We’re a week away from freshman reporting to summer school -- finalizing the assembly of the 2013 Fighting Irish football team on campus and beginning offseason workouts. Across the country, guys like Greg Bryant and Jaylon Smith say goodbye to home and high school and prepare to go from All-Everything recruits to freshmen football players, a harrowing transition to be sure.
We’re going to spend the next week or two looking at the freshman class, examining the floors and ceilings for each newcomer, if only to memorialize how bad we are at predictions. But before we get to that, let’s run through a few headlines that caught my eye this weekend:
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Congratulations are in order for linebacker Joe Schmidt. The six-foot, 225-pound junior linebacker from Southern California earned a scholarship for the upcoming 2013 season and will be a part of the Irish’s 85-man allotment.
Schmidt’s story is a great one --he was a recruited walk-on that turned down other opportunities to come to South Bend and compete. Undersized from the get-go, Schmidt was a highly productive player at Orange County powerhouse Mater Dei, where he was teammates and best friends with USC quarterback Max Wittek. Schmidt played in ten games last season, appearing primarily on special teams, making six tackles.
Congratulations poured in across social media, with guys like Danny McCarthy, Chris Salvi, Kapron Lewis-Moore, Eilar Hardy, Kyle Brindza, Nicky Baratti, Romeo Okwara and Stephon Tuitt all publicly congratulating Schmidt.
Schmidt’s post on Twitter likely said it all: “I am so blessed. Thank you God thank you God thank you God.”
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Another Irish football player received quite an honor this week when wide receiver Torii Hunter Jr. was drafted in the 36th round by the Detroit Tigers. Hunter, who is set to enroll in summer school in the coming weeks and begin workouts with Irish strength coach Paul Longo and trainer Rob Hunt, is still recovering from a freak accident at the US Army All-American Bowl, where he broke his femur.
Hunter, the son of baseball All-Star Torii Hunter, was regarded as an elite two-sport recruit, and was drafted by the Tigers even after sitting out his senior season rehabilitating his broken leg.
The elder Hunter was excited for his son.
“It’s just awesome, man,” Hunter told MLive.com. “This is my dream, I don’t know what his dream is. I know he loves baseball and football. One day, he’s going to pick and choose. It might be tomorrow, we don’t know.”
The chances of Hunter signing as a 36th round draft pick are incredibly slim, with the Tigers needing to pay far, far above the recommended signing bonus to get the Notre Dame commitment to walk away from a full-ride scholarship.
When healthy, Hunter is expected to spend time with the Irish baseball team as well.
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It’s clear Eddie Vanderdoes won’t be playing football for Notre Dame next season. Headed to UCLA, Notre Dame’s unwillingness to release Vanderdoes from his National Letter of Intent spurred an angry column from CBS Sports’ Gregg Doyel.
Here’s the gist of Doyel’s work:The system is broken, and not by accident. It’s broken on purpose. The system allows coaches like Brian Kelly to switch schools as they please -- and for more money -- but players who want to switch schools are at the mercy of those same coaches. Because the system sucks.
But Notre Dame doesn’t have to follow the system. Notre Dame, leader that it considers itself among institutions of higher learning, could refuse to follow along. It could allow the system to work for an 18-year-old high school senior, but it won’t. Notre Dame is playing hard ball with five-star recruit Eddie Vanderdoes, which means Notre Dame is part of the problem.
So it’s not just the system that sucks. For playing along with the system, Notre Dame sucks too.
Visceral language, right? You offended?
Be offended. Know what offends me? That a school like Notre Dame, and a coach like Brian Kelly, would stick it to an 18-year-old kid like Eddie Vanderdoes.
Doyel’s column earned its fair-share of criticism, none more comprehensive than this take by our friends at Her Loyal Sons. (It probably would’ve helped Doyel’s case to at least know that Florida State is going through a similar situation.)
Doyel followed that up with another short column -- stoking the flames, while rightfully calling out some members of the lunatic fringe on Twitter, who have said some embarrassing things on behalf of the football team they cheer for.
CBS Sports’ Bruce Feldman added to the ever evolving storyline by reporting that an appeal for Vanderdoes’ immediate eligibility will be made based on an extenuating family heath crisis. UCLA’s Scout.com affiliate has reported that to be Vanderdoes’ grandmother.
Any petition that’s still in motion is coming behind two previous attempts to gain immediate eligibility. While arguing the merits of the National Letter of Intent is an exercise in futility, it is worth mentioning that Vanderdoes has already had his appeal rejected not just by Notre Dame, but by the NLI Review Committee, according to this report.
Whether Vanderdoes’ motive are genuine or UCLA tampered with a recruit, it will all come to light in due time.
Still, it’s likely a fruitless request, but here’s hoping people that take to social media to harass a student-athlete (or journalist) find something better to do with their time. Until then, everybody show just a little bit of respect and life will go on.
