Do you follow college football recruiting?

Maybe you do, and maybe you don’t, but if you like college football at all, you should know this:

Recruiting makes its world go round.

The teams that rank high in recruiting win, and win often.

And you rank high in recruiting by collecting high school players that are ranked high with the same fervor that 90’s children collected Nirvana albums. (Simple, isn’t it?)

High school recruits are rated (from outside talent evaluators) on a star scale, 1-5 (low value to high value). 1 being a Ponderosa steak (low quality and cheap) , and 5 being a Peter Luger steak (high quality, only 2% of steak cuts are good enough to serve here).

Now, it is not an exact science, and some programs win with players on the lower end of the scale (TCU, Boise State). But, if you follow your team’s recruiting, there is usually a feeling of joy if your school gets a commitment from a 5-star-type player (the thought being a great high school player will turn into a great college player), and a feeling of confusion if your school gets a commitment from a 3-star-type player or lower (the thought being that he wasn’t one of the best high school players, but there is a chance he might develop into a good college player).

Brian Kelly, Notre Dame’s newest savior, doesn’t care about the star rankings. He will recruit who he thinks can help the program, not who others think can help the program, thank you very much.

I, on the other hand, have always felt more comfortable with getting a high number of the really highly regarded recruits (potential more likely to pan out). It is just playing the odds (Would you shoot 10 low risk, easier to make free throws for $50 a piece, or would you go for the harder to make, higher risk full court shot for a $1,000 pay out?).

College football writer (and heavy recruiting follower) Bruce Feldman takes my thoughts, and places them in a carefully padded package labeled fragile, puts the box in the middle of the street, and proceeds to run back and forth over the box until it is nothing but dust particles. His latest post shows that there are actually many 3-star-type players on just one NFL team, and not only that, but that they are also playing in the Super Bowl (quite a few Colts, indeed).

My first thought (a completely new thought, as all my old ones are dust on Main Street) is, “Wow, maybe I was wrong all along, and I should be fine with Brian Kelly recruiting anyone, no matter their star value.”

But, my second thought is, “Well, it’s true that the Colts are in the Super Bowl, but they would probably be a 5 win team without Peyton Manning (a 10-star recruit on the 5-star scale).”

Which thought should it be?

For those that have followed Notre Dame since the Lou Holtz era ended, the NFL Draft has always acted like a dose of sodium thiopental to our brains (never give this to Jack Bauer, unless you want to know how and when he is going to kill you after you cross him) as to why the Irish haven’t fared better on the gridiron.

The truth?

Not enough good players.

And especially not enough difference makers.

Since Lou stepped down following the ‘96 season, the Irish have produced a whopping (in case you can’t see it, “whopping” is supposed to contain a David Spade-level of sarcasm) four 1st round draft picks. (For comparison, the Thomas Jefferson High School For Science and Technology has produced more 1st round NFLers from their chess team in the same period.) Beside that, the Irish only added 12 more picks in the first 3 rounds of the draft during this time. (That kind of action is any given year for a Miami, Ohio State or USC.)

Can’t win like that. No sir, no way. I could go on and name some more teams like I did above, but the only thing that needs to be known is that the programs that win on Saturdays, have plenty of players that end up playing on Sundays.

The 2 coaches between Holtz and Weis couldn’t even figure that part out. No matter what was said about Charlie- at least he knew the Irish needed to get some difference makers.

And that is what he relentlessly tried to do. Through long hours studying film, and long West Coast recruiting trips-Weis gave it his all to upgrade the talent level.

As far as offensive skill talent goes, he did just that.

Mel Kiper has proved that with having both Jimmy Clausen and Golden Tate in his mock first round this year. (I realize this is only a mock draft, but even in that sense, having two ND skill players in the 1st round has been about as likely as a childhood star becoming a productive member of society. Gary Coleman? Corey Haim? Dana Plato?)

Following that, Michael Floyd and Kyle Rudolph will add to those numbers in the next few years.

So, in his short tenure, Charlie Weis will have equaled a ten year output of 1st round talent. (And his guys look to be far more impressive than the ones before-a few decent offensive lineman, and Brady Quinn.)

If the Irish are to win, BK is gonna have to realize what Charlie did, but get even better results (some defensive players would be a good start).

I love Notre Dame football.

Love, love, love it.

Like a Robin Hood “Prince Of Thieves” I’d die for you love. (Cue Bryan Adams’s “Everything I do (I Do It For You)” up, and that’s about how I feel).

But, I think Notre Dame fans can be a sad bunch. Like when they feel the need to recount history, and show that Notre Dame still has more national titles than anyone else is claiming (in the twentieth century).

Really? That is what being a Notre Dame fan has come down to? Comforting each other that the program is still the winningest because of what happened in 1946? (Again, the winningest in the twentieth century. Yale has the most in college football history, so Irish fans have to include only the time that matters-i.e. post 1900, because anything before that is just ridiculous. Right?)

Well, honestly, what happened in 1946 is about as relevant today as what happened in 1876. It bears no outcome on the state of the program right now (or its future), and we live right now. So, what good does looking back into the past for boasting measures do any fan who wants ND to win and be relevant now? It would sort of be like MGM Studios bragging about how great Ben-Hur was in an advertisement for today, while competitor Fox Studios is busy putting out Avatar. Given the choice between the two mindsets, I would be buying stock in Fox.

So what if Alabama counts more national titles than most of their fans have teeth? (Sorry, old stereotypes die hard.) Notre Dame fans wouldn’t feel the need to compare the past, and count up the titles of both programs if ND was on Alabama’s level right now. But, since the Irish aren’t even close, ND fans reach for any ammo that they can to put up a fight. And, having to resort to that means sad days are here, indeed.

So, who wants to got to Sears, and get a new transistor radio?