Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/167574
Everett Golson — who will spend this fall training in San Diego with quarterback guy George Whitfield Jr. before reapplying to Notre Dane in January — originally cast his lot with the North Carolina Tar Heels. Last year's starting defensive line all gave a commitment to in-state schools before switching to Notre Dame: Kapron Lewis-Moore (Texas A&M), Louis Nix III (Miami) and Stephon Tuitt (Georgia Tech), as did top backup Kona Schwenke (BYU) and current sophomore Jarron Jones (Penn State). The starting 2012 drop linebacker Danny Spond, a devout Christian, verbally committed to the in-state Colorado Buffaloes before switching late in the process to Notre Dame. An 18-year-old having a change of heart is hardly novel. "Decommitment" has become a part of college football recruiting's lexicon the past couple of decades. That's because verbal commits in the spring and summer leave the door a little more open for a change of heart than they did in days of yore, or at least until the mid-1990s, when 95 percent of the commitments occurred in December and January. The recent decommitment from Notre Dame by Hood elicited ghosts of past esteemed prospects in recent years who left the Fighting Irish at the altar. It elicited much hand-wringing on Notre Dame's side, but also a realization that it goes both ways. "There's going to be wins and losses on that front every year," Irish head coach Brian Kelly said a couple of years ago when asked about decommits. Notre Dame usually has come out on the better end of those on-field results. Over the past 15 years, here are a few of the most famous decommits from Notre Dame by position. There were others too, but these players in particular caused much angst. Quarterback: C.J. Leak (1999) The North Carolina prospect stunned everyone in college football when he signed with in-state Wake Forest after supposedly having committed to the Irish class that was still ranked in the top three without him. The next year Notre Dame would sign three QBs — Matt LoVecchio, Carlyle Holiday and Jared Clark — and still go to a BCS bowl. Epilogue: Leak threw only 88 passes (completing 36) in two years with the Demon Deacons before transferring to Tennessee, where he played in eight games (starting one) and was one of the backups for Casey Clausen. Tar Heel decommit Golson would give the edge here to Notre Dame. And if Gunner Kiel (who originally picked LSU) would have stayed instead of transferring to Cincinnati this spring … Running Back: Giovani Bernard (2010) He is the most prominent decommit Notre Dame lost in the last 15 years, and Hood would do well to match the career Bernard had with the Tar Heels. Epilogue: Although he tore his ACL in his third practice as a freshman, Bernard had to play only two more years at North Carolina before becoming the 37th pick in this year's NFL Draft after