success, on vast quantities of cheap booze.  Like tipsy fez-clad Shriners running around their conference hotel late at night, the Big Ten pundits have come up with a Very Bad Idea.  Unlike the Shriners, these brilliant plans have nothing to do with plastic wrap on toilet bowls, but pertain to meddling with football and basketball eligibility.  In short, the Big Ten wants to bar all freshmen from playing football and basketball.  Well, not all freshmen – just the lads.  This sounds like it was thought up by an angry nun presiding over a roomful of rumbustious sixth-graders, who won’t let the naughty boys play outside at recess, but instead is making them stay in and write-out Bible verses.  The Big Ten is angry because their boys aren’t graduating much when they play football and basketball; thus, they are creating this so-called “Year of Readiness.”

No, this won’t send high school players running to the SEC like their hair is on fire.  No, this won’t create a “Year of Slacking and Frustrated Acting-Out.”  No, this won’t generate a system of fifth-year graduate students taking ghost classes so they can play one last season.  To think those things you’d have to be cynical…or realistic.  And, No, this isn’t unfair, even though it does not include half of the student population and none of the other sports.

It is true that graduation rates need to be improved for football and basketball players.  But I have a more radical solution: Make them work as hard as their classmates who play nothing more than Checkers.  It seems to have worked pretty well for us, since we often have the best football graduation success rate in the nation.  Too bad it has prevented us from being #1 in the football rankings – except when it hasn’t.  The Big Ten believes this will begin a “national conversation.”  I believe the conversation will begin with, “What the Hel heck is this?  Were they wearing fezzes and drunkenly running around a conference hotel late at night when they came up with this idea?  The “Year of Readiness” is about as attractive as a big, sharp, icicle ready to fall on someone’s head.”

Unfortunately, the Big Ten isn’t the only leaky gutter dripping Very Bad Ideas.  It seems our own University is toying with the notion of dropping the Philosophy and Theology requirement.  Well, not exactly dropping it, but making it more user-friendly.  Instead of a boring course in dreary old Aquinas, students can study Catholic painters to learn about God.  Like Caravaggio, who loved to paint Biblical figures either cutting off heads or getting their heads cut off.  He was also an inveterate gambler besotted with insatiable and diverse carnal appetites, as well as a murderer.  But dam darn, could he paint St. Paul falling off a horse’s as butt!

I didn’t hammer a holy Cross into the frozen ground of Northern Indiana, in weather just like this, to have my University decide studying about some Jesus guy was taking up too much time in busy students’ schedules.  And who’s got the chapped hindquarters about Philosophy?  It’s the study of…studying.  It teaches you how to think.  Call me old-fashioned, but that really should be the goal of a higher education.  Maybe a couple of Philosophy classes in the “Year of Readiness” would teach Big Ten “student”-athletes how to think through the merits of studying, passing, and graduating.

Maybe it’s all the excess time spent cooped up inside that causes these Very Bad Ideas to form.  I’ve often blamed spending four years living in Zahm or Dillon for warping young minds, four years of living in Morrissey for warping young hygiene.  At least here we haven’t seen the Very Bad Idea of jumping out second and third-story windows into snowdrifts.  Apparently this fad has developed in Boston.  Sure, going to BC is miserable and humiliating, but it’s no reason to hurt yourself.

So, my advice is as follows: Big Ten, if you can’t graduate your football and basketball players, tighten your own belt; Core-Curriculum Review Committee, cancel the Theology requirement, and you might find yourselves in hot water (and hot everything else) at the end of your earthly lives – cancel Theology and Philosophy, and you might as well have us join the ever-ready Big Ten; and lads who are thinking of jumping out a window into the snow, go play football on the quad or basketball in the Rock…and never, ever, attend a Jesuit school.

EFS CSC

The post Good Fridays w/Padre: Bad Ideas appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

So, without further ado, let’s look at the numbers:

[table “” not found /]

As a refresher, or, if you’re new to this, as a bit of background, the NCAA limits all FBS programs, with the exception of the service programs, to 85 total scholarships and twenty-five per recruiting class. The National Letter of Intent (NLI) program, a cabal of 644 NCAA schools and recruits, guarantees to every athlete who signs an NLI a one year athletic scholarship to the offering school. Signed “letters of intent” what the student-athletes so famously fax in to their schools on National Signing Day. The rankings services, such as Rivals.com, the website I used for this piece, tally the signed NLI’s and then evaluate the classes.

Even the Arts & Letters students out there recognize that 25 scholarships over four years results in 100 scholarships, fifteen over the 85 total scholarship limit. When you look at the table above, you see class size fluctuate. One of the reasons for this is early-enrollment, whereby the student-athlete graduates from high school early and enrolls at his school in the Spring. By doing so, the school may be able to count him against the previous season’s scholarship total. Academics may cause a player to leave a program or even switch his commitment prior to enrolling. NCAA sanctions, such as those that hit USC, may push class size to “artificially” low levels, too. Sometimes a program gets burned on Signing Day, à la Deontay Greenberry in 2012 or Eddie Vanderdoes in 2013. So, there are some legitimate reasons for the numbers to deviate a bit from where the math says they should be.

Then you have schools like LSU and Texas. LSU joins its SEC sister-schools like Tennessee and Alabama among the ranks of the “chronic oversigners.” “Oversigning” is a practice whereby a school intentionally signs more players than they can and then spend their time until Fall practice winnowing the roster down. Over the same number of classes Notre Dame signed 134 recruits, LSU signed 147. Texas, Notre Dame’s opening day opponent in 2015? 142. Alabama, the school with the perennial top recruiting class, signed 149? And somehow, spectacularly, Tennessee managed to sign 154 players. That’s TWENTY more players than Notre Dame signed. Because of privacy laws, the schools have convenient shields that keep them from having to explain too much.

Looking at the numbers the other way, Stanford has done incredibly well, despite noticeably smaller recruiting classes. Credit to the Tree for recruiting quality players who fit well in their system and produce on the field. UMass has chronically undersigned since making the move to the FBS and their rank in the bottom tier of the Rivals rankings. Georgia Tech shows the effects of NCAA-rules violations and a probationary period that ends in 2017. There’s no explaining the disconnect between Tennessee’s on-field performance and its recruiting class size or rankings.

For all the perceived difficulties the Irish face on the recruiting trail, the numbers show the Irish are able to sign full classes. That the wins and losses are not obviously linked speaks to the magic, or madness, of football and sport in general.

The post Playing the Numbers: How do the Irish Stack Up? appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

But the biggest troll of the day, so far, was the (tragically-incorrect) news that Brady Hoke had joined the Irish coaching staff as a defensive coach. This would have been so fantastic on dozens of levels, such as cronut, but also because Hoke was responsible for one of Notre Dame’s more impressive defensive performances last year.

Author’s Note: apparently, as I understand from the multiple tweets and reports this morning about the Hoke non-hire, Brady was “in for a penny, in for twelve hundred pounds,” as it were, until he learned that the Irish signed “Nicco Fertitta” and not, as Hoke believed, “heaps o’ fritattas.”

As of this writing (1234 CST), the Irish received NLI’s or early-enrollments from the following student-athletes: Equanimeous St. Brown, Alize Jones, Dexter Williams, C.J. Sanders, Nicco Fertitta, Shaun Crawford, Brandon Wimbush, Bo Wallace, Nick Coleman, Ashton White, Brandon Tiassum, Miles Boykin, Josh Barajas, Trevor Ruhland, Jalen Guyton, Justin Yoon, Elijah Taylor, Mykelti Williams, Josh Adams, Asmar Bilal, Te’von Coney, Micah Dew-Treadway, Tristan Hoge, and Jerry Tillery. All of their bios and video highlights can be found here, which is just a fantastic effort from the folks at und.com.

Thirteen defensive players, ten offensive players (at least one of whom is TRI-LINGUAL), and a magnificent kicker should see the Irish with significant depth at all positions, something Coach Brian Kelly emphasized in his mid-morning interview with a man who always seems to “got it,” the incomparable Mr. Jack Nolan. You can watch that interview here. Coach Kelly’s end-of-the-day presser, scheduled for 3:15 p.m. EST, can be watched here, which is just a fantastic effort from the folks at WatchND.

The day has not been without its losses, too, as QB coach Matt LaFleur has seemingly signed on with the Falcons of the NFL. This lead to cryptic/sad tweets from Irish players, to include Malik Zaire. LaFleur, it should be noted, recruited Brandon Wimbush, so we’ll see.

In any event, it’s been overall a very good day for the Irish. Stay tuned for actual analysis and stuff later today and during the week. In the meantime, bid these young men wilkommen, bienvenue, and welcome.

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