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.

But your Luck has run out and is now an Indianapolis Colt. Now you face a buzzsaw that is the Irish defense.

Spoiler alert: Trees lose to saws. Every. Damn. Time.

Before Andrew Luck became your personal touchdown Jesus, Stanford, we owned you. We beat you seven straight times as a matter of fact before 2009.

Ty Willingham is undefeated against you. Yes, Ty f’n Willingham — he even beat you 57-7 one season. That’s all kinds of special.

Now, I’ll give you some credit. You pulled yourself up off the floor from a Ty beating and eventually built up a good time a few years later. Nice work. I tip my hat to you.

However, you now have to face the fact that without your Heisman caliber QB, your offense is now ranked 85th in the nation. Even your once powerful running game has taken quite the step back, now ranking only 70th in the nation.

Your Haubaugh-led defense was once rather feared to, but he’s gone and you are ranked 55th in the nation right now after you let Rich Rod tear you a new one. “But wait”, you say, “our rushing defense is 6th in the nation“, well, that’s great, but your passing defense is 113th in the nation.

Now, Everett Golson hasn’t quite set the world on fire yet at QB, but then again he hasn’t faced a secondary quite as bad as yours. The Irish defense has to simply be licking their chops at facing an offense that is nothing like what it was last season.

I hope you enjoyed the past three years. I really hope you did.

Tomorrow afternoon, we break you.

Your destruction will be heralded by Lee Corso wearing a Leprechaun hat furiously hacking away at a tree…probably.

The Roundup

Trick Shot Monday continues to hit the big time. First, the Sportscenter Top Ten and now, it’ll be a feature on tomorrow’s ESPN College Gameday.

Decided schematic surrender! I think Weis has waved the white flag this season.

Speaking of Weis, the student newspaper he ripped last week (apparently for this cartoon) fired back. However, Weis couldn’t help himself and had his SID deliver a face-to-face warning to make everything better.

Golden Tate, please tell me you were hacked. I don’t want to believe that this is real:

So mad I didn’t get Justin beiber tickets to the concert tonight. #losing #beiberfever anyone else going?

— Golden Tate (@ShowtimeTate) October 9, 2012

 

I’m sure Kiffin will be more than happy to answer questions on this. So Robert Woods may have failed concussion tests and still played? Oh that’ll go over well. Tweet has since been deleted, but considering the hit and the aftermath this seems plausible.

South Carolina had more surprises than just an upset of Georgia. And this one was a lot bigger.

LSU doesn’t have the chest for warm weather. Even if said weather is the exact same thing they have in Baton Rouge.

Apparently, no one learned our hard lesson from Freekbass. Oklahoma has stepped up to the plate of horribly embarrassing music videos.

I never thought MS Paint could bring me such joy. However, every week, I am proven wrong.

This is what the NCAA has become. They actually had to clarify using Instagram filters is within the rules after a previous release said otherwise.

RIP Beano Cook.

Put These Games on Your Radar

#3 South Carolina @ #9 LSU, 8pm EST, ESPN/WatchESPN – Twibby’s Marquee Matchup of the Week

#15 Texas vs #13 Oklahoma @ Dallas, TX, 12 pm EST, ABC – The Red River Shootout — ’nuff said.

#5 West Virginia @ Texas Tech, 3:30 pm, ABC/ESPN/WatchESPN – I put this game on here because the spread is just so interesting. West Virginia is favored by less than a touchdown and Texas Tech has yet to really beat anyone. Last week, Tech lost to OU and West Virginia won a shootout with Texas. I’m wondering Vegas knows something the rest of us don’t. I don’t want to say upset alert here, but who knows.

#11 USC @ Washington, 7pm EST, FOX – USC heads out on the road again against a team that managed to pull a nice upset of their own against Stanford, and, yes, Stanford beat USC. Will the transitive property of football hold?

Predictions

Tex: Clearly, I am going wrong in my predictions by assuming opposing TDs. 24 – 9 ND

Biscuit: 14-10 ND, Via

Bayou: 24 -9 Irish (Note: No, Bayou and I had no idea what each other’s predictions would be, promise)

Twibby: Irish 31, Trees 17

Grantland-X: 27-17 Irish

Closest to the Pin Week 5: Bayou was the only one to predict a true blowout, giving him victories two weeks in a row. Leaderboard:

The Beer

We will be taking a different direction with the beer selection this week and it isn’t just to troll MQ.

This week, the Subway Domer seriously contemplated retirement from the blogging world. Thankfully, his wife vetoed the decision and Subway will continue to grace the ND blogging world in the only way he can.

I’m thrilled the godfather of the Irish Blogger Gathering is sticking with us. So in celebration, this one’s for you, Subway:

The post Friday Roundup: The “Luck Has Run Out” Edition appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.