Notre Dame Football: Week in Review

Only 64 more days till the Irish take the field (depending on when you’re reading this). For some reason, I feel like this season is one of the most anticipated college football seasons I’ve ever been a part of.

Notre Dame has a new coach, as does rival USC, and annual opponent Michigan remains a complete mystery.

Then again, I might feel this way because this is the first summer where I’ve been an assigned beat reporter covering two of my favorite college football teams.

Either way, what I’m trying to say is: I don’t care whether or not teams are ready, I am!

But alas, regardless of how ready for college football we all are, we still have to wait.

Here’s Notre Dame football’s week (or so) in review:

Recruiting, Recruiting, Recruiting

The news coming out of South Bend this week mostly centered on recruiting. The Irish were able to lock up linebacker Ben Councell out of Asheville, North Carolina. Councell is a top-30 linebacker prospect who, according to reports, runs a 4.4 second 40 yard dash.

What’s even more impressive is that he does it while being 6’5” and 225 lbs. His offer list isn’t that impressive, but the linebacker very well could make an immediate contribution upon arriving in South Bend. With him and Manti Te’o on the roster, the Irish are looking to have a decent linebacker duo in the years to come.

Perhaps the biggest take away from the Councell pick up is the fact that he is the 12th student to commit to the Irish, and July is just beginning. 12 players may be nothing compared to Texas’ already committed 22, but nonetheless, don’t be surprised if the overall picture for the 2011 recruiting class for Notre Dame is pretty much settled by mid-November.

Bubba Starling Picked Nebraska

Notre Dame quarterback prospect and Rivals.com third best dual-threat QB, Bubba Starling, committed to Nebraska recently. It seems as though Notre Dame was all but a lock for the quarterback who visited South Bend multiple times.

Starling would have been an outstanding prospect to land, as he fits in perfectly with Kelly’s new system. Now, the Irish have to once again pick up the pieces in their search for a quarterback. As of now, Notre Dame does not look like they will be able to reel in anything above a three-star, or possibly even a two-star, quarterback this year.

Notre Dame Loses QB Prospects/Tom Lemming Interview

Tom Lemming, who is pretty much the high school version of Mel Kiper Jr., performed an interview with WSBT-AM 960 where he talked Irish recruiting. The news wasn’t so great.

Lemming commented on the loss of numerous Notre Dame recruits at the quarterback position to other schools and how the Irish really needed to sign them in February:

“Right now the quarterback situation looks a little bleak.”

When asked about the QBs they were pursuing versus those they have in place from last year’s recruiting class, Lemming had this to say:

“I don’t think any of them would compare to the five guys they lost. Braxton Miller has got tremendous ability, especially because it’s the spread offense. And Miller, Kiehl Frazier, and Bubba Starling, I thought were head and shoulders above everybody else.”

However, Lemming did go on to mention the fact that new coach Brian Kelly is a magician at developing quarterback talent.

So Irish fans needn’t worry just yet.

Matt Hegarty Talks About ND

Rivals.com and Scout.com four-star offensive line recruit Matt Hegarty out of Aztec, New Mexico also spoke with WSBT-AM 960 in an interview recently. Hegarty is a promising commit who has all the essentials needed for success in college. The only criticism most websites have about him is his size, which can easily be added to in his senior year.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the interview with Hegarty was the fact that he mentioned he was not initially interested in Notre Dame at all once recruiting began.

In fact, he didn’t even plan on visiting them until his father thought it best they take a trip just to say they had seen the place. After his trip to Indiana, Hegarty immediately fell in love with the program.

“My dad, at that time [Notre Dame wasn’t] that high on our list, and he had said, 'You know, we have to go and see Notre Dame even if you’re not totally into them, that’s a place you have to go and see no matter what,' and of course I agreed with that.

"With coming into the Junior Day, you just get a great feel of the tradition, the football atmosphere in that area. The facilities are second to none. They’re top of the line. The coaching staff seem like they’re going to do a great job."

All in all, it was a good interview.

However, I must say I’m not that big a fan of kids who are almost juniors in high school being called up from halfway across the country to do radio interviews about their college football careers. For some reason, the whole concept rubs me the wrong way.

Anybody else?

Brian Kelly

Brian, could you hold this world on your shoulders really quick while I tie my shoes?

I’m really starting to think Notre Dame fans are not only expecting too much out of Kelly, but giving him too much to take care of as well.

I was reading an SBT article about conference realignment, and it basically stated that one of the only ways to keep Notre Dame independent is to keep the NBC contract. Of course, to do that, Notre Dame is going to have to start winning at a higher level as well, or else NBC might go sniff the money at a different university.

So now, Kelly doesn’t just have to win as a coach, he’s responsible for keeping one of America’s most historic colleges in its proper place. Furthermore, after reading some of the responses to Irish preseason predictions, I was completely aghast at what many fans seem to want next year.

10-2?

Really?

Yes, it would be elating, but it shouldn’t be the base of expectations. Notre Dame has won 10 regular season games twice in the past 16 seasons. I don’t care how great of a coach Kelly is, fans need to stop with the predictions and just let the season happen. There should be no set expectations heading in to 2010 in terms of wins and losses, because frankly, there is nothing to expect as of yet.

With that being said, I think they will go 7-5, and maybe even 6-6.

B/R Articles

Take some time and go through this week’s Bleacher Report contributions for Notre Dame football. Even though the responses for many articles aren’t too thought-provoking, the quality of the pieces is some of the best I’ve seen in a while.

Most notable was Mike Muratore’s article entitled, “Independence Day at Notre Dame: How Many More will There Be?” The prose was spot on, the summary was outstanding, and the allusions and analogies all had their proper place. Good work Mike.

An honorable mention goes to Jack Jones’ “2010 Notre Dame Football Predictions". Jones pretty much takes a week’s worth of debate, insight into performance, and predictions, layers them on top of each other, and churns out one article to encapsulate about 10 others. He also does it in very good style.

That is your Notre Dame Football Week In Review.