I haven’t dove into the recruiting circus that usually surrounds college football, just because I don’t have the time to track down 17- and 18-year-old kids, but I do following close attention to the sites that do.
Over at ESPN.com, their West Coast recruiting blogger Greg Biggins had some news on Notre Dame’s number one defensive pledge Chris Martin.
And it wasn’t good:
“It’s not set in stone but I’m looking at visiting Florida (Nov. 27),” Martin said. “That’s the only one I’ve discussed so far but I’m talking with USC, UCLA and Cal as well. I’m still not sure about everything right now, I’m just taking things slow and I’ll see what happens.”
Martin said taking visits has nothing to do with his commitment to the Irish and he’s still very happy with his original decision.
“I just want to see what else is out there because I never really did that,” Martin said. “I never had a chance to see any other schools so I just kind of want to take some visits to experience that whole process. I haven’t discussed it with Notre Dame so I’m not sure what they think about it but I’m sure they’ll be OK with it.
“My commitment is still solid and Notre Dame is definitely where my heart is at right now. This has nothing to do with them at all and I still plan on signing there. I just want to enjoy the process, you only go through this once.”
I think Irish fans heard this same song and dance from former Irish commitments Justin Trattou and Omar Hunter, both of whom ended up wearing Gator hats on signing day.
It’ll be interesting to see how Meyer recruits against Notre Dame without Greg Mattison, the former Gator and Irish defensive coordinator who was known for his skills on the recruiting trail. I have first-hand knowledge that Meyer, Mattison, and their staff used everything under the sun to negatively recruit against the Irish, and in the cases of Trattou and Hunter, they did so very effectively.
I’m not ready to call Martin gone just yet, but this feels an awful lot like the part of Jerry Maguire where Jerry’s off walking the lobby with Rod Tidwell while Bob Sugar is closing in on Cush.
Hopefully Martin’s word is stronger than Oak.
