Yesterday we discussed ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit’s comments regarding the production and talent level of Notre Dame’s defense. Herbstreit did not stop with the defense; he went after the talent level of the entire program. For quite some time now, Herbstreit has criticized the speed and overall talent of the Notre Dame football team.
During a recent discussion on Notre Dame, Herbstreit brought up Notre Dame’s perceived lack of speed and talent at the skill positions.
“I keep waiting for Notre Dame’s skill level to go up,” Herbstreit said. “You have to go back to 1993 with Jerome Bettis, the last time Notre Dame had either a wide receiver or a running back selected in the first round.”
Obviously his facts are correct. In the last ten years Notre Dame has had only four offensive skill players drafted in the first two rounds of the NFL Draft. Two quarterbacks (Brady Quinn, Jimmy Clausen), one running back (Julius Jones), and one wide receiver (Golden Tate) are it for Notre Dame. Worse yet, over the last decade Notre Dame has had zero, that’s right, zero defensive backs drafted in the first two rounds of the NFL Draft.
Herbstreit was far from done, dragging the Notre Dame fan base into the discussion to further rip the Notre Dame talent level.
“I think sometimes Notre Dame fans watch shows on ESPN and I always hear it from fans, why do we really hate Notre Dame so much?” Herbstreit said, bringing up fan objections to ESPN’s perceived bias against the Irish program. “The thing is if you are being fair, if you look at the athletic ability that’s on the field for Notre Dame in the last 8, 10, 12 years and compare it to LSU and Oklahoma and Auburn and Florida and the teams that are just perennial powers, it’s just two different levels.”
He continued.
“I just wonder, can Notre Dame ever again be at the level athletically that their fans want them to be,” Herbstreit pondered rhetorically. “It’s one thing to be 19 starters coming back, they won their last four. Where’s the speed? Where’s the athletic ability? When was the last time Notre Dame took the field and instead of losing to LSU in the Sugar Bowl and looking like, wow, they made another team look like that? You gotta go back to Lou Holtz’s era.”
One could argue that Notre Dame’s 33-17 victory over Miami in the Sun Bowl would constitute as a “wow” game for the Irish. In that game Michael Floyd torched Hurricane cornerbacks that included Brandon Harris (2nd round draft pick) and DeMarcus Van Dyke (3rd round draft pick) for big play after big play. In that game Notre Dame was the bigger, stronger, and more athletic football team.
His conclusion was simple, “Can Notre Dame fans ever expect more?”
Well Kirk, to put it plainly, yes!
Notre Dame fans will always demand more, whether it is justified or not. The question is, and I believe this is what Herbstreit was getting at, is SHOULD Notre Dame fans expect more.
I say again, yes!
Notre Dame fans only saw their anger and resentment of Herbstreit grow once the segment was completed. Former Florida Gator coach Urban Meyer, who knows a thing or two about speed and talent, quickly came to the defense of the current Notre Dame football team. Why does that Herbstreit guy keep hammering Notre Dame? Such bias!
Well, to be fair, he is correct, at least about Notre Dame’s past. Over the last 8, 10, 12 years Notre Dame has not been on the same level as the nation’s premier programs. In that span Notre Dame has gone 69-54 compared to the records of Oklahoma (109-26), Ohio State (106-22), Texas (106-23), USC (103-24), LSU (102-29), Florida (98-31), Auburn (93-35), and Alabama (86-43).
The Irish program has not been as good as the rest of the college football powers. It has been a rough stretch for the Irish, and the results on the field and in the draft are obvious; Notre Dame simply has not had the talent in the past that one found littering the rosters of the nation’s powerhouse programs. In fact, one could argue that Notre Dame was average or below average more than they were good during that stretch. It is hard to see bias in a comment that says Notre Dame has lacked the speed and talent of the nation’s top powers over the last decade.
But why?
Coaching was obviously an issue. Bob Davie, Tyrone Willingham, and Charlie Weis would not have been fired if they were top notch head football coaches. Davie never coached again after getting fired by Notre Dame. Willingham got hired again to be the head coach at Washington, and as bad as he was at Notre Dame (21-15) he was even worse at Washington (11-37). Weis got off to a hot start at Notre Dame, finishing 19-6 during his first two seasons before bombing (16-21) during his final three seasons. He is now the offensive coordinator at Florida.
Was it all coaching? No, it wasn’t. Notre Dame simply has not had the overall talent, especially when it came to the skill positions on both sides of the football. The NFL Draft results speak for themselves, as do the results on the field. As shown above, over the last ten NFL Drafts Notre Dame has had four skill players taken in the first two rounds. From 1989 to 1997 (the final years of the Holtz era), Notre Dame had 12 skill players taken during the first two rounds. That included six defensive backs and four running backs.
So the question originally posed by Herbstreit, and it is by no means an original question, remains. Can Notre Dame ever recruit the type of talent that will allow them to once again be one of the nation’s premier football teams?
Again, the answer is yes. Herbstreit is correct in looking back at what has happened at Notre Dame. I would suggest, however, that he consider spending a bit more time actually breaking down some Notre Dame film and look at the players that are currently on the team.
Despite his failure on the field as a coach, Weis did great work tearing down the myth that Notre Dame could not recruit the nation’s top skill players. During his five years Weis landed some of the top skill players on both sides of the ball. There were many losses, but the number of recruiting victories went a long way towards tearing down the previously held stereotypes about recruiting at Notre Dame. Weis, to his credit, never made excuses about his lack of success on the field. He never blamed admissions, he never blamed the facilities, and he never blamed his coaches. He proved that you can in fact get talented skill players into Notre Dame.
He did not leave the cupboard bare. Brian Kelly now hopes to prove that if you actually coach those players up you can in fact win with them.
Notre Dame returns arguably the nation’s premier talent at wide receiver in Michael Floyd. They return Cierre Wood, one of the most highly sought after running backs from the Class of 2009. They return one of the fastest tight ends in the country in Tyler Eifert. They return Gary Gray and Robert Blanton, one of the best returning cornerback tandems in the country. They return Harrison Smith, one of the most productive and athletic safeties in the country. They return Manti Te’o, one of the nation’s premier linebackers. There are more.
Yet Notre Dame still has work to do. Notre Dame outplayed Michigan State last September, despite falling 34-31 in overtime. It was clear that Notre Dame was the more talented and athletic football team, although they lacked the cohesion early on that Michigan State possessed. Alabama on the other hand throttled Michigan State. It was as if the Spartans were a junior varsity team trying to make their mark against the best varsity team in the country.
Notre Dame can be that type of program, even with the talent already on board, but they must prove it on Saturdays. That is something they have yet to do on a week-by-week basis.
Herbstreit is correct that Notre Dame must bring in more speed, more size, and more talent. It is still very early in the Kelly era, but so far the results have been stellar. Kelly has worked hard to build a bigger team, a more talented team, and a more athletic team. Most importantly, he has made Notre Dame a significantly faster football team.
Players like George Atkinson and DaVaris Daniels usually go to USC, Miami, Ohio State, or Florida. Players like Aaron Lynch usually go to Florida, Florida State, or LSU. Players like Ishaq Williams usually go to Penn State or Alabama. Players like Ben Councell usually stay in the SEC. Quarterbacks like Everett Golson don’t come to Notre Dame, they stay in the South. Players like Stephon Tuitt don’t leave the state of Georgia to head to South Bend. These are just a few of the potential game changers Notre Dame landed this past February.
Already in the Class of 2012 Notre Dame has landed arguably the fastest football player in the country in Ronald Darby, a talented cornerback from Maryland. They have a verbal commitment from arguably the nation’s top cornerback in Tee Shepard. They are tapping into Texas to land skill players like Jalen Brown (Class of 2011) and Nicky Baratti (Class of 2012). There is still work to be done, but Kelly and his staff are doing yeoman’s work in building a more talented roster.
Now, to answer critics like Kirk Herbstreit, Notre Dame needs to turn their recruiting success into on-field success. They need to start winning, plain and simple. They need to stop having “late season surges” and start dominating from the beginning of September to the end of November. That is the only way Notre Dame can once again rise to the top of the college football world, and hopefully silence their critics.
Someday very soon, I believe Herbstreit is going to ask that question again, and his answer will be a resounding yes. As he said during the segment, if there is a man who can get Notre Dame back to the promised land, it is Brian Kelly. At that time he will once again find himself in the good graces of the Notre Dame faithful.
