Stage 1: Denial

Disclaimer: I do not plan on turning this blog into a place to bash the likes of OSU/Notre Dame-esque teams but something has been churning in my mind for a bit of time now and the likes of ESPN et al have swept it under the ever-so-annoying "The media shouldn't rip on Notre Dame because they're popular just like Nascar is popular and the NHL isn't' and we need to encourage and praise what is popular like Notre Dame" rug. That being said, I do not hate Tyrone Willingham, and I feel like blaming an inexcusable season on a coach that has not coached your team for 3 years is just simply ludacris.




Notre Dame faithful have put the blame on this abysmal 1-7 start on a number of scapegoats. Some of these include Tyrone Willingham's lackluster recruiting classes during his last two years in the holy appointment. Another scapegoat is the rebuilding nature of this year's team following the loss of talent to the NFL (or to day jobs in the case of Darius Walker). The most unbelievable part of this is that the two Willingham classes of 2004 and 2005 were justifiably terrible compared to Notre Dame's top ten recruiting classes of 2006 and 2007, but were actually quite GOOD(!?!) when compared to the rest of the teams across the country. These classes of 2004 and 2005 were especially not bad enough to excuse having one of the worst, if not the worst, offense in the nation and a defense to follow suit. Here's what I mean:


Methods:
I have assigned values to each players incoming rivals.com start rating (1 pt per start out of 5) as well as averaging the year of each of the 22 starting players on offense and defense. (1 pt for freshmen, 2 for soph, 3 for junior, 4 for senior and 5th years). Simple stuff. Compare them to a team that is actually on the winning side of things this year, possibly a team that Notre Dame has faced. YAY! Boston College! BC is 8-0, and defeated Notre Dame 27-14 this season. And we'll throw South Florida and West Virginia in there just for fun.


Year ---Notre Dame Ranking (Rivals)---BC----South Florida----West Virginia

2003 ---------12th ---------------------------24th -- -----NA-------------46th
2004 ---------32nd---------------------------24th--------43rd------------47th
2005 ---------40th---------------------------49th--------50th------------31st
2006----------8th----------------------------59th--------59th------------52nd
2007----------8th----------------------------58th--------58th------------23rd


School----------Average Rivals Ranking-------Age
Notre Dame
Offense -------------3.5 stars-----------------------2.8 (almost junior average)
Defense -------------3.4 stars-----------------------3.4 ( juniors and older)


Boston College
Offense -------------3 stars-------------------------3.1 (juniors)
Defense -------------2.8 stars-----------------------3.3 (juniors and older)

Now, comparing recruiting classes based on Rivals.com ratings is dangerous. It is not always true that the best recruiting class yields the best team 4 years down the road or else USC would never lose. (especially to Stanford, UCLA, and Oregon State) But what these ratings does is give a pretty good idea of the level of athleticism of the players at that particular point going into their freshmen year of college and can also give general insight into the talent levels available on particular teams.

This might appear to be nitpicking and the differences appear small but the difference between a 1-7 team and a 8-0 team are HUGE. Adding to it is the fact that the strength according to these ratings on offense for ND is their offensive line which has been near comical this season. Comparing the classes during the two dark years of recruiting for Notre Dame to ANY of the 80 or 90 teams that had worse recruiting classes in 2004 and 2005, 1-7 is still unbelievable. Stop blaming Willingham, stop Stop STOP! The athleticism is there. We are also completely disregarding the stockpile of unbelievable talent available from the most recent top ten recruiting classes over the last two years. If fingers need to be pointed at such a low time in Notre Dame football history, point them at the here and the now. Believe it or not, Charlie and his staff may not be immortal. Charlie's offense may just simply be too complex, but it is still CHARLIE'S offense. Tyrone's classes were not great, but they were not Duke, Temple, and Florida Atlantic bad either.

Great coaches can take mediocre players and create a good teams. Taking good players and going 1-7 is beyond me. 30,000,000 dollars later...

See rankings for yourself at http://http//rivals100.rivals.com/teamrank.asp?SID=880