I've got to say, Weis is hitting on all cylinders right now. Using the college football hall of fame was a masterstroke. It was like a quasi-heisman ceremony seeing JC step to the podium with portraits of College Football's greats behind him. Then, with all the cameras flashing, the crowd roar, the limo... ..they put on quite a show and I think that, the glamour, will be what puts ND on the minds of blue-chippers. exciting s#!t.
Tom | Email | Homepage | 04.24.06 - 12:00 pm | #

Seriously, what the f*** happened over the last 15 months? Thank God for Weis.
Brad | Email | Homepage | 04.24.06 - 3:41 pm | #

Who's next? :)
preetom | Email | Homepage | 04.24.06 - 4:38 pm | #

Feels good here in Lexington, KY to be on the other end of the Clausen comment.

"Yeah, this is a business decision," Clausen said. "My two older brothers did this, and their dreams were to get to the NFL, and their dreams pretty much got shattered."

We all know Casey Clausen went to Tennessee. We all know that David Cutcliffe (he of the I was Peyton's OC) fame was long gone.

We all know Randy Sanders stepped into the OC role at Tennessee with Clausen.

Like Jimmy says above, his brothers dream pretty much got crushed.

What not everyone knows is that Randy Sanders is back in the coaching QB's game...here in Lexington, KY for UK.

I feel so good about the Wildcats and our future recruiting hopes, now.

Ugh.
heath | Email | Homepage | 04.24.06 - 4:47 pm | #

Great he's coming, but all the showboating about his decision makes one nervous.
R. Lawrence | Email | Homepage | 04.24.06 - 5:53 pm | #

Everyone choosing a college is (or should be) making a business decision. Everyone is (or should be) thinking about entering the professional world with the best education they can get from an institution with the best credentials. The guy who choses Harvard to get an MBA...that is a business decision.

I like Clausen. He's shrewd, and realizes you can learn as much from failure (such as his brothers' NFL aspirations) as from success.
Joe | Email | Homepage | 04.24.06 - 5:55 pm | #

Interesting that it's a business decision, yet the first words out of his mouth were to thank Jesus Christ, his personal savior.
JerDandy | Email | Homepage | 04.24.06 - 6:10 pm | #

the clausen as pied piper line got me thinking... what if this kid's an asshole? young said he committed because all the nd guys at the army all-american game were so close already. but i've heard nothing about whether other recruits would WANT to play with clausen, just that he's, like, wicked awesome at throwing the ball. does anyone have the temperature of what kind of kid he is?
tjf | Email | Homepage | 04.24.06 - 6:12 pm | #

Supposedly, he has that star QB charisma thing about him and that he does have other recruits interested in having him toss them/hand them the ball in college. Whether that's because they think he's the best fit to make them look good and get in the NFL or because he's genuinely likeable, I don't know.

I DO think that Charlie must think the kid is all right or he wouldn't have played this up quite as much. He's got to be banking on using Clausen to beat recruits over the head during the periods when he and the other coaches can't.
JohnWA | Email | Homepage | 04.24.06 - 6:20 pm | #

I was a little put off by the way the announcement was done. I think the COF is a tad over the top for a kid who has not taken a college snap in anger. Perhaps this will be the high water mark of these over the top press conferences and hat deals in general.

I am glad we got Clausen, and presumably he will be the only QB in the class. However, there is no guarantee he will be the successor to Quinn. I think Frazer and Jones will have something to say about it, and Sharpley can't be completely ignored.

I was not put off by any of his verbal comments or that sort of thing. If you are not aiming to be the ebst at what you do, you are not aiming high enough. Nobody strives, or should stive, for mediocrity.
Andy | Email | Homepage | 04.24.06 - 7:46 pm | #

Does anyone think that Jones could play WR? He has the side and athletic ability. Also Fraser will always be a backup unless he transfers because JC will start from day 1.
Matt | Email | Homepage | 04.24.06 - 8:39 pm | #

JC will start if he's the best, Matt. Remember that both Fraser and Jones were top QB's coming in this year, and while JC's busy rolling over inferior competition in his tiny private school league, they'll be working a year in CW's system learning the playbook and getting stronger, faster, and smarter.

I'm not saying that JC won't start right away, but it's far from a given. Everyone needs to ease up on the kool-aid a bit on this one. The best news isn't actually him, it's the strength of ND recruiting to get him.
Oda Saburo Nobunaga | Email | Homepage | 04.24.06 - 9:57 pm | #

tjf and Andy must be thinking. "Hum, Jeff George?"
Yago | Email | Homepage | 04.24.06 - 10:43 pm | #

Got to agree with Oda .. long way to go before JC ever takes a snap. Who can forget that flashy pc a few years ago, when Lo Booker dissed us and picked up a 'Nole cap .. at the time, he was pre-ordained as the greatest RB ever. He's had a decent career ..let's hope JC doesn't follow it too closely, though. ND's re-emergence as a recruiting powerhouse is what's worth getting excited about...and between the two, Mr. Young has said it better.
Bill | Email | Homepage | 04.25.06 - 2:28 am | #

hey guys lets not forget that the two things that win championships are offensive lines, and defense.
controlling the line of scrimmage is imperative and if you cant do that then fuggetaboutit. lets focus on marvin austin and joseph barksdale right now.
john | Email | Homepage | 04.25.06 - 12:25 pm | #

john...why in God's name would anybody at ND be the slightest bit concerned about the state of the O-line??? Look at the behemoths that this class brought in! There's no reason to have anything but complete faith in CW's ability to land O-line studs.

And please, people say D wins championships in every sport, just like pitching does in baseball. Neither side of the squad wins championships...TEAMS do. Does anybody honestly think that a spectacular offense with a "pretty good" D can't win a championship?
Anonymous | Email | Homepage | 04.25.06 - 2:50 pm | #

Sorry Anon. Defenses win. Name the last championship team with an outstanding offense and an adequate to poor defense.

I can name plenty of average offensive teams that have won with outstanding defenses: Alabama, ND in 1988...

You can say that Texas won with an outstanding offense. But rewind the game. Texas defense was better than USCs. USC couldn't stop us either.

The better defense wins unless their offense is completely useless. See Tennessee 2005.
Yago | Email | Homepage | 04.25.06 - 3:58 pm | #

...or just look at any Tennessee offense since Cutcliff left.
Brad | Email | Homepage | 04.25.06 - 7:00 pm | #

How awesome would this kid have looked if drove up to the press conference with his parents in a normal rental car and said, "Notre Dame. It's the best place for me," and left it at that?

I'm down with allowing a certain amount of expressive freedom, but that prediction and all the posturing was unnecessary. Before he started talking smack about four national championships, he probably should have looked at the roster for his freshman year. The upper classes suck, which is hardly an ideal situation for a guy who hasn't played with kids his age since 6th grade.

The two things I love about this situation:
1. Powlus is there to tell him the hype machine is an implement of destruction.
2. If he doesn't pan out as the best QB, Weis will not start him. This is not Chris Simms at Texas. I have no doubt that Fraser and Jones are doing some extra reps as we speak.
Hal | Email | Homepage | 04.25.06 - 9:44 pm | #

Yeah, the limo and the CFHoF were way over the top. But I think too much is being made about the fact that it was a "Hummer" limo and not some regular limo. (Not necessarily here, but on other boards). Let's not forget that South Bend is the home of AM General, which makes Hummers, and therefore it's a natural choice to go with.

Also--can somebody PLEASE get this kid a haircut and take away the styling gel?
Oda Saburo Nobunaga | Email | Homepage | 04.25.06 - 10:07 pm | #

Hal, Clausen is a year older than his classmates, but I think it's stretching it a bit to say he's never played with kids his own age since the 6th grade. Football isn't broken down by grade. When he was a sophomore he was probably the same age as the juniors on the team and younger than the seniors. And last year he was as old as seniors on his and the opponents team.

People claim that his age is an advantage and his success can be in some way linked to it. But he's yet to play in a season where he was older than everyone else. As a sophomore he was the same age or younger than probably 80% of the kids playing while last year he was the age of an average senior. If there really is an advantage for being older than the rest of the kids he faces, it hasn't happened yet. This fall will be the first time he's reall older than the rest of the kids he faces. And to be honest, most of the advantages of being older in high school are an extra year for body maturity and weight training. Does Clausen look like he's bigger and stronger than most high school kids to you?
Pat | Email | Homepage | 04.26.06 - 8:59 am | #

OSN,
Dude, he's like a Cali kid, cut him some slack..
Domer95 | Email | Homepage | 04.26.06 - 11:09 am | #

Yeah, don't worry. The miserable Midwest winter weather will drown all that sunshine, smile, and bleach-blonde hair right out of him. He'll be a skulking, frigid, pessimistic QB hero in no time!
Brad | Email | Homepage | 04.26.06 - 11:45 am | #

The rings and the national titles talk were over the top, but let's remember that the kid is a high school junior. What sort of sense did any of us have when we were juniors in high school? It would have been nice to have things toned down a bit.
Mike | Email | Homepage | 04.26.06 - 1:11 pm | #

Was Chris Simms a first round draft choice? Is he starting in the NFL now? If you ask me, that's not too bad.
JR | Email | Homepage | 04.26.06 - 1:12 pm | #

Yeah, as an ND alum living here in Tennessee, my excitement over this Clausen commitment is tempered somewhat by the phrase they use around here still ringing in my ears:

"Three words no UT fan ever wants to here: Clausen under center."
k-dogg | Email | Homepage | 04.26.06 - 8:19 pm | #

Pat,

I'd read in several places that Clausen was held back two grades -- once in K and once in 6th -- by his parents. You sound like you've got more detail than I, so for the misleading post, I apologize.

Mike,

Good point on the junior in high school stuff. But this guy's got people ADVISING him. Specifically, his dad, who has some experience with this stuff by now, and a PR dude. I guess the thing we should be talking about is how it's getting impossible for a junior in HS to have a normal sized head.

But then, here we are, spending valuable brain cells talking about said junior in HS. Pot to kettle: You're black!

JR,

It's true Chris Simms is a good NFL QB, and it's true he was a very good college QB. But Clausen's brashness is ratcheting up the scrutiny in an, I feel, unproductive way. It's a fine line between good and great, and I believe the crazed scrutiny of Simms was one thing that kept him from greatness.
Hal | Email | Homepage | 04.27.06 - 5:22 pm | #

If recruits aren't believing and talking about trying to win National titles, I think he said "hope" or "try" not "guarantee", then maybe they shouldn't come. That is what we're about, right?

As far as Clausen's announcement, he had to do it somewhere and couldn't do it on campus. Why not the CFHoF? For the last 8 years we have all bemoaned not getting the kid who had the big press conference on ESPN. Now we get one and we want to give/take style points and pick on a 17 year olds hair style. Seriously, I had a semi-mullet at 17. Not a fond memory but it happened.

The kid is coming. He is obviously in love with Coach Weis and wants to bring as many top recruits with him as possible. He may have a small attitude or elevated opinion of himself but my ego would be huge if SI was writing articles about me in 8th grade too. We are in good hands with Coach Weis and staff. Take a deep breath and smile for a minute.
SeanH | Email | Homepage | 04.28.06 - 7:56 am | #

Oh and on Simms: Gruden said he wasn't coached in college. Watch him get even better next year.
SeanH | Email | Homepage | 04.28.06 - 7:58 am | #

CHoF is a great venue to use for announcing commitments because nobody else can reasonably use it. Sure, Carroll or Carr can send a player down and have them announce there, but that's not gonna happen for the obvious reasons. So, while everybody else announces their intentions in lame high school gyms or whatever, our guys do it at the CHoF. It's brilliant, really. Say what you want about the state of recruiting but, it is what it is. We can sit back, bemoan it and watch the kids that make their decisions based on these sorts of things go elsewhere OR ELSE we can play that game too and raise our national recruiting profile. That's what's important here. Keeping ND recruiting on the map. A hummer doesn't bother me; ESPN profiles don't bother me; taking advantage of something unique like the CHoF (which, to me, comes off like a Heisman-esque atmosphere, only for a high schooler) definitely doesn't bother me.
Tom | Email | Homepage | 04.28.06 - 10:48 am | #

I used to have a stodgier mindset about the creeping brashness of football. Over time, though, I realized that football IS a game of excitement, and the goal IS to dominate the competition. The proverbial line of acceptable behavior can't be between stoicism (asceticism, monasticism, whatever) and excitement!! The line HAS to be between zealous competition and humiliation (unfair competition). This is why we hate taunting. Did Clausen do anything to taunt his future competition? No. In fact, he tipped his cap to the other coaches that recruited him and wished them well. I think he did a fine job.

To keep our eyes on the prize, though, I have to report that in my work environment, the Ohio State and Michigan fans are going absolutely bananas!! Everyone is tripping all over themselves in an effort to bust on Clausen and predict his inevitable failure. Of course, they're missing the point entirely. The point is NOT that Jimmy Clausen is the Messiah -- the point is that we are once again able to lure the top players at their positions to South Bend. Secretly, they know that, and it's driving them crazy!!!
Fitzwater | Email | Homepage | 04.28.06 - 4:43 pm | #

If Mark Sanchez ever beats the sexual assault charges he's currently facing (a right of passage for U.S.C. football players), his quarterback duel with J.C. should be interesting with two #1 recruits going head-to-head.

Can't wait for one side of N.D.'s stadium to yell, "Jordan", with the other bellowing, "Uttal" whenver Sanchez has the ball.

Jordan Traver Uttal was the name on Sanchez' fake Utah driver's license he used to go clubbing the night before he was arrested. Did that come in the freshman orientation packet?!
Andy | Email | Homepage | 04.29.06 - 12:09 pm | #

What SeanH said. Really guys do we want the sentimental players or the great players? Read the SI article that is linked to and you won't get any cockiness from it. At his announcement he seemed shy, imo, not cocky.
damien | Email | Homepage | 05.20.06 - 1:00 pm | #

http://aliunion.cn.yahoo.com/pub...ersvc/ login.htm
new1000y | Email | Homepage | 08.23.06 - 11:41 pm | #