For those of you reading this at work, you probably have a pretty relaxed IT filter on your computer. Join me and a few thousand other people and stream the USA hockey game online at NBCOlympics.com. Honestly, nobody even forced me to tell you this, I’m just giving people a friendly reminder to tune in or stream live at 3p ET.
* As the NFL Scouting Combine heats up this weekend, that means those that keep track will certainly be updating their mock drafts. One of the better ones out there is SI.com’s Don Banks, who has Jimmy Clausen going 14th to the Seattle Seahawks and new coach Pete Carroll. (Something I hypothesized weeks ago...)
Banks writes:
Interestingly enough, Rams GM Bill Devaney -- the guy whose opinion actually matters -- hasn’t counted out Clausen as the first pick in the draft, with the candidates being defensive tackles Ndamukong Suh and Gerald McCoy, along with fellow quarterback Sam Bradford. Devaney already took the time today to poke fun at ESPN’s “newsification” (not a word) of their scouting process, so if it’s already starting to bother you, I suggest you just turn the channel and come back on draft day.
* IrishSportsDaily.com gave us a nice trip down memory lane by looking back at the first recruiting class of former coach Lou Holtz. Even scarier are some of the names that were covering recruiting even back then.
Holtz’s Irish squad went 5-6, matching the record of the previous year’s team. However, five of Notre Dame’s six losses in 1986 were by a combined total of 14 points. The ’86 squad finished the year with some momentum, beating rival USC in the season finale, 38-37, after overcoming a 17-point fourth-quarter deficit.
The Holtz signed one of the top classes in Notre Dame history.
At the time, Notre Dame’s class of 1987 was almost unanimously regarded as the best in the nation. Tom Lemming, who then worked for the National Prep Football Report was one of the recruiting experts who thought highly of Holtz’s first class.
“Notre Dame is hands down the winner,” he told the Pittzburgh Post-Gazette on February 13, 1987. “I’ve never seen a class that has 30 top-line players like they got.”
Allen Wallace, of Super Prep Magazine, thought the class was even better than that.
“It’s not a question of whether Notre Dame is the best this year, it’s a question of whether they have the best class in 10 years,” Wallace said to the Post-Gazette on the same day in 1987.”
Chris Zorich, Todd Lyght, Ricky Watter, and Tony Brooks were just a few standouts from that class, but I can’t get over that both Tom Lemming and Allen Wallace were doing this 23 years ago! I can safely say the only thing I was worried about in 1987 was Kirby Puckett and the Minnesota Twins, and not missing the bus to grade school.
* Bill Connelly of Football Outsiders put together a fascinating article on the importance of recruiting rankings. While it’s difficult to sum up in a single sentence, Connelly took a look at the over and underachievers in recruiting over the past three seasons:
From Connelly:
Here is the three-year overachiever list, with numbers.
1. TCU (+44.0/season)
2. Cincinnati (+43.5)
3. Boise State (+39.1)
4. Florida (+35.1)
5. Navy (+32.7)
6. Air Force (+32.6)
7. BYU (+28.1)
8. Connecticut (+25.7)
9. Utah (+24.2)
10. Penn State (+21.7)
The expansion to a three-year sample bumped Texas (+18.6) to 16th and Alabama (+18.2) to 17th, thanks to their underachieving 2007 seasons.
You can make this list in two ways. You can either win with average (or worse) recruits, or win big with good (or great) recruits. Florida’s recruiting-based projected F/+ was second behind USC in all three seasons (2007-09), but their actual F/+ output suggests that recruiting can only get you so far. Coaching, execution, and a little bit of overachieving are what you need to win (or contend for) titles.
Here is the three-year underachiever list.
1. Washington State (-39.3/season)
2. San Diego State (-28.2)
3. Texas A&M (-27.0)
4. Iowa State (-23.8)
5. Kansas State (-23.6)
6. Washington (-22.1)
7. Syracuse (-21.8)
8. Notre Dame (-21.7)
9. Colorado (-20.9)
10. Michigan (-20.3)
The fact that Notre Dame has upgraded from Charlie Weis, who led the Irish to the eigth-place spot on the underachievers list, to Brian Kelly, who led Cincinnati to second place on the overachievers list, tells you all you need to know about why Notre Dame fans should be absolutely ecstatic about their coaching upgrade. Experience and system fit still matter, and we’ll see what Kelly has to work with in the 2010 season. But Kelly has proven himself more than almost any other coach in recent seasons, and if anybody can take the Irish back to the Top 10, Kelly seems to be the man to (eventually) do it.
* Finally, I thought I’d share a video that’s making the rounds from Brian Kelly’s former team and the “Bearcat Olympics.” I never knew that the Tug of War could be so exciting. It sounds like this is an annual event, so it’s very possible Paul Longo and the strength staff could be bringing this to Notre Dame.