Monday, September 18, 2006

Turn those frowns upside down...

Coach Weis proved again to day why, even after a blowout loss, he is far superior to the coaches that immediately preceded him.

Today, the Notre Dame Fightin' Irish received a verbal commitment from Gary Gray, the #2 cornerback prospect in the country.

Gray had committed to South Carolina earlier in the recruiting process, but after talking to his mother, he decommitted from South Carolina to consider Notre Dame. After a couple of months sitting on the fence, Gray committed to the Irish.

What is great about this announcement is the timing. Notre Dame was embarassed by Michigan on the football field this past weekend, and with all of the recruits (including Gray) visiting this weekend, I thought that our recruiting would take a big hit.

Apparently, Coach Weis and Recruiting Coordinator Ron Powlus had other plans.

To put this commitment into perspective, the Irish did not land a single 4-star or better cornerback prospect during the entire Davieham era. Under Weis, we have picked up Terrail Lambert (4-stars), Darrin Walls (5-stars), Raeshon McNeil (4-5 stars), and Gary Gray (5 stars). We've all seen what happened in the Ohio State game, and the lack of elite speed was apparent again this past weekend with our corners trying to cover Mario Manningham. This commitment places the Irish in the position where we can expect to field one of the fastest, most athletic secondaries in the country in the next few years.

Now we just need some game-changing defensive linemen and linebackers to go with the already stellar recruiting at QB (3 top five QBs in the past two years, including the #1 overall prospect this year), RB (Aldridge - 5 stars), Offensive line (#1 recruiting class in the country last year), Wide receiver (5 4+ star receivers in the past two classes, with a possible two more in this class), Tight end (#1 overall tight end two years running), and cornerback.

Oh, and we could probably use a good kicker.

I'd like to commend the Notre Dame football staff for picking up such a high profile recruit at a time when we so desperately needed one.

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