The more things change....

Recently, I received an e-mail from a Notre Dame classmate of mine with a link to the story about USC recruit Maurice Simmons who would have been a freshman for the Trojans.  Seems the only traveling squad that Mr. Simmons is going to make this year is to jail as he was convicted of armed robbery.  My friend went on to bring up the Reggie Bush/ O J Mayo situations and how USC has gone down the path of decadence.  As a matter of curiosity, I looked up Maurice Simmons, rivals.com, recruiting page to see who else was on his list.  There were 6 other teams, including our beloved ND.  We had not offered, supposedly, but I’m sure that had to do with his grades probably disqualifying him from acceptance.       I’ m sure we wanted him as a football player as did the other 5 schools who had offered.

As for Reggie Bush, if my memory serves me right, we did offer and ended up a, ”close second”.  First, let’s say that Reggie is innocent until proven guilty.  However, for arguments’ sake, he comes to ND instead of USC and the same people offer the same benefits here.  Does he turn down the graft because he is at Notre Dame?-I think not.

When Lou Holtz first came to ND, I had just finished building a small Inn right next to Campus.  Over the next 10 years or so, every recruit stayed at that Inn.  In an early conversation with Coach Holtz, he asked me about my playing career at ND.  I told him it was mostly special teams because if I wasn’t injured, I was always in trouble.  His comment was “Notre Dame gets a very high quality student athlete but if you’re going to win, you need at least 2 or 3 guys that will ride their motorcycles on someone’s lawn”(read renegades).  I’m not sure armed robbery fits that description but you get the point.

Coaches know what it takes to win and the answer is good players.  A very successful coach was once asked the key to his success and his answer was, “Get good players and don’t over coach them”.  That hasn’t changed from day one of college football and boys will be boys.  I can’t tell you how many times rooms were in need of repair after a recruiting party.  One time, Vinnie Cerato, the recruiting coordinator at the time, told me we had lost out on a DB recruit to Oklahoma but it was for the best because he ended up shooting someone in the athletic dorm at OU.

Head coaches are under tremendous pressure to win which begs the question; Now that these coaches are making 2-3 million, are they under more pressure than 20 years ago? On the one hand, the fans are saying you better win to earn that money.  At the same time, the coach is saying, “so what if they fire me, I can always get another job and in a worse case, I can buy an island in the Caribbean, with my ten million dollar buy out. (Charlie Weis)

Both answers are wrong.  What makes this world go round are competitive egos.  Steve Spurrier knows he is the best coach in the SEC if he only had the same players that Meyer and Miles have, he could prove it.  Meyer knows he’s a better coach than Richt and wait till this year.  Lou Holtz was so competitive with Schembechler that his secretary told me he used to have her check book sales to see whose book was selling the most.  Before the Michigan game, he told his players he wanted to fist fight Bo at the 50 yard line before the game.  Lou could fire ‘em up.

Recruiting, at times, reminds me of my friend who insisted he was going to marry this beautiful young thing even though she had a questionable reputation.   Who cares if she drinks and sleeps around, once we’re married, I’ll get her to change.  They never change but it doesn’t make them any less desirable.  Trophy wives and championship trophies, there’s always a little pain involved.