Inside Notre Dame, Part II
Notre Dame is considered one of the nation’s top 10 teams next season but the Irish want linebackers . . . bad.
``We have no linebackers. None,’’ an assistant coach recently told a recruit.
Ironically, one of the linebackers currently on the team is Anthony Vernaglia from Orange Lutheran, whom USC coach Pete Carroll doggedly recruited even after Vernaglia committed to Notre Dame.
Why is this on a SC blog?
scott,
anthony was recruited to play safety at nd and he, like many other recent ftbl players at nd, have had their athletic careers left in chaos during the bob davie/ tyrone regimes. although i love tyrone dearly, he sure was dealt a bad hand when he ended up with one of the davie legacies in his second year; namely, no offensive linemen.
i am glad to see him happy and well at washington.
in addition, not having gone to nd( i went to yale myself), tyrone also did not have the slightest idea how to deal with the nd alums, many of whom get extremely nasty when the ftbl team loses.
now that charlie weiss is there, those days are over. anthony is getting an excellent education and finally has a position to play in ftbl.
we fully expect anthony and others to excel this year at linebacker.
absolutely, after seeing what ohio state is able to do with its linebackers- the best in the us- recruiting athletes who actually played linebacker in high schoolis a priority for nd this year, just as qb and other positions are crucial for usc.
i challenge you to come up with the name of any nd coach who actually made that statement about nd linebackers.
you know, i have seen both sides of the equation- 13 years when usc always had more talent, but was unable to win for 13 years in a row.
i actually went to usc/nd games with sammy knight's family and rooted for usc. it was boring to watch nd win every year.
hopefully, both schools will get their houses back in order and the rivalry will be exciting every year again.
despite the huge talent gap, last year's game at south bend certainly was a great game, no matter which team really won.
competition on an even playing field is good for both sides. it is great to see usc recruiting some real student athletes and having people like chauncy washington, who were not good students in high school, work hard and become true student athletes at usc.
keep up the great work,
robert t. gilleran
scott,
with respect to nd part 1, if nd did something incorrect in winning the recruiting battle for clausen, bring it out.
if nd breaks the rules, they should be punished just like every other school, including usc.
keep up the great work,
robert t. gilleran