Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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WHERE HAVE YOU GONE? played receiver in high school]." Unless it was a mega prospect such as Aaron Taylor, seldom did Cerrato recruit a player who played just the offensive line. "If he couldn't play, then there isn't the flexibility to move him elsewhere and it's a wasted scholarship," Cer- rato said. The 1988 national title offensive line Cerrato spearheaded a recruiting renaissance for the Fighting Irish, landing four consecutive No. 1-ranked classes from 1987-90. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME MEDIA RELATIONS Bryant Young, Chris Zorich, Jim Fla- nigan were usually linebackers or full- backs or tight ends in high school," Cerrato said of what current Irish head coach Brian Kelly refers to as "Big Skill" prospects. "Todd Lyght was the best receiver in Michigan. Jeff Burris was the No. 1 running back in South Carolina. They both became first- round corners. "We wanted to get as many option quarterbacks or tailbacks as possible, guys with ball skills, like a Tom Carter or Rod Smith [two more top NFL cor- ners] or Rocket [Ismail, who never There were two main approaches to Cerrato's recruiting. The first was not to recruit by position. Recruit athletes with speed, and then plug them in and develop where needed. "Our best defensive linemen like RECRUITING PHILOSOPHY included former linebacker recruit Tim Ryan, former defensive line recruit Mike Heldt and former tight end Andy Heck. Future offensive linemen from that recruiting haul featured defensive lineman Mirko Jurkovic and tight end Lindsay Knapp. On a prospect's recruiting visits to the campus, Cerrato made it a point to pair up the host with someone at his position. "Derek Brown was the No. 1 tight end in 1988, and he hosted Irv Smith, who was the No. 1 tight end the next year," Cerrato said. "That's one of the biggest differences nowadays, when a school has one great player at a po- sition, the other great players don't want to go there. "We looked at it as, 'Come here, there's plenty to go around. You have to do that in the pros anyway.'" In Cerrato's time, the lion's share of verbal commitments occurred after the players' senior seasons in high school. Today, about 80 percent of the commit- ments are in place prior to the season. "I'm not a fan of it, but it's what you have to do because it's what everybody is doing," Cerrato said. "When February rolls around, how many times do you end up saying,