Notes From Signing Day

While Notre Dame's coaches worked hard at recruiting players, Irish head coach Charlie Weis had help along the way in various forms.
When you scan down the list of recruits, there are familial ties to some players, like offensive lineman Mike Golic Jr. Hafis Williams' high school coach has a long history with Weis, being Williams is from Elizabeth, N.J. Dan McCarthy's brother, Kyle, is a safety at Notre Dame. Joseph Fauria's uncle, Christian, played for Weis on the New England Patriots and the two met when Joseph was a freshman in high school at Super Bowl XXXIX.
"This is one big muchacho now," Weis said of Fauria.
But what helped more than any of that were the efforts of two players -- offensive lineman Braxston Cave and quarterback Dayne Crist. They had almost acted as the Midwestern and California consulates for Notre Dame players, with Cave living 200 yards from offensive line coach John Latina in Mishawaka and Crist taking up base in Sherman Oaks, Calif.
"(Cave's mother has) been like the surrogate mom of this recruiting class," Weis said. "I mean, those guys from Chicago, I wonder if they have their own bedrooms. They've really gone out of their way.
"...But their family has gone out of their way to kind of be a focal point, like the off-campus base of Notre Dame recruiting and it's really been great."
Crist, meanwhile, enduring heckling in the home area of Notre Dame rival USC.

Omar Hunter To Florida
One player decommitted from Notre Dame after giving a verbal commitment: defensive lineman Omar Hunter.
Hunter, who ended up signing with Florida on Wednesday, had backed out of his commitment last month. Weis declined to discuss the specifics of Hunter's decommitment.
"It would be self-serving for me to go into the answer right there because then alls I'm doing is making us look good and him look bad and that doesn't do him or me, it doesn't do either one of us any good," Weis said.
Notre Dame signed five defensive linemen anyway, including a late pick-up in Texan Kapron Lewis-Moore, a decommit from Texas A&M.

Goodman at QB: Not So Fast
Weis joked when he spoke about Fort Wayne's John Goodman that he probably thinks he's the best quarterback on the roster. Goodman doesn't think that -- at least from our conversations with him -- but the Bishop Dwenger product offers versatility at wide receiver.
But Weis isn't ready to unleash that just yet.
"Right now the thing is to have a wide receiver to play wide receiver," Weis said. "We'll start with the wide receiver stuff before we start worrying.
"Let's get him to play wide receiver first. Those other things are just a bonus."
In talking about Goodman, though, he made the obvious comparison to former Notre Dame wide receiver and current Chicago Cubs farmhand Jeff Samardzija.

This and that
Weis declined to talk about any non-Signing Day related issues Wednesday, including SpyGate, Will Yeatman and assistant coaches. He said non-recruiting issues will be addressed during a news conference Friday. ... Defensive line commit Hafis Williams turned 19 on Wednesday. ... Weis said he expects Crist to compete for the quarterback position.

Notre Dame's commit list:
Robert Blanton, DB, 6-1, 175, Matthews, N.C. (Butler); Braxston Cave, OL, 6-3, 292, Mishawaka (Penn); Lane Clelland, OL, 6-5, 265, Owings Mills, Md. (McDonogh School); Dayne Crist, QB, 6-5, 225, Sherman Oaks, Calif. (Notre Dame); Sean Cwynar, DL, 6-4, 283, Woodstock, Ill. (Marian Central Catholic); Joseph Fauria, TE, 6-7, 250, Encino, Calif. (Crespi Carmelite); Steve Filer, LB, 6-4, 220, Chicago (Mount Carmel); Darius Fleming, LB, 6-2, 230, Chicago (St. Rita); Michael Floyd, WR, 6-3, 200, St. Paul, Minn. (Cretin-Derham Hall); Mike Golic Jr., C, 6-5, 265, West Hartford, Conn. (Northwest Catholic); John Goodman, WR, 6-3, 186, Fort Wayne (Bishop Dwenger); Jonas Gray, RB, 5-11, 214, Beverly Hills, Mich. (Detroit Country Day); Etahn Johnson, DL, 6-4, 265, Portland (Lincoln); Kapron Lewis-Moore, DE, 6-4, 230, Weatherford, Texas (Weatherford); Dan McCarthy, S, 6-2, 190, Youngstown, Ohio (Cardinal Mooney); Anthony McDonald, LB, 6-3, 220, Sherman Oaks, Calif. (Notre Dame); Brandon Newman, DL, 6-1, 305, Louisville, Ky. (Pleasure Ridge Park); David Posluszny, LB, 6-2, 214, Aliquippa, Pa. (Hopewell); Trevor Robinson, OL, 6-5, 304, Elkhorn, Neb. (Elkhorn); Kyle Rudolph, TE, 6-7, 235, Cincinnati (Elder); Jamoris Slaughter, DB, 6-1, 180, Tucker, Ga. (Tucker); Deion Walker, WR, 6-3, 185, Christchurch, Va. (Christchurch); Hafis Williams, DL, 295, Elizabeth, N.J. (Elizabeth).
-By Michael Rothstein of The Journal Gazette

Comments

[Bonnie Barbarisi]

Who in the world would ask about SpyGate at the Signing Day press conference? The only one I can think of is Jeff Carroll of the SBT. I know you would not have been so tactless to have done so. It makes you wonder just what they are teaching today in journalism at the universities.