Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Players switching to and from Switch 'FLIP' The Notre Dame has become common P BY LOU SOMOGYI lexicon. Through the 1980s and most of the rior to the turn of the 21st century, the word "decommit- ment" was not a regular part of the college football-recruiting 1990s, there was a more simple proto- col to recruiting: First, you played the football regular season from September through No- vember or early December. Second, the vast majority of the five allowed official recruiting visits were made in the months of December and January. Finally, most of the verbal commit- ments began to become public in Janu- ary, shortly prior to the February sign- ing date. Today, with "junior days" already taking place shortly after National Signing Day, spring and summer com- bines getting held across the nation to showcase top talent, most official visits taking place during home games, more elaborate scouting systems and recruiting services in place, hundreds of verbal commitments issued well before August, Internet, Twitter and other social media updates supplied by the second, and early enrollees in January … it is now a shame — if not a travesty — to many "recruitniks" that the actual football season has to inter- rupt recruiting news. A consequence of so many early verbal commitments by high school juniors in the spring or prior to college football season is that buyer's remorse has more time to settle into a prospect, and salesmanship becomes paramount 22 MARCH 2012 From left to right, offensive lineman Mark Harrell, wide receiver Justin Ferguson, cornerback Tee Shepard, linebacker David Perkins and wide receiver Deontay Greenberry (crouched in front) seemed destined to play together at Notre Dame, but Perkins and Greenberry opted to sign elsewhere. PHOTO COURTESY FERGUSON FAMILY in a coaching staff's ability to survive and thrive. Many times a coach is now judged less on his X's and O's acumen and more on his silver tongue and re- silience to not merely give up after an oral pledge is made elsewhere by a coveted prospect. "Sometimes you have to over-com- municate that message," Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly said. "… Those young men are 17 years old, 18 years old, and they're getting bombarded with professional recruiters for months on end." While some recruiting flip-flops took transferred to Tennessee) — it wasn't until former Notre Dame head coach Bob Davie's final season in 2001 that it became common for numerous flip- flops to occur per season. That year also happened to mark the first time the Irish had received a dozen public verbal commitments prior to football season starting. On BlueandGold.com, the follow- FOOTBALL RECRUITING ISSUE place prior to the 21st century at Notre Dame — most notably quarterback C.J. Leak in 1999 surprising the Irish on National Signing Day when he inked with Wake Forest instead (and later ing question was asked this January: "For the last 10 years how many de- commits have left Notre Dame and how many decommits came to Notre Dame?" Based on our research, the results were virtually dead even in the 10 years from 2002-11: 22 changed their mind from another school to Notre Dame, and 21 opted for another school BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED