Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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football recruiting last year when he made a last-second switch from LSU to the Irish. "I think it's important that if there's a player of that caliber, you need to recruit the heck out of him," head coach Brian Kelly said. "We go into every state in the country and we pull out one of their kids. … It's a dogfight. When you go down to Florida or you go to Texas or California, you've got a fight on your hands. "We would like to think if you came to Indiana for a great prospect you'd have a fight on your hands with Notre Dame, too." The Irish have a good track record of making the most of their in-state talent in recent years. Freshman defensive lineman Sheldon Day, an Indianapolis product who was runner-up to Kiel for the Mr. Football Award in 2011, played in all 13 games last fall and made 23 tackles and two sacks. Brothers Zack and Nick Martin, who played at Indianapolis Bishop Chatard, both figure to be starters on the offensive line next season. Zack has been voted the team's best lineman in each of the past three seasons. And last but not least, is Tyler Eifert. The tight end from Fort Wayne Bishop Dwenger set records as the most prolific pass catcher at his position in program history during his three seasons on the field in South Bend. A Brand New Game The NCAA approved a long list of rule changes in Dallas last month to take the first step toward establishing a new "don't sweat the small stuff" philosophy while policing college sports. The revamped rules tear a sizable chunk of pages from the organization's compliance tome, making it a more streamlined, user-friendly set of regulations. The Division I Board of Directors approved 25 of the 26 proposed changes, which ran the gamut from text messaging recruits to allowing presenters to cover the cost of travel for postseason awards ceremonies. Compliance officers have been calling for a more laissez faire NCAA for the better part of a decade. Brent Moberg, Notre Dame's director of compliance, sees the rule changes as a big step in the right direction. "The whole idea of deregulation and trying to remove certain things, it's been a battle," he said. "It's been an ongoing process, but this has been the biggest concerted focus and effort." The goal of this current push, laid out by NCAA president Mark Emmert in the summer of 2011, was to revise a convoluted system with common sense in mind. Eliminating the need to enforce rules about what size envelope you send to a recruit's home or what spreads athletes can put on their bagels — yes, the infamous cream cheese rule, the poster child of the NCAA's inane nit-pickiness, has been scratched — should make it easier for universities and the entire organization to focus on ousting major corruption like recent cases at Penn Sate and Miami. Some of the more impactful changes will be felt on the recruiting front. As of Aug. 1, college coaches will be able to send as many text and social me-