It All Comes Down To Recruiting

Even two years after his dismissal, the legacy of Ty Willingham is biting Notre Dame in the ass. To look at the box score for the Notre Dame game, you'd think it was close, or even an ND win. ND had better passing, more plays, and pretty much equal number on the other basic stats of the game.

But when you look at what was actually done with those plays... damn. The USC guys were, by and large and nearly across the board, better athletes. And it showed. Quinn didn't have any INTs, but he had lots of passes batted down simply because their defensive backs got to the play faster. The depth of that team is frightening. And in a lot of ways, it reminded me of the other two games we've lost in the last calendar year: OSU and U of M. The scheme wasn't necessarily better, just the athletes were.

And that all boils down to one thing: recruiting. Ty couldn't recruit an eskimo to a whale blubber factory sale. Weis is picking things up, but as it stands now, we may have another tough year next year as well, as our Offensive line graduates four starters (thank god for Sam Young). Quinn, Samardzjia, McKnight, Landri, Laws, and Abiamiri all graduate, and waiting in the wings is... well, Jimmy Claussen, but as with any freshman we'll see what he can do. I doubt he'll start next year, we're more likely to see Evan Sharpley start at least the first part of the season.

Methinks this spring I'm going to have to try to convince the wife that a trip to the Bend for the Blue-Gold game just so we can assess the situation for ourselves.