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Donald was a five-star linebacker from Tennessee. His tape - which was back when I would follow recruiting - might have been the best HS tape I have ever seen. He looked like a combination of Derrick Brooks and Junior Seau. Manti Teo's high school highlights were not in the same ballpark. If there was anyone I would have guessed would be a sure thing, it would be him. He was rumored to be a silent commit to ND who flipped after our disastrous Sugar Bowl showing against LSU in 2007. He ended up becoming a Volunteer.

He was third string for two seasons before transferring to UT-Chattanooga. He would then disappear off the map. Some guys just do not pan out. No matter how good they look in HS.

Chris Donald was easily one of the best LB / WDE coming out of high school. He looked like he had all of the physical attributes, and a killer instinct for finding the ball. You weren't exaggerating with those comparisons, that I'd even argue that he looked like the second coming of Mike Stonebreaker when it came to those amazing instincts.

For him to drop off the face of the earth, makes me wonder what went wrong.

For that matter, the fact that the only winning season with Tennessee's amazing class of 2007 came in 2009, when they went 7-6, shows how bad the management must have been.


On another note, that was the year of our losing a lot of silent and verbal commits. At the time, Charlie Weis had made the mistake of taking them at their word when they were looking around, and not finding replacements.

Chris Donald - went to Tennessee
Martez Wilson - went to Illinois
Aurellius Benn - went to Illinois
Justin Trattou - went to Florida
Greg Little - went to UNC
Chris Little - went to FSU

I think there were one or two more that I can't quite remember.

the production never matches.

Just continue to make up excuses.

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I think that had he played his full junior and senior years, he would have been a much better quarterback in college.

It takes real time experience to be able to read receiver routes, receivers breaking open, etc., on the fly, and also to be able to make pass protection audibles. When you're still in high school, that junior year is critical in terms of development, so that you can really shine as a senior.

When you have 2 years of inactivity, your brain is going to need a lot of time to catch up, and trying to grasp the overly complex Brian Kelly offensive playbook in its entirety is too much.

That's like taking some kid who had Algebra I, didn't take any more math classes, and then got dumped into an AP Calculus class. He may be able to handle some of the basic work in Calc, but there's no way he's going to be able to do trig or differentials on the fly until he learns a lot more.

That's why he rarely threw the ball in 2021, despite playing significant minutes as a true freshman. There's no way he could handle a quick strike, multiple read passing play that was the bread and butter of the offense that year. If Jack Coan had gone down, we wouldn't have broken double digits when it came to wins.

He still wasn't ready in 2022, and losing almost all of that year set him back again. The Gator Bowl should have been a blowout win for us, but all of those pick 6's kept SC in the game.

It didn't help that Tommy Rees was his QB coach and OC as well throughout 2021-2023. If Rees were a competent QB coach, then why didn't the Browns at least let him be a helper to Bill Musgrave?

I like and respect the man (Mr. Buchner). He's a tough, unselfish guy who came back to ND on his own volition, even though he could have stayed at Alabama, and he's willing to do whatever he can to help the team.

I'm proud to call him a fellow Golden Domer.

At the same time, though, it's pretty easy to see that due to the bad circumstances surrounding his high school and college careers, he will never be a top notch QB at this level.

Fron unorthodox but effective, to total dog shit.

I love the kid, but your claim is false.

He rarely threw the ball in HS games, drop back one read and take off running , poor Rees scouting

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