Tweaking Notre Dame

There is a decent little read from Lou Somogyi of the Notre Dame affiliate for 247Sports (Blue & Gold) on their “All-De-Commit Team.” I got a chuckle out of this piece, which listed 22 players who were publicly committed to Notre Dame at one point, but subsequently signed elsewhere on National Signing Day.

Current or former Gators accounted for 5 of the 22 members of the list. No other school landed more than two players to this group (an honor shared by North Carolina, Ohio State and UCLA).

When Urban Meyer was at Florida, I imagined he got a special sense of accomplishment when he could tweak Charlie Weis on the recruiting trail. Justin Trattou (2007) and Omar Hunter (2009) were both consensus top-100 prospects and prep All-Americans on the defensive line, both were huge gets for Florida at the time they committed. Hunter and Trattou were solid players in Gainesville, although neither really lived up to the hype in Gainesville, I suppose.

Criminally under-utilized in Gainesville, wide receiver David Nelson (2005) was another prep All-American who gave a big boost to Florida's first class under Meyer when he switched his commitment just a few weeks before National Signing Day. Of course, his change-of-heart even caused none other than Regis Philbin to have a fit of indigestion on his morning talk show, "Live with Regis and Kelly."

The last steal for Florida was Clay Burton (2011), although he technically signed with Will Muschamp, not Meyer. Burton was also stolen from under the nose of Brian Kelly, and not Weis, who had since been fired by Notre Dame. His switch was not a huge shock, as the chance to play alongside his brother in Gainesville was clearly an overriding factor in his final decision. Linebacker Alex Anzalone (2013) was the last, and most recent prospect to make the flip from Notre Dame to Florida.

In the middle of swiping all of these top-rated recruits from Notre Dame, Meyer suffered just one defeat: Hialeah-Miami Lakes running back Armando Allen (2007). Allen was torn between Florida and Notre Dame, but was in line to enroll for college classes in January of what would have been the second semester of his senior year of high school. Early enrollment was not a practice typically endorsed by Notre Dame at the time, so Allen instead appeared headed to Florida. In the eleventh hour, however, Weis was able to get Allen admitted to Notre Dame, and the speedy back headed to South Bend instead.

In looking over the list, I couldn't help but notice the lack of star power on it. C.J. Leak (1999) was touted as a potential savior as Wake Forest, but never panned out there. He transferred to Tennessee, where he also struggled to get on the field, and is better known today as the older brother of former star Florida quarterback (and current graduate assistant coach) Chris Leak. Offensive lineman Jordan Prestwood (2011) has already bombed out of three schools (FSU, Notre Dame, UCF) and is now trying to re-start his career at a junior college in Arizona. Chris Martin (2010) ended up signing with Cal after dropping his Notre Dame pledge. He also had a stint at Florida before going the JUCO route. He was recently dismissed from Charlie Weis' Kansas squad following aggravated robbery charges in May. Georgia signee Chris Little (2007) is another player who didn't pan out as expected.

In fact, of all the players listed, only former UNC running back Giovani Bernard (2010) really turned into a star player at the college level, and has parlayed that success into a promising future with the Cincinnati Bengals.

While there are some young guys on the list who still have some time to establish themselves yet, the moral of the story for college football fans who freak out over a de-commitment essentially writes itself. The game of recruiting is a crap shoot, and rarely does one player ever make or break a recruiting class for a given school.