Final Day Decisions | by Pat

Wrapping up the individual recruit profiles before getting to the end of the season recruiting roundtable, here's a look at the two players that decided to pick ND on Signing Day. As it turns out, it was the player with perhaps the longest connection to the ND coaches and the one with the shortest.

First up on Wednesday was Ohio offensive lineman Matt James. James had been mulling a choice between ND, Ohio State, and the hometown Cincinnati Bearcats. When Kelly left for ND it dropped down to the Irish and Buckeyes with ND coming out on top last Wednesday.

"It was a really tough decision. ...I like the situation of being in the first class with Coach Kelly there."

Landing James was a much needed boost for the offensive line numbers in this recruiting class. The third lineman along with Christian Lombard and Tate Nichols, James is one of the highest rated members of the 2010 recruiting class. Rivals has James as a 4-star recruit, the #14 offensive tackle recruit, and the 86th overall recruit in the country. Scout likewise has James as a 4-star that is the 11th offensive tackle and 91st overall recruit. ESPN gave James a grade of 80, 4-stars, and echoed Rivals ranking of 14th overall offensive tackle. Highlight clips of offensive linemen are sort of silly, but here are ones of James nonetheless.

James played tackle and guard at the recent Army All-American Game but will likely start his Irish career at tackle. In addition to OSU, James also had offers from Florida, Penn State, Wisconsin, Tennessee, North Carolina, and others.

Taking a look again at the OL depth chart for 2010, there are actually a pretty solid set of numbers across the board. In addition to just numbers, there is plenty of talent, albeit largely unexperienced on the depth chart. Consider that the senior, junior, sophomore, and now freshman class all contain an offensive lineman who is a Top 100 recruit. The competition to replace last year's starters will be an interesting one this spring, but almost as interesting will be the competition in the fall to see who makes up the second string.

5th Year	Senior	Junior	Sophomore	Freshman
Dan Wenger	Andrew Nuss*	Trevor Robinson	Chris Watt*	Christian Lombard
Chris Stewart	Matt Romine*	Lane Clelland*	Zach Martin*	Tate Nichols
	Taylor Dever*	Braxston Cave*	Alex Bullard*	Matt James
		Mike Golic*

On the other side of the ball, Hawaii defensive end Kona Schwenke. Schwenke wasn't on ND's radar at all until the coaching staff ventured out into the Pacific to check out safety recruit Jeremy Ioane (who picked Boise State by the way). Schwenke was brought to ND's attention and they quickly worked to set up a visit.

However, Schwenke was committed to BYU at the time and when head coach found out about Schwenke's interest in visiting ND, he threatened to pull his offer if he went through with the trip. When the Schwenke family decided to go through with the trip, BYU pulled Kona's scholarship offer.

Despite showing up to late January South Bend in a pair of shorts, Schwenke didn't mind the cold enough to avoid picking ND.

"I pretty much made up my mind the day after I came back (Monday)," Schwenke said of Notre Dame. "I thought it was the best place for me. I liked the campus, the people, I enjoyed the school. I love the football program and their academics. It amazed me."

The Honolulu Advertiser released their Top 25 recruit list right before Signing Day and put Kona as the #1 recruit in the state. The recruiting sites are pretty close to agreement on Schwenke with Rivals calling him a 3-star recruit and the #34 defensive end while Scout has him as a 4-star and 33rd overall defensive end recruit. ESPN has him a bit lower at 3-stars, a 74 rating, and the 61st overall defensive end prospect. Here are some highlights of Kona in action.

At 6'5" 215 pounds, Schwenke will have to add some size and strength to his frame until he's ready to be an everydown type of player. However, he could wind up in a few seasons like KLM, who also had to bulk up to handle the DE position.

The best part about landing Schwenke is that he will help out at one of the most needed defensive positions on the team. He won't be an instant impact type player, but will help ND keep the overall DE numbers and could grow into a very good rush end.

Fifth Year	Senior	Junior	Sophomore	Freshman
	Kerry Neal	Ethan Johnson	Tyler Stockton*	Bruce Heggie
	Emeka Nwankwo*	K. Lewis-Moore*		Kona Schwenke
		Hafis Williams*

Happy Signing Day! | by Pat

Feel free to hang out here today and follow the ups and downs. Also make sure to check out und.com's Signing Day Central for interviews with the coaches. Coach Kelly's official Signing Day press conference is scheduled for around 4 p.m.

Quarterbacker | by Pat

As we head into National Signing Day's Eve (make sure to hang your Christian Jones stockings by the chimney with care) there's one last recruiting update to churn out before turning our attention to what und.com has in store for us tomorrow morning.

After visiting ND this past weekend, Colorado athlete Danny Spond returned home before deciding to join the 2010 ND recruiting class. Spond is the 21st member of the class with a few more names still waiting to announce their decision tomorrow (Numbers-wise, ND is fine even if all undecideds decide to put on the ND hat). A recent offer, Spond was more than eager to join once he got a chance to check out campus.

“Playing for Notre Dame has been a dream of mine since I can remember,” said Spond Monday night. “Just the fact that I have this opportunity to play. Not only is it a blessing, but it's definitely an honor to play for them. Just the tradition and prestige that Notre Dame carries.”

Spond is a high school quarterback and presumably will be the 5th player in the class to get a shot to back up Dayne Crist next fall. Five quarterbacks in a single class is too many, so unless he wins the job the 6'3" 230 pound Spond could be moved to the other side of the ball.

“Coach Kelly and I talked about that,” Spond said. “And they will give me a shot at quarterback. And if that doesn't work, defensively, we talked a lot about a drop-backer for their 3-4 system and also safety.

“The encouraging thing that Coach Kelly and I talked about is that he is just real excited to get me there, and regardless of what position it is, I really have no preference. I will do anything to help the team. I trust that the coaches will put me in the best position to do that. Whatever it is is whatever it is.”

As a QB prospect, Spond falls more in line with the athletic running threat Roback than the more traditional drop back options in Rees, Hendrix, and Massa. But defense certainly seems like a good possibility. The recruiting sites are a bit split on where Spond will end up. On Rivals he is a 4-star recuit and the #27 athlete in the class. Scout has him as a 3-star recruit and the #14 middle linebacker in the class. ESPN has him in the athlete grouping as a 3-star recruit, the 43rd overall athlete and a 78 rating. Check out his highlights for a glimpse of his hard-running style.

Spond was committed to Colorado but recently backed away and took another look at other programs. ND beat out a new finalist group of Stanford and TCU.

As for 2010 depth chart, I'm going to lump Spond with the linebackers for now. It certainly wouldn't bother me to see him taking snaps at QB (and then running over a cornerback), but his future in all likelihood lies on defense. I'm also going to move Prince Shembo and Justin Utupo to the linebacker list for now. Considering ND will need more 'backers in the 3-4 and the fact that both guys, especially Utupo, might not grow into linemen right away or at all, it seems like a reasonable move for a 2010 depth chart.

Fifth Year	Senior	Junior	Sophomore	Freshman
	Brian Smith	Darius Fleming	Manti Te'o	Kendall Moore
		Steve Filer	Carlo Calabrese*	Prince Shembo
		Anthony McDonald*	Zeke Motta	Justin Utupo
		David Posluszny*	Dan Fox*	Danny Spond

Heggie Hears a "Who?" | by Pat

The final recruit to go public this past weekend is the center of one of the more surprising recruiting stories in recent memory. Florida lineman Bruce Heggie was a virtual unknown just two weeks ago with no rankings on any recruiting site and not a single offer to play Division I football. Now, he's getting ready to fax in his letter of intent tomorrow morning to play for the Fighting Irish.

How did ND wind up recruiting a player that had to that point gone largely unnoticed by the rest of the college football world? And what, if anything, does it say about ND recruiting going forward under Brian Kelly? I don't think we can really say either way about the second question at this point. This could be a one-time type offer based on a desperate need to bring in more players or a harbinger of future recruiting under Kelly. We'll have to wait until next season to see how Kelly approaches recruiting with a full year cycle.

But back to that first question. While new names of recruits turned up the past few weeks as Kelly and the staff beat the bushes to bring in additional players for the 2010 class, none were as surprising, or surprised, as Heggie.

"Last week FAMU backed out of their offer and said there wasn't going to be an official visit this weekend," Heggie said. "There was William & Mary, but other than that there weren't really anymore options."

Then came the phone call. Notre Dame.

Yep, that's what Heggie thought, too. He probably had to pinch himself.

"It was definitely surprising," he said. "Notre Dame is an epic school. I certainly didn't see this coming. Especially after some of the other schools said they'd recruit me and then backed out of it."

I've seen sleeper recruits before, but never one who's only other option was William and Mary. Even some of the sons of trustees who picked up a scholarship in the past decade usually had a few more options. The story goes that Coach Hinton had considered Heggie while at UC, but UC didn't have the numbers. Now with ND looking to fill out the class, he brought Heggie's name back up again and, following a trip to Florida by DL coach Mike Elston, Heggie was given the opportunity to come up to ND this past weekend to visit. And while on campus, he was offered a scholarship that he immediately accepted.

Coach Kelly certainly has a past history of taking underrecruited players and turning them into productive college players. However, as much as it's easy to point to this when considering Heggie's offer, it's also just being honest to wonder why 119 other college coaches didn't feel the need to offer Heggie. The South Bend Tribune did highlight a few of the reasons why Heggie, son of a Florida State football player, slipped through the recruiting cracks so much.

Heggie, who went to a Florida State summer camp and a Nike camp at the school, believes there's a number of reasons why he's been on the outside looking in most of the recruiting season despite earning Academic All-State, plus All- Lake and All-Sumter County honors.

First and foremost, his school has had three head coaches during his four varsity seasons, the last change occurring the spring of his junior year.

“I didn't get my film out until three-quarters the way through my senior year,” he said. “Tapes were lost. It just wasn't good as far as exposure.”

Second, his school of 800, 40 miles northwest of Orlando, is off most recruiters' radar, though two teammates did get offers and are going to Central Florida.

Missing several games each of his final two seasons did not help either.

Now, rather than continue to dwell on Heggie's recruit history, the important thing is how Heggie will fit in and contribute to the program. Clearly the staff identified the need for defensive ends in this class, especially with losing Chris Martin and Blake Lueders. At 6'4" 240 pounds, Heggie played tight end and defensive end in high school and seems a sure bet to at least start off on the defensive side of the ball. However, recent articles are putting Heggie at 6'6" and closer to 250. If that's actually the case and not just more recruiting stat inflation, Heggie could possibly keep growing into an offensive tackle. Along with the offer to Tate Nichols, ND will need faster, more agile tackles after Charlie tended to recruit bigger road grater types (despite his pass happy offense). But for now, I'm going to list Heggie with the defensive line. With it now being certain that ND will run a 3-4 next season, here are the obvious candidates for the end positions although what the staff thinks won't be entirely obvious until spring ball. What is obvious is the need to land a lot of talent at the defensive end position in the next recruiting class.

Fifth Year	Senior	Junior	Sophomore	Freshman
	Kerry Neal	Ethan Johnson	Tyler Stockton*	Bruce Heggie
	Emeka Nwankwo*	K. Lewis-Moore*
		Hafis Williams*

ND desperately needs defensive ends in this class, but even at that Heggie is a reach if you consider the lack of offers from any other D1 program. However, if he adds viable depth to the team in the future, it will another feather in Brian Kelly's talent identification and development hat. If not, it's the kind of thing that people will bring up constantly when discussing Kelly's missteps as ND's coach. Hopefully Kelly and Heggie will be the ones having the last laugh.

Runnin' Roback | by Pat

On to the next recruit to publicly commit to ND over the weekend: 6'3" 220 pound Ohio QB/athlete Derek Roback.

Roback is an interesting example of the ups and downs of recruiting coverage. When Roback was in junior high he was a national finalist in the Pepsi Punt, Pass, and Kick competition. He followed that up by being named the Freshman MVP at the National Underclassmen Combine. With these two things to his credit, Rivals then included Roback as one of their Top 10 Sophomores to Watch, along with current 5-star players Seantrel Henderson, Jeff Jeffcoat, and Dillon Baxter (and ND legacy lineman Ian Gray).

Heading into his sophomore season, he moved from quarterback to wide receiver and safety where he had a strong season on the field, being named All-State Honorable Mention. After the season he attended another National Underclassmen Combine, this one in New Jersey, and came away with the overall MVP award. With multiple combine and All-State honors to his name, Roback moved back to quarterback for his junior year with multiple national programs sending him recruiting mail.

Yet, after another strong All-State Honorable Mention season, Roback only had a handful of MAC level offers for college like Ball State, Miami, Toldeo, and Bowling Green, perhaps because he was viewed as more "athlete" than quarterback. In fact, when he attended Wisconsin's summer camp before his senior year he worked out with the tight end and slot receivers. He committed to Toledo as a QB and, with an injury filled senior season, that was that until Kelly offered him a scholarship in November while still at UC. Kelly then called him back up while at ND and Roback jumped at the chance to visit this past weekend. Once on campus he quickly committed as the Chillicothe Gazette pointed out by quoting his Facebook status (insert snarky media critque here).

Roback’s Facebook status was updated Sunday to say, “I am officially committed to the University of Notre Dame. Best day of my life.”

The recruiting sites, despite the early praise from Rivals and strong combine performances, put Roback rather low on the recruiting scale. Rivals put him as a 3-star athlete recruit while both Scout and ESPN consider him a 2-star QB. He's the 103rd overall QB recruit on Scout while ESPN has him as the #98 QB (and a 74 rating for those keeping track).

As Roback has primarily been a high school quarterback, it seems that ND now has four quarterback recruits in this class. However, while Roback may get a few practices to prove his worth at QB, his likely destination is more as either a tight end/H-back type or linebacker. This is were Kelly's power/big skill/skill recruiting archetypes make depth chart engineering a bit more difficult. Kelly clearly wants to bring in additional bodies and not have a small class, so he's taking athletic guys like Roback -- and his 4.0 high school GPA can't hurt -- with a mind to find them a position down the road. It's a somewhat risky strategy, but Kelly has been doing it for a number of years so the odds are he has something of a specific position in mind. At the level of recruiting needed for ND, most players have specialized in high school a bit more at a certain positions, so it will be interesting to see next season if Kelly continues to try and find room for a few smart athletic types who don't have an obvious position and can help fill in depth once they get on campus.

In the meantime, I can't really put Roback into one of the 2010 position depth charts because I don't know where he'll wind up. Will he stick at QB, perhaps as ND's version of Zach Collaros? Or will he wind up at tight end along with Alex Welch or linebacker with Prince Shembo and Kendall Moore? Here are his highlight clips if you want to make up your own mind. It's clear he's a good athlete. The question is just where he'll add the most benefit to the program.

Bringing in the reinforcements | by Pat

It's a wild finish to the recruiting season as Kelly and his new staff brought in a large group of uncommitted players this past weekend and so far have gained three public commitments with the possibility of a few more deciding to join up shortly. Ohio QB Luke Massa, Ohio athlete Derek Roback, and Florida DE Bruce Heggie all jumped on their chance to be a part of the 2010 recruiting class, bringing the total number of public commits up to 20.

First up, let's start with the latest quarterback to hop on board. Ohio QB Luke Massa was a Cincinnati commit since July, but when Kelly left for ND it was pretty obvious that Massa would be interested in following him if ND showed interest.

"I was definitely thinking in the back of my mind," Massa said, "is this gonna happen or not?"

Notre Dame eventually did become involved after Steve Specht, Massa's coach at St. Xavier, reached out to Kelly and an offer arrived. Prior to his weekend visit, Massa had a big interest in ND, but the trip made him feel comfortable and wanted.

"The decision was easy for me," Massa said.

After assuming the starting QB role following an injury to the starter, Massa as a sophomore led St. Xavier to eight straight wins and the Ohio state title. He was an up and coming QB prospect, but a foot injury followed by a broken collarbone kept him on the sideline nearly his entire junior season. He still had the offer from UC though and committed that summer before his senior year. His only other offer at the time was from Wisconsin while schools like Michigan State and N.C. State were understandably waiting to see how he'd look as a healthy senior. His senior year Massa stayed healthy while completing 67% of his passes for 1,800 yards, 16 touchdowns, and 9 interceptions.

The recruiting sites slot Massa as an average QB recruit with both Rivals and Scout giving him 3 stars. Rivals has Massa as the 28th overall QB recruit while Scout is a little more critical and has him down as the 75th overall QB recruit. ESPN has the harshest rating, giving Massa 2 stars, a 72 rating, and tabbing him as the 129th overall QB recruit. You can check out Massa's highlight clips for yourself here.

The 6'4" 205 pound Massa gives ND a third QB recruit in a single class, which is very high number. The last time ND brought in three QBs in a single class was under Davie when Jared Clark, Abram Elam, Matt LoVecchio, and Carlyle Holiday all signed on to play quarterback at Notre Dame. Only Clark and Holiday finished their careers at ND while LoVecchio was the only one of the four that didn't move to a new position.

Massa, Hendrix, and Rees will have a three way fight this fall in order to grab the open backup spot behind the recovering Dayne Crist. The winner will likely see some playing time while the other two presumably will stay on the sidelines and preserve a year of eligibility. Rees has the clear advantage as he's already enrolled and will be able to go through spring practice. Massa and Hendrix won't show up until the summer and will have to make do with informal 7 on 7 sessions to prep for the fall camp showdown. Interestingly, Massa and Hendrix come from the same conference -- the Ohio powerhouse GCL conference -- and while Hendrix is rated higher than Massa by every recruiting service, Kelly offered Massa a scholarship to UC before Hendrix.

Taking a look at the 2010 QB depth chart, you can see just how thin and unbalanced ND is at the quarterback position thanks to not taking a QB last year and Clausen exceeding expectations and heading off to the NFL a year early. Add in the fact that Crist is coming off an ACL injury and it's clear why the QB position is concern #1 heading into spring ball. Walk-on Nate Montana is back at ND and will add some depth this spring, but I left him off this table for the time being.

Fifth Year	Senior	Junior	Sophomore	Freshman
		Dayne Crist*		Andrew Hendrix
				Tommy Rees
				Luke Massa

Statistically Speaking: 2009 Season | by Pat

When you have to fire your coach, digging into the stats to see what happened is a bit unnecessary. No one needs to look into a box score to understand that while ND's (passing) offense was excellent, the defense was horrendous, and the overall production of the team was not good enough for Charlie to keep his job.

Still, now that the bowl games are over and the final 2009 season stats are settled, it's worth finishing up the stat tables if only to provide a baseline of sorts as we head into the Kelly era and identify areas that need the most immediate improvement.

Battle for First Down

I started this metric because Tenuta stated that one of the goals of his defense was to win first down and force defenses into 2nd and long and 3rd and long situations. The metric was a bit of a trial run to see if the results in some way mirrored what we saw on the field. Well, we don't even need to look at the numbers to know the plan failed. ND's defense gave up more total yards per game in 2009 (397.8) than in any other season in ND history. It really was that bad.

The silver lining for number crunchers is that the metric sort of pointed this out, and in that sense might be something useful to re-use in the future. Here are the 2009 numbers. The overall win rate of 44% was a noticable drop from the 50% win rate last year. Both rushing defense (41%) and pass defense (48%) dropped from their 2008 season values (48% and 52%, respectively).

Going forward, a way to make this metric better would be to provide greater context by seeing how other teams, both good and bad, did. Another important area that wasn't reflected was the tendency of ND's defense to be boom or bust on 1st down. I mentioned it in a few previous game reviews, but it seemed that often when ND "lost" 1st down, they gave up not just 4 or 5 yards, but large chunks of yardage. It would be good to work these big play yards into the metric somehow. ND blog Clashmore Mike did capture the 1st down big play raw numbers for 2009 in their excellent 2009 stats review.

Notre Dame allowed 6.1 yards per snap on 350 first down plays with two or fewer yards surrendered on over 44 percent of these plays. However, 43.7 percent of first down plays generated five or more yards including 43 explosive gains. These big plays accounted for almost 50 percent of the total first down production for opposing teams.

Drivin'

The 2009 Drive Chart table is another metric that could benefit from more context. I know Football Outsiders delve deeper into drive efficiency numbers, so if you are interested in how these values help predict and explain football game, make sure to head over there.

As one might expect, ND's offense drive numbers jumped from 48% in 2008 to 55% in 2009. Remeber that the percentage is the percent of total available yards that the offense gained. A stat like this is a bit more insightful than total yards because it accounts for games when teams don't need to drive 90 yards every drive to score a touchdown. On the other hand, it doesn't highlight red zone TD conversion numbers, which was an area where ND was decidedly average in 2009.

Over on defense, the numbers predictably dropped. From holding teams to 40% of all available yards in 2008, ND's defense allowed teams to gain 48% of them in 2009. In other words, notice how the 7% gain on offense is negated by the 8% drop on defense and it's pretty easy to see why a 7-6 team in 2008 put out a nearly identical 6-6 record in 2009. As much as we improved on one side of the ball, we regressed that much on the other. Granted that is rather simplistic analysis and ignores a few other key stats, but the shoe fits in this case.

Gimme M.O.E.

One collection of stats that did give some insight into ND's red zone issues was the M.O.E. numbers for 2009. The numbers crept up from 2008, finishing the year right on the 12% mark that was the ideal high water mark for offensive errors. While Clausen's accuracy kept the interception numbers low, offensive penalties, sacks, and dropped passes kept the overall M.O.E. score higher than any coach would like to see. Most fans would agree that there were an unending stop of driving killing mistakes this year, especially as the team got close to the endzone. (If not for Tausch's stellar debut as field goal kicker, things could have been even uglier this season).

I also crunched the Weis-era M.O.E. for all games and added it as the final sheet on the spreadsheet. Perhaps not surprisingly, ND's overall M.O.E. the past 5 seasons was 13%. Granted, the awful 2007 season does skew the total a bit, but the high mark also is statistical proof of the critiques of lack of attention to detail and fundamentals that many made about the Charlie regime. As Brian Kelly is also an offensive minded coach, but one who has much greater experience teaching fundamentals to college aged players, it will be interesting to see how his offense do with regards to M.O.E. scores.

Season Long Running Stats

It's kind of amazing how crystal clear the overall 2009 season stats are about the performance of the 2009 Fighting Irish. Every single offensive statistical category, save one (sacks allowed), improved from 2008. Meanwhile, every single defensive category, save two (red zone and red zone TD defense) declined from 2008.

Depending on the side of the ball, the stats were either shooting up (65th in total offense to 8th overall) or in a free fall (22nd in pass efficiency defense to 82nd overall). Even the turnover and special teams stats fell along offensive/defensive lines as ND improved on turnovers committed on offense, but regressed in turnovers forced on defense while the kickoff and punt return numbers improved while the coverage teams regressed.

Here's to much better looking numbers in 2010, especially on the defensive side of the ball.

Nichols is number nineteen | by Pat

Recruiting took another quick turn when the second Kentucky player offered a scholarship to Notre Dame committed instantly and became the 19th member of the 2010 class. Offensive tackle Tate Nichols visited campus this past weekend and as soon as ND offered, he accepted.

"I didn't have a scholarship offer going up there," Nichols said. "They had a version of my highlight film that wasn't high quality. I brought another one, from my senior year. They really liked it and they offered me a scholarship.

"... I'm a Catholic kid and it's closer to home. It's a perfect fit."

The closer to home bit references Stanford, where Nichols previously had been committed. He had backed away slightly the past few weeks from his Cardinal verbal and decided to make a clean break this weekend. That makes Nichols the third recruit this year to switch from Stanford to Notre Dame (Badger, Jones).

Two of the three main recruiting sites considered Nichols a tight end recruit and as such didn't slot him very high. Both Scout and Rivals tabbed Nichols as a 2-star tight end recruit with Scout considering him the 52nd overall TE. ESPN did list him as an offensive lineman, giving him 3-stars, a 75 grade rating, and a ranking as the 101st overall offensive tackle recruit.

Update: These were his rankings on Saturday when he committed. Today, Tuesday morning, Scout has changed him to a 3-star offensive line prospect and the #71 overall OT recruit.

It seems the confusion over his future college position was somewhat warranted when the recruiting sites added him to their databases a year ago. Nichols originally committed to Stanford in March of 2009 as a 6'7" 230 pounder that was told he would get a shot at TE. Now though he's pushing 275 according to self reports and Tate has acknowledged that his future lies at offensive tackle. As he started to back away from his Stanford verbal, Illinois, North Carolina State, and Michigan started increase communications. Part of the increase in weight is due to Tate just continuing to grow. Part of it though appears to be the result of working with the same personal trainer that Kyle Rudolph (who is also distantly related to Nichols) used to get ready for college. Here's Tate's senior highlight tape that mainly still shows him as a tight end, but includes some examples of him blocking.

Despite the recent added weight, Nichols will still be a bit of a project as most of his time in high school was spent at tight end or defensive end. ND needed more linemen in this class though so assuming the overall OL numbers stay high (and ND is able to haul in at least another tackle prospect like Matt James) Nichols should have time to work in the weight room and learn how to play offensive tackle. College is filled with high school tight ends who turn into solid offensive tackles, so he certainly has a good shot at turning into a dependable player with a lot of hard work and solid coaching.

Speaking of overall numbers, here is how the offensive line depth chart breaks down for the 2010 season. With a new staff, new line coach, and plenty of guys who haven't seen much action, I'm not going to separate tackles from guards here. After spring ball we should have a better idea of where the new staff will slot them. Remember that players with an asterisk have an additional year of eligibility.

5th Year	Senior	Junior	Sophomore	Freshman
Dan Wenger	Andrew Nuss*	Trevor Robinson	Chris Watt*	Christian Lombard
Chris Stewart	Matt Romine*	Lane Clelland*	Zach Martin*	Tate Nichols
	Taylor Dever*	Braxston Cave*	Alex Bullard*
		Mike Golic*

Running down the list | by Pat

The whole staff, minus new father Mike Elston, assembled for a press conference and interview session this past Friday. Und.com has the collection of transcripts and videos which are worth your time. It's a nice way to put some faces and voices with names.

Since the coaching staff names were doled out over time, I figure it might be handy to put all the names, faces, and interesting bio bits in one spot. For each coach I'll list the standard name, rank and serial number and then will throw in how many years they have spent coaching the position they will coach for ND, which BCS conference schools they have previously worked at (including work as a GA), if they have served as a recruiting coordinator in the past, and any somewhat interesting bit of trivia about them.

Offense

Name: Charley Molnar
Position: Offensive Coordinator & Quarterbacks
Years Coaching this position: 10 (OC) & 16 (QB)
BCS teams: Virginia (2 years), Cincinnati (3 years)
Recruiting coordinator experience: Yes
Trivia bit: Worked with both Alford and Denbrock at earlier coaching stops

Name: Ed Warinner
Position: Offensive Line Coach
Years Coaching this position: 16
BCS teams: MSU (2), Kansas (5), Illinois (2)
Recruiting coordinator experience: Yes
Trivia bit: Only coach who hasn't worked with Kelly yet.

Name: Tim Hinton
Position: Running Backs
Years Coaching this position: 5
BCS teams: Ohio State (2), Cincinnati (6)
Recruiting coordinator experience: Yes
Trivia bit: Coached LBs for Kelly at UC before switching back to RBs

Name: Tony Alford
Position: Wide Receivers
Years Coaching this position: 0
BCS teams: Washington (1), Iowa State (9), Louisville (2)
Recruiting coordinator experience: No
Trivia bit: His brother Aaron coaches for next year opponent Utah

Name: Mike Denbrock
Position: Tight Ends
Years Coaching this position: 10
BCS teams: Stanford (1), ND (3), Washington (4)
Recruiting coordinator experience: No
Trivia bit: Was both OC and DC for Brian Kelly at Grand Valley State

Name: Michael Painter
Position: Offensive Graduate Assistant
Previously at: Central Michigan, Cincinnati
Trivia bit: Played under Larry Kehres in college, the winningest active coach in football

DEFENSE

Name: Bob Diaco
Position: Defensive coordinator & Inside Linebackers
Years Coaching this position: 2
BCS teams: Iowa (2), Virginia (3), Cincinnati (1)
Recruiting coordinator experience: No
Trivia bit: Butkus Award Semi-finalist as LB at Iowa

Name: Mike Elston
Position: Defensive Line & Special Teams Coordinator
Years Coaching this position: 6
BCS teams: Michigan (2), Cincinnati (3)
Recruiting coordinator experience: Yes
Trivia bit: 3 for 3 in having UC player win Big East Special Teams Player of the Year

Name: Kerry Cooks
Position: Outside Linebackers
Years Coaching this position: 0
BCS teams: Kansas St. (1), Minnesota (1), Wisconsin (3)
Recruiting coordinator experience: No
Trivia bit: College teammate of Bob Diaco at Iowa

Name: Chuck Martin
Position: Defensive Backs
Years Coaching this position: 6
BCS teams: N/A
Recruiting coordinator experience: No
Trivia bit: 74-7 record as head coach at Grand Valley State

Name: Bill Brechin
Position: Defensive Graduate Assistant
Previously at: Grand Valley State
Trivia Bit: Went 40-1 as a player under Martin

Strength and Conditioning Staff

Name: Paul Longo
Position: Strength and Conditioning Coach
Years Coaching this position: 22
BCS teams: Wisconsin (1), Iowa (15), Cincinnati (3)
Trivia bit: Was strength coach at Iowa for Cooks and Diaco

Name: Jacob Flint
Position: Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach
Years Coaching this position: 3
BCS teams: Cincinnati (3)
Trivia bit: Is a nationally ranked competitive weightlifter

Name: Lorenzo Guess
Position: Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach
Years Coaching this position: 5
BCS teams: South Florida (1), Cincinnati (2)
Trivia bit: Was the Tight Ends coach at Cincinnati last season


So, what do you think? It's definitely a younger staff than the one under Charlie. And if you watch the interviews they do seem to be more personable across the board. Most of them come from similar midwest oriented backgrounds, so at least from a recruiting perspective, ND might get a higher percentage of midwest players in the next few classes. (It took Polian a few classes until he started to reel in California players with regularity) As for their coaching ability, well, we'll all have to wait and see how the team looks next fall.

Spring prep | by Pat

As we look towards Signing Day, the official roster got a bit bigger with the addition of some early enrollees, announced 5th year players, the return of a former preferred walk-on, and a QB recruit who will stick with ND.

On Tuesday, the largest group of early enrollee football players ever all settled into their dorms and started classes. Here's the list of the five early enrollees who will add much needed depth in spring practice, especially at QB and safety.

• Tommy Rees, QB
• Chris Badger, S
• Spencer Boyd, CB
• Lo Wood, CB
• Tai-ler Jones, WR

Rees will get most of the attention this spring, if only because enrolling early effectively places him as the only healthy scholarship quarterback on the roster. Much has been made of Kelly's ability to plug and play at the QB position and that will certainly get tested this spring. Badger will also add needed depth to a safety 2-deep that will need to be completely rebuilt with the graduation of Kyle McCarthy, Sergio Brown, Rey Herring, and Leonard Gordon. Depending on what the staff does with Harrison Smith, Badger could find himself already a second-stringer at strong safety. The other three players get a bit more of a luxury of learning from some seasoned vets at corner and receiver.

Speaking of vets, four 5th year players have been annouced, per Blue and Gold Illustrated. As expected, Darrin Walls, Chris Stewart, and Dan Wenger all return. Barry Gallup is also back, which is a bit of a surprise, but he was a dependable returner last year on special teams and will provide more receiver depth for ND's new spread offense. Leonard Gordon, mentioned above, would have added needed depth at safety, but apparently is moving on with his life and career. As noted in the article, Bobby Burger may still be back, which personally would be a good thing for the TE depth chart and special teams.

Finally, Crist and Rees will have some company this spring as Nate Montana is back at ND after spending the fall at Pasadena City College. Frankly, his numbers last fall were pretty mediocre, but experience is experience. He'll have his work cut out for him this spring, but ND needs the numbers at this point.

Help will arrive in the fall when QB recruit Andrew Hendrix enrolls. He backed away from ND briefly when Charlie was fired and recently took a trip down to Florida at Urban's request which had ND considering other options, but once back in Ohio decided to stick with his original commitment. He wrote a blog post for Irish Sports Daily that explain the last few weeks for him, so follow the link to see what he has to say.

Don't Drive Angry. | by Pat

If case you were wondering why I called ND's hiring process "lengthy" and "labyrinthine" in the past few posts, well, the South Bend Tribune's Eric Hansen sheds some light on why...

A fully-staffed staff | by Pat

Though perhaps over-shadowed a bit by Lane Kiffin becoming Public Enemy #1 in the state of Tennessee, the rest of the ND coaching staff was finally officially announced yesterday evening after all members had made their way through ND's labyrinthine hiring process. First up was the new strength coach and his assistants. As expected, Paul Longo will be the new strength coach at Notre Dame and resume the position he held under Brian Kelly at UC and Central Michigan.

One constant of any coaching regime change are the stories about how the new strength coach will be a shock to the system of the players and he's a clear improvement over the last guy. We heard it when Mickey Marotti (who came to ND from Cincinnati as well) took over under Davie. We heard it when Ruben Mendoza took over from Mickey, and I suspect we'll hear a lot of it now that Longo is in place.

We wouldn't want to disappoint in the predictable praise of the new strength coach though, so here's a story on Longo's methods at UC and the dreaded Longo Beach (which is apparently included in your admission to Camp Kelly). It certainly sounds like Longo will is more apt to include Marotti-esque strongman-type competitions than the more traditional weight room work used by Mendoza.

Every year, the Bearcats' strength coach sets up an 80-yard long, 10-foot wide sand pit inside of Nippert Stadium for players to run sprints through. It saves some pounding on the knees, but of course sand is harder to run on than turf. He dubs his creation "Longo Beach."

"I'm sure our guys would tell you that it's no day at the beach," Longo says with a laugh.

Longo also constructs a 30-yard hill inside Nippert during the summer for sprint work. Peek inside some of the Cincinnati summer workouts, and you might think you're watching a taping of the "World's Strongest Man" competition. Longo has been known to ask his guys to lift unusual items like tires and perform what's called a Farmer's Walk, where you walk while carrying a heavy object in each hand.

"Our linemen will carry up to 200 pounds in each hand for 100 yards," Longo said. "Don't you think that's a better test of strength than a bench press?"

Mendoza reportedly also attempted to set up the hill for sprint work, but for whatever reason it never happened. It will be interesting to see if Longo does get his hill set up for this winter's conditioning work.

One difference between Longo and the former strength coaches is how Kelly views the role of ND's latest strength coach. Perhaps Davie, Ty, and Charlie had similar thoughts, but as far as I know they never mentioned the strength coach as a de facto third coordinator for the football team.

"Paul joins our offensive and defensive coordinators as leaders of this program. He cuts across the traditional strength and conditioning coach mold because he builds relationships with all players and coaches and serves as a leader, not just in the weight room, but throughout the program.

Paul is a critical addition to our program because, arguably, no coach will have more contact with our players throughout the whole year than our strength and conditioning coach. Based on his track record and what I have personally witnessed, I can't wait to see how he'll make our team better moving forward."

With Kelly reportedly inviting members of the media to witness some of the Camp Kelly/Longo Beach activities (whereI'm sure Brian Hamilton will be checking all available sheds for shunned players), I suspect there will be plenty more written about Longo's methods at ND.

Rounding out the day of announcements were the final three additions to the coaching staff that included one surprise twist. Former Kansas OC Ed Warinner, former Wisconsin DB coach Kerry Cooks, and former UC RB coach Tim Hinton were named ND's newest OL, OLB, and RB coaches respectively. The big twist is that ND already had a running backs coach in Tony Alford, but he will move over to coach wide receivers while Hinton takes on the same role he had for the Bearcats. Alford has never coached receivers before, but Kelly has been known to shuffle assistants around and that's what he's doing here.

"Over the past few weeks, I've gotten to know Tony Alford well while traveling with him on the recruiting trail," Kelly said. "I can tell that he is a terrific teacher and coach, so that is why I've asked him to become our wide receivers coach. This move will not only help Tony but also benefit the program. For Tony, this is a great professional development opportunity and gives him a chance to really increase his coaching acumen. For the team, this takes a great coach and puts him at a position where he will have multiple players on the field at one time in our offense. I have complete confidence in Tony's ability to coach our wide receivers and plan to see a similar impact with them as he had with the running backs last year."

Ed Warninner will slide into one of the most critical spots on the staff, not only because the OL coach is the most important coach on any college staff (in my opinion), but also because he is the replacement for Kelly's long-time OL coach and right hand man Jeff Quinn, who took the head coaching job at Buffalo. Ed's resume shows success running the football (Army, Illinois), and passing (Kansas) as well as experience and familiarity with the spread offense. But as the only member of the new ND coaching staff that has never worked with Brian Kelly before -- Cooks explains he technically worked for Kelly for 7 days -- Ed's transition will be interesting to watch.

Now that the whole staff has been named, they will be busy hitting the road recruiting for the next few weeks to try and finalize the 2010 recruiting class. Kelly hasn't officially assigned the special teams and recruiting coordinator titles to any of the assistant's yet, but it is assumed that DL coach Mike Elston will get the special teams title while Hinton will become the recruiting coordinator, a position he held at Cincinnati.

Wildcard! | by Pat

While Kelly has tweeted that the staff has been finalized and will be announced shortly, the big news of the weekend was Pete Carroll calling Wildcard and jumping for the NFL (where a game against Kansas City will feature its own subplot.) The news was shocking, coming the weekend before early enrollee candidates were scheduled to head to Southern Cal to start spring semester classes. There are theories why he left when he did and the threat of a looming NCAA crackdown does seem fairly likely.

So what is the impact for ND Football? Aside from the bummer that ND will never get a chance to beat a Pete Carroll led Southern Cal team, there should be a few short term and long term impacts for ND. First off is recruiting, as we're in the middle of the craziest recruiting month of the year. With the changes at the top at ND, FSU, and Southern Cal, the flip flopping going on at Florida, and the likely coordinator shuffling that may hit schools many other top programs, it's got to be a rough time for recruits who watch the coaches that built relationships with them bolt for other programs.

Kelly has hit the road pretty hard so far recruiting-wise, so if you are looking for insights into how he will fare as a recruiter at ND over the next few years, keep an eye on if he's able to swing any prospects ND's way that may have been leaning elsewhere a week or so ago. The true judge of his recruiting abilities will come in the next class when he has a full calendar year to attract recruits, but if he's going to be an excellent recruiter we should start to see some evidence of that in the next few weeks.

Taking a bit longer view, odds are good that Southern Cal won't be able to keep up the pace they have held for the past few years. They are still loaded with more talent than any team in the country not named Florida or Alabama, but the aura of dominance is gone. The time is now for Kelly to tilt the balance of the rivalry back in ND's favor after 8 painful years. The idea of moral victories like 2005, or to some extent 2009, need to be purged from the collective ND fanbase. I'm pretty sure that Kelly won't flinch from reminders of Lou's long successful run against the Trojans, so I don't feel bad in setting my expectations for future ND-Southern Cal games very high. Some might scoff at yet another internet ND fan expecting multiple victories against Southern Cal from his new coach months before he takes the field for the first time, but the biggest obstacle to the BCS has conviently been removed for Kelly. There is no shame or hubris in expecting him to take advantage.

Taking an even bigger step back, there is that other favorite off-season topic that should be considered: scheduling. As it should be, the Trojans will remain on the schedule indefinitely. But if the NCAA decides to actually do something for once and administers more than a slap on the wrist to our favorite west coast team, it's possible that the entire program could take a step backwards for a few years while they wrestle with reduced scholarships and/or post-season bans. That means one less boost to ND's strength of schedule in coming years. And if Michigan continues to stumble under Rodriquez the next few years or fails to replace him with a top notch coach, they also could experience a few more years of mediocrity. As ND continues to schedule within the framework of the 7-4-1 model, there needs to be a push to include top competition in future schedules. This isn't a cry for ND to play Top 10 teams on a weekly basis. It is just a recognition that assuming Southern Cal will be there to boost the strength of schedule might not be an option in the coming years and ND should schedule accordingly.