With just days remaining until Irish athletes report for summer school and begin unofficial preparations for the upcoming season, football news should begin to pick up. Until then, you’ll have to consider Steve Filer jumping out of a pool newsworthy.
(Might have to get Notre Dame Film & TV department to help with the video preparation, but Filer’s ability to jump out of the pool -- and to have the common sense to put a towel down to curb the chances that he’ll hurt himself -- remind us that Filer is an elite athlete ready to explode on the scene, not to mention has a solid head on his shoulders.)
I’ve got a small announcement coming up about some exciting posts for next week, but until then, let’s run through a few interesting notes I saw this week.
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My column on the departure of Notre Dame admissions czar Dan Saracino brought in quite a bit of feedback. Some of it was anti-Saracino, some in support. One of the more interesting conversations I had was with former Irish assistant and recruiting coordinator Bob Chmiel, who was center stage for the recruitment of T.J. Duckett.
Chmiel is a wonderful man, continues to love Notre Dame, and still lives and breathes Irish football. Let’s just say Chmiel’s characterization of Duckett’s recruitment doesn’t quite jive with that of Duckett’s fathers, as portrayed by Sports Illustrated. For as much grief as Saracino received for the Duckett recruitment and the SI article, Chmiel had nothing but positive things to say about Saracino’s treatment of Duckett or any recruit. He also believes that the Irish didn’t have much of a shot to begin with, as Duckett had all but packed his bags and made the decision to be a Spartan.
I’ll say it again, Saracino has one of the hardest jobs in college sports, and I’ve heard from many that he only has the best intentions of student athletes and the university when dealing with the often subjective process of undergraduate admissions (athletes or not). While the university might have been late to the party, Notre Dame has changed their philosophy on recruiting and scholarship offers quite a bit from Holtz/Davie years.
Here’s a quote from an article on Saracino back in 2005:
“If you’re not interested in being a student-athlete (after looking at the academic requirements), then Notre Dame is not a good match for you,” Saracino said. “We are who we are, and we’re proud of it. (The academic requirements are) not a hindrance to the program, it’s to want the young man not to be used for just his athletic abilities.”
News reports over the last five years said that talented players like Randy Moss, Carson Palmer and T.J. Duckett could not get into Notre Dame for academic reasons, and Saracino admits that Notre Dame will not be able to admit every top athlete in the country.
“Are there going to be young men who are great athletes who we cannot admit? Sure,” Saracino said. “Of the top 100 (recruits), maybe there will be 50 that we can’t sign. I don’t know whether that number is 20, 30, 40, 60, I don’t know. All we know is we just need 20 (recruits) each year who academically can make it through Notre Dame and athletically can help us.”
Final thought: Whoever ends up taking the place of Saracino should run and hide if a photographer from a magazine wants to take a shot of them with their arms folded in a menacing pose.
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Blue-chip quarterback Bubba Starling will be on campus again this weekend, and this time he’s bringing his mom with him. That’s a very good sign for Irish fans, and Pete Sampson over at IrishIllustrated.com writes that the Irish might be receiving a much needed commitment from an elite quarterback.
“This trip is about seeing the same stuff, but it will be different because this will be my mom’s first time at Notre Dame,” said Starling, who’ll arrive on campus Friday night and leave Saturday afternoon. “She’s going to be a big role in my decision. She wants the best for me and I like her opinion. I’m sure she’ll love it up there.”
Coincidentally, Starling has been in touch with quarterback Dayne Crist, who wanted to pull the trigger for Notre Dame during his own spring visit three years ago but held off because his mom wasn’t on the trip.
“I was just telling Dayne that if I’m feeling it and I like it up there that I could commit,” Starling said. “You never know.”
Starling has a tentative visit scheduled for Nebraska in two weeks but admitted his decision might be made by then.
Now Irish fans have to talk Major League Baseball scouts into thinking that Starling and his 95-mile-per-hour fastball want nothing to do with professional baseball.
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Yesterday, news broke that the Pac-10 was making a run at six Big 12 teams -- Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Colorado, and for the first time in a while, there might actually be some substance behind the rumors.
“We’re led to believe that that may be the case, but, again, there are so many different reports and different dialogues and different developments within our league and outside our league that prevents me from being able to predict what will happen,” Colorado AD Mike Bohn said.
Big 12 commission Dan Beebe canceled a news conference that was set for yesterday and is pushing it until later today, but if this happens, the Big Ten will likely do their best to respond, and then we could have one of those Armageddon scenarios everybody loves to talk about.
(Although I refuse to fan the flames until something real actually exists.)
For as much heat as the Big East has taken, the Big 12 wasn’t necessarily all that rock solid either, and the potential fracture of six teams, including crown jewels Texas and Oklahoma, proves this. News today from the Columbus Dispatch has emails exchanged between Big Ten commish Jim Delany and Ohio State president E. Gordon Gee, taking about the other apple in their eye: Texas.
Texas president athletic director DeLoss Dodds didn’t do much to quell the rumors either.
“You’ve known me for very long; I am not hanging back,” Dodds said, according to the Associated Press. “I’m not waiting to see what other people are going to do. I’m going to know what our options are, so that’s not going to change. My hope is that the Big 12 survives and you and I retire knowing it’s a great conference. It’s been very viable, and if it stays in place, it will continue to be very viable.
“If we need to finish it, we’ll finish it,” he said. “We’re going to be a player in whatever happens.”
Expect a long weekend of rumors, rhetoric, and reactionary measures by the Big Ten, who might have missed their chance at manifest destiny with these potential moves by new Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott.
If anyone sees Jim Delany standing outside Father Jenkins window tonight, holding a boombox over his head and playing Pete Gabriel’s Your Eyes, don’t be alarmed.
