Notre Dame Football: The Recruiting Theory of Relativity

Don't you love perspective posts?

Today, I read an article labeling ND recruiting this year as so-so. While it's certainly not on par with last year's class, you have to like what we've brought in so far.

• Cierre Wood is the highest-rated running back to commit to Notre Dame since I've been following the Irish.
• Tyler Stockton is rated higher than any of our defensive linemen from last year other than Ethan Johnson. He's going to be pushing for playing time from day one. Too bad he can't play this year.
  
• Alex Bullard had offers from Alabama, Florida, Michigan, and Tennessee among others. He's an excellent prospect.
• Carlo Calbrese and Theo Riddick are both four-star players.
• Dan Fox is a three-star player, but he has as much upside as any linebacker I've seen. He's 6-foot-4, 210 pounds as a junior, runs a 4.6 and covers like a DB. He's a guy you can easily see earning an NFL paycheck one day. I'll go ahead and predict at least another star for Fox.
  
• Taking a Golic is a no-brainer at tight end, and Jake will have some time to develop behind the talented Notre Dame tight ends brought in last year.
• We've also shored up our kicker and punter positions with TnT (Tausch and Turk.)

Underwhelmed?

Here's perspective. So far in 2008, with just nine players, Notre Dame has already signed more four-star players and more five-star players than Notre Dame signed in Ty Willingham's last two years at Notre Dame...combined.

In case you want to compare notes, right now Willingham has exactly zero commitments so far at Washington. Zero.

Now for perspective on perspective, there is less margin for error in 2008. For this year to be a success, Notre Dame has to land the Baby Bulls of 2008 to go along with Bullard. Chris Watt and Xavier Nixon are the key gets for Notre Dame here. Landing those players would give ND more star power on the offensive line than ND brought in 2006.

ND definitely has some work to do, but with a better than expected season ahead, the Irish are sitting in good position for the home stretch run. If they land a couple of top players, plus get in on some emerging players (remember these kids are still growing), Notre Dame could land its fourth straight top 10 class.

Still worried? Hey, you could be a Husky fan.