Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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IN THE TRENCHES ANDREW OWENS D efensive end Aaron Lynch, cor- nerback Ronald Darby, defensive tackle Eddie Vanderdoes, corner- back Tee Shepard, wide receiver Miciah Quick, wide receiver Deontay Green- berry, safety John "JuJu" Smith and wide receiver Justin Ferguson. These are all players that either com- mitted to Notre Dame before flipping elsewhere, were near pledges or were Irish signees that transferred to other schools (ie. Lynch and Vanderdoes). Each represents what could have been in the high-risk, high-reward reality of Notre Dame's recruiting efforts in the talent-rich territories of California, Florida and Texas. While Midwest recruiting (Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan) is the lifeblood of the program attracting talent — this region will generally be the most represented in quantity — it's the game-changing athletes from those fertile warm-weather states that often determine whether the recruiting haul is a home run or not. Take this year for example. No school signed more 247Sports four-stars than Notre Dame did with its 16 pledges. What prevented the top-10 class from contending for a spot in the top five was the lack of a consensus five-star athlete such as Smith. Such close misses — the Irish were finalists for Smith and Quick on Na- tional Signing Day — coupled with the decommitments of four-star linebacker Richard Yeargin (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) and three-star defensive lineman Matt Dickerson (San Mateo, Calif.), and the drama surrounding four-star wide re- ceiver Isaiah McKenzie (Fort Lauder- dale, Fla.) have led many Irish follow- ers to wonder whether it's even worth High Risk, High Reward In Fertile Grounds Despite his misgivings about playing in northern Indiana, former Irish nose guard and Florida native Louis Nix III made it work during his Notre Dame career. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA