Weis Isn't The Problem

Until Notre Dame lowers its academic standards for athletes, the Fighting Irish will never reclaim a spot with the upper echelon of college football.

Eric Hansen's recent article in the South Bend Tribune cites Notre Dame's current defensive rankings: 67th rushing, 85th passing, 79th total, 49th scoring (great red-zone D!). He juxtaposes these numbers with the defensive rankings of Florida, Texas, and Alabama.

There are a lot of single digits for those programs. If you've watched them play, you notice that not only are their defenses filthy in general, they're also fast. Watch the SEC championship game between Alabama and Florida. The speed of the game will look nothing like Notre Dame vs. Michigan St.

Elite teams have elite defenses that fly to the ball, and hit hard (they also, unlike Notre Dame, could probably hold 217-pound Navy fullback Vince Murray to the 4.7 ypc he averaged prior to the Notre Dame game, rather than the 158 yards on 14 carries the Irish allowed).

So why doesn't Notre Dame, with all it's star offensive players, recruit star defenders (with apologies to future NFL draft pick Manti Te'o)?

Defense is speed (and you can't teach speed, I've heard). The problem here, for Notre Dame, is that after targeting high-profile defenders (Te'o, Ethan Johnson, Darius Flemming), they don't have the luxury of loading up on second tier recruits who are simply fast, without concern for academics.

So while Florida et al reinforces their ranks with speed, which leads to elite defense, Notre Dame reinforces with players whose skills led to high school success, but who don't possess elite speed. The chances that Notre Dame's second tier recruits become highly effective defenders are much lower than for the aforementioned competition.

If Notre Dame lowers their recruiting standards, fully opening their national recruiting pipelines, a return to the top is possible.