Talk about "shopping down a different aisle!"
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Replies to: Talk about "shopping down a different aisle!"
Weiss favorite quote
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It was a very valid one as well
During the Willingham era, we had *one* decent recruiting class that was already partially in place by Bob Davie, and solidified due to the reasonably good 2002 season. When Willingham did go shopping, he generally wasn't aiming at the high end recruits like Michigan, Florida State, USC, etc., did. Instead we were fighting for lower level recruits that were more on par with Georgia Tech or other mid-level schools, and were still losing out on those recruits to them.
After that 2002 season, he didn't even go shopping, instead passively sitting on his lazy rear, hoping that recruits would come to him, and pulling in the two worst rated classes in modern ND history, with Willingham bringing in *one* offensive lineman during those two years.
Out of the players in the 2004 class, there were a half dozen in that group that actually played meaningful minutes. Usually, you have closer to a whole dozen or more who actually contribute to the team in a significant way.
The class of 2005 would have been even worse if Weis hadn't snagged a wave of last second commits who did contribute meaningful minutes (Turkovich and Duncan became starting offensive linemen, McCarthy became a decent safety, Kuntz provided reasonable contribution at the DL, and DJ Hord would have been a good player if he didn't have that awful knee injury). The only players recruiting by Willingham who played meaningful minutes were David Bruton, Aasaph Schwap, and David Grimes.
Under Weis, we were finally recruiting talent that paved the way for the rebuilding process after Lionel Tyrone Willingham all but destroyed the program.
What’s really nice is when guys want to commit to become part of the class
And not having to scramble at the end