Most coaching staffs spend time identifying where recruits will play on the field before making a decision on their future. Not to say that isn’t the case for Brian Kelly and his staff, but Kelly has refined his approach to recruiting high school athletes and put position secondary, instead focusing on three subsets of players: Skill, Big Skill, and Power.
While Notre Dame is using that breakdown online to help untangle the swarm of bodies that can technically be classified as defensive ends, Kelly’s spoken eloquently on the three sets of players. Before last year’s recruiting class was inked, Kelly talked about the three different player groups he looks for when recruiting:“I have a different way of categorizing as we get to know each other better,” Kelly said. “I recruit power, big skill, and skill. Those are the three categories, those are the only three categories I operate out of. Power, big skill, and skill.
“A power player fits a profile for us. Generally those are you your linemen. Big skill is profiling out, if I could take 20 guys who are tough gentlemen who fit the profile at Notre Dame academically and were 6-foot-4, 215 or 220 pounds, you’d never be able to track who is playing where. ‘I don’t know, he just takes a bunch of those guys and some play defensive end, some play tight end, some are safeties, big skill.’
“Then skill obviously have a specific, specific strength in that particular area, be it ball skills, throwing it, kicking it and I’ve always operated out of those three categories wherever I’ve been and will continue to operate out of those three categories here at Notre Dame.”
If there was a grouping that the Irish needed to address in this recruiting class, it was finding elite athletes to play the Big Skill positions. From a sheer numbers perspective, the switch to a 3-4 defense meant filling the rosters with athletes that could play with both a hand on the ground as well as in space, and with Notre Dame’s depth chart extremely thin at both outside linebacker and defensive end, filling those spots in the 2011 recruiting class were essential.
“They’re all big, they’re all fast, they’re all athletic,” Kelly said earlier today when talking about the players coming in that fill the Big Skill distinction.
BIG SKILL PLAYERS
Ben Councell, OLB: There might not be a faster rising player in the recruiting universe, as Councell went from an under-the-radar regional prospect to a four-star, national guy thanks to his performance at the Shrine Bowl. In many ways, he’s the perfect prototype for outside linebackers coach Kerry Cooks to mold into Bob Diaco’s multiple 3-4 system. Here’s how Cooks described him this morning:
“Long, fast, smart, athletic, he’s going to be able to do a lot of the jobs were going to ask our outside linebackers to do,” Cooks said.
Councell walks into South Bend needing to add weight, but immediately presents an athlete that has the ability to play the drop linebacker position.
Jarrett Grace, ILB: Grace represents the only inside linebacker in the recruiting class and while he’s a little short on star-rating, he’s got some offers that have you thinking he’s an elite recruit, with Michigan, Ohio State and Alabama all pursuing the Cincinnati product.
Grace is listed at 6-3, 235 by Notre Dame, adding some good height and size at an interior linebacker position. He was a first-team AP Ohio All-State linebacker, as well as a two-time first team All-Star by the Cincinnati Enquirer. Grace is a complete football player that’s got the ability and physical tools to be a very good linebacker in the 3-4 system.
Ben Koyack, TE:
Koyack ranks as one of the nation’s best tight ends, continuing an astonishing trend for the Irish in reeling in elite players at that position.
“He’s an outstanding football player. He possesses all the key elements of somebody who’s going to be a spread style and attached tight end,” tight ends coach Mike Denbrock said. “What set him apart in my mind more than anybody in the country was his ability to do something with the football after he caught it. He was our No. 1 target from the very beginning.”
Rivals views Koyack as a top-ten player at his position while Scout has him listed as the No. 1 tight end in the country. Koyack was a consensus first-team All-State player in Pennsylvania and was selected SuperPrep’s best offensive player in the Northeast. At 6-5, 242-pounds he should challenge for playing time immediately.
Troy Niklas, TE/OL/DL:
Once again, the Irish coaching staff goes into Southern California and snags the Los Angeles Times lineman of the year, repeating last year’s feat when they signed Justin Utupo. Niklas is the definition of ‘Big Skill,’ and even the Irish coaching staff acknowledges that there are three potential places he could end up depending on how he develops. Niklas has the athleticism to succeed as a tight end, starting as a forward on his high school basketball team as well as playing on both sides of the ball for Orange County power Servite high school. Niklas didn’t visit South Bend until last weekend, when he took his official visit to Notre Dame. He’ll start his career at defensive end, where he’ll need to add weight to his frame.
Anthony Rabasa, OLB:
Rabasa was named the best defensive lineman in Miami-Dade County by the Miami Herald, giving you an idea of just how productive of a football player he was throughout his high school career. Rabasa is the only edge player that checks in at under 6-foot-4 (He’s 6-3.5), which gives you an idea just how important the mold is for Kelly and his staff as they identify fits for their defense.
Rabasa is spending Signing Day down in Texas with future Notre Dame teammates George and Josh Atkinson, Matt Hegarty and Stephon Tuitt representing Team USA as they play an All-Star team from players assembled around the world. He’s a physical mature player who’ll likely battle for playing time coming off the edge in pass rushing situations, a perfect understudy to a guy like Darius Fleming.
Ishaq Williams, OLB:
If there’s a blue-chip player in the ‘Big Skill’ class it’s Ishaq Williams, who has already been in class for two weeks at Notre Dame after his much publicized commitment to defensive coordinator Bob Diaco in the early morning hours before Williams was scheduled to visit Penn State.
In years past, the Irish stayed in the running for players like Williams but lost out. But Diaco’s ability to beat recruiters like Penn State’s Larry Johnson for a player from Brooklyn goes to show you that the youth on this coaching staff -- no defensive coach is older than secondary coach Chuck Martin, who’s only 42 -- serves Kelly and his play-it-to-the-end mantra well.