His name is Wayne Lyons. (Read the Andy Staples article.)

He is an Ed Reed-like safety at a Florida prep school (sure-to-be 5-star recruit).

He is also a Will Hunting in the classroom (5.0 GPA, sure-to-be valedictorian).

This combination of talent and smarts, and hard work are the epitome of human greatness.

Guess what? That kind of combination just doesn’t happen every day. Most people only have the time and talent to be great in on area. For example if you’re twelve, and can throw an 80mph fastball, the chances are that your caretakers are going to work cultivating that skill at the expense of others. Covalent bonds in chemistry can wait, Johnny has to work on his slider. I’m not saying it’s right or wrong, just the way it is. Johnny’s own energy would be focused mostly on his athletic skill, leaving little for his mental development. (Vice Versa example, Bill Gates was way too busy taking computers apart to work on his cross-over dribble much.)

In fact, this combination happens so rarely, that I’m quite sure institutions of higher learning would love to see what he is made of, and then proceed on to the cloning process. Hell, the powers that be at Notre Dame might even take that whole cloning idea to the Vatican for reconsideration to get a group of guys like this. (Hyperbole folks, just hyperbole). To be able to get a guy that could play in the NFL, but could just as likely become a heart surgeon is any university president’s wet dream. Are you kidding me? 5-star talent without the baggage of mental ineptitude of guys that like to claw out their opponent’s eye, or rob convenience stores with their school’s gear on? Sign them up.

Wayne Lyons is so rare he can bat 1.000. Perfect. That is, with his resume, he can apply to 50 schools, and get 50 scholarship offers (per the Staples’ article). Nobody bats 1.000. Not Babe Ruth. Not Elvis. Not the president of the United States. (My dad told me this long ago when I struck out with a beautiful girl. Okay, okay, she wasn’t beautiful, she was slightly above average. Like a 6, and I still struck out.)

I bring this rare case up because of Notre Dame’s desires to enroll students who excel in both the classroom, and on the field. Notre Dame demands excellence. In everything.

The problem is, while that sounds good and everything, real-life examples much harder to find (Note my explanation from the beginning of this post.). That’s why I say (only half-jokingly) that these schools would want to clone Wayne Lyons. How many people can you name that are excellent mentally and physically? Myron Rolle is a name that comes to mind (Rhodes Scholar). Peyton Manning could run for office. I could see Grant Hill owning a Fortune 500 company. Other than that, there’s probably not a lot of guys in professional leagues that you would want working on your retirement plan.

The nature of excelling in different areas is what makes things difficult for Notre Dame. Does the school hope to find a ton of Wayne Lyons’s and Myron Rolle’s (not likely). Do they accept that the best athletes will often take the easy road, just honing their athletic talents, and not bother competing with the USC’s? Or do they quietly loosen a few academic restrictions to compete?

I don’t know the answer, but I do believe that Notre Dame must find an answer. And the answer can’t be cloning Wayne Lyons.

Paul Hornung, ND’ original “golden boy”, is the namesake for college football’s newest honor: “most versatile player”. What does than mean? Well, to give you a proper picture, the Paul Hornung Award would have gone to either C.J. Spiller, or ND’s own Golden Tate if it were awarded this year (a player that can help their team the most in a large variety of ways).

Hornung is one of college football’s all-time greats (think the original Rocket Ismail, plus he could throw, and play defense), the only player special enough to win the Heisman on a losing team, so his name belongs right up there with the Biletnikoffs and Nagurskis.

However, he might have even more fame for the statement “ND must lower admissions to get the black athlete and win”. Technically, he may be right on lowering admissions, he just made the mistake of using the qualifying term “black”. (That’s what we call racial profiling.)

So, occasionally in his honor, the Blarney will bring you Hornung’s Words Of Wisdom, or technically true statements that are worded wrong, and perhaps show some prejudice or some kind of political incorrectness.

Paul Hornung’s Words of Wisdom For 5-20-10:

“Talent is nice, but that is only one piece of the puzzle. You need talent plus hard work to get results. Brian Kelly insinuated this was a problem for Notre Dame when he was hired, noting that players (because of Weis’s NFL pitch) had “a sense of entitlement”. Entitlement, but not enough hard work. It reminds me of another wise saying in regards to finding the right woman, “If you want to be happy for the rest of your life, never make a pretty woman your wife, so from my personal point of view, get an ugly girl to marry you.” The thought is, that much like the entitled Notre Dame players, pretty girls won’t work to make you happy.”

Certain college football programs are “pipelines” straight to the NFL. Following the 80/20 rule, 80% of NFL players probably come from 20% of FBS schools. Going further, a large portion of that 80% can be attributed to 10 or fewer schools.

You know the names of these institutions. They have the best players. They have history. They win (a lot) consistently. They have national championships. They have legendary coaches. They have magic moments.

Notre Dame.
USC.
Miami.
Alabama.
Florida State.
Ohio State.
Penn State.
Michigan.
Tennessee.
Florida.

Based on a survey, ESPN conducted a hypothetical tournament recently, having these pipeline schools go “head to head”, based on merits such as: total players in the NFL, Pro Bowl Appearances, MVP’s (or other major award winner), etc.

All in all, the tournament plays out interestingly, with Miami “topping” Southern Cal in a closely contested match. (Miami waxed ND in round 2.) The NFL success of these programs can’t be argued.

What’s disappointing is where ND is at this moment (current NFL numbers don’t lie). Yeah, (according to the survey), the Irish are a top 10 pipeline, but that is a diminishing status, with much of that ranking due to the success of players already done with their NFL careers. The top two schools (Miami, and USC), are no doubt at the top because they are still churning out players due to being relevant (and winning championships) in college football’s most recent decade.

Notre Dame does not have that type of momentum. In fact, they are far from it. I don’t know the numbers, but I believe Notre Dame put more players in the NFL than any other school during his time (Penn State being a distant second). Not coincidentally, Notre Dame was in the running for 3 national championships during the same era.

How about after that? Nothing. (Name one Irish player making an impact in the NFL right now. I dare you.) Notre Dame just has not been able to recruit the same caliber of player that Lou once did (though Weis did his job for the skill offensive positions in that regard, which means the Irish could start making a mark in the NFL once again), and that’s why the program is where it is.

Brian Kelly can talk about lack of focus, lack of discipline, lack of toughness, and selfishness issues as reasons Notre Dame has faltered. He would be partially right. however, the biggest reason is that the Irish haven’t been getting the type of talent that they did twenty years ago under Lou Holtz.

That’s what Brian Kelly needs to change most of all.