It was a big weekend for the Irish-securing 4 national recruits in just two days. I don’t recall too many times over the years where there has been this kind of rapid-fire success for an Irish coaching staff. Charlie Weis had some big Blue and Gold game spring weekends, securing 5-star guys like Jimmy Clausen in 2006, and 5-star DE Chris Martin (who would later renege) two years ago, and Brian Kelly himself started surprisingly well, nabbing studs Ben Koyack and Matthew Hegarty before spring evaluation period was over. But, to do something like this, earning pledges from a group of national recruits in a dead recruiting period (The initial excitement of the Kelly era is long gone, and will no longer sway recruits, while the season is a month away, so the on-field results aren’t there yet for the recruits to see momentum.), during his first year, is impressive.

If Kelly was a prize fighter, this weekend showed his mettle in the ring. He can “sting like a bee”, indeed. There were positives in every recruit that committed this weekend, which is something that Kelly still needs to show at this stage in his coaching career. While BK has won every step of the way, and has helped form a battle cry against those that think the Irish are dead (Brian Kelly is in town, he took Cincinnati to #3, and they tailgate in parking garages for crying out loud!), the fact is he needs to “up” his recruiting game. He needs to compete against Alabama, Florida, Ohio State, and USC for kids. Cute acronyms like “RKG” are worthless. (What the hell is an “RKG”? What the hell is a “TPS” report, for that matter? Nobody knows what these acronyms are supposed to mean.)

Notre Dame needs to recruit the nation’s best. Not a few of the nation’s best, like Weis did at the skill offensive positions, but an entire roster filled with speed and depth. The Irish need to go into the big name states (Florida, Texas, California, etc.), and walk away with some of their best players. If he can do this, the Irish will be back, you can write that down and stick it to your refrigerator.

Here are some quick notes on the verbals, all of which are further ammo that Brian Kelly can recruit like the Irish need him to.

Justice Hayes, RB. Speed, and elusiveness are the names of his game. His high school coach likes him as a better threat catching the ball out of the backfield than reigning Heisman-winner Mark Ingram. Michigan and Tennessee were after him, and he is a Rivals100 recruit.

Anthony Rabasa, DE. Big (6′3″ frame) and athletic, Rabasa hails from Florida, talent-rich Dade County, no less. (ND must keep recruiting that state well). The Florida big boys, and schools like LSU an Auburn were after him.

Jalen Brown, CB. I don’t know a lot about him, but the defensive-minded Bo Pelini was after him, and he is a Texas kid-a state where Notre Dame would really like to get a pipeline going.

Aaron Lynch, DE. A huge pick up. A 6′5″ frame with room to grow, he can be a terror off the edge. Another Florida boy, another Rivals100 guy, and his offer list is the cream of the crop in college football.

There is one story in sports that is consuming us all.

Where will Lebron James go?

The NBA’s biggest free agent ever, part of the NBA’s best free agent class ever, with repercussions that that could push the NBA toward a new stratosphere in the sporting world (behind only the behemoth that is the NFL). The NBA with stars in L.A, Boston, Miami, Dallas, and possibly New York/Chicago? Hello drawing power, fan interest, and a boatload of revenue.

With every sporting outlet reporting on this event for the month of June, it is near-impossible not to get sucked up into the story (hey, we all need some type of sports-fix in the boring summer months). I’ve been keeping up, and therefore saw an article penned by S.I.’s Ian Thomsen about the play New York is going to make for Lebron.

From Thomsen:

“By dividing its cap space equally among three elite recruits — another idea floated on behalf of Miami — the Knicks would pay starting base salaries of $11.5 million each to James, Johnson and the power forward. That amounts to a salary cut of $5.3 million per year compared to the max salary each player could receive from another market.

The Knicks will enhance the offer by pointing out the numerous off-court opportunities available to star athletes in the world’s largest media market, enabling the players to ultimately make more money in New York than each could on a max contract in other NBA cities.”

After reading this, I couldn’t help but compare it to a Notre Dame recruiting pitch.

The pitch is basically this:

Both of these teams offer something that none of their competitors can.

Fame and opportunities by playing in the world’s “largest media market.” For the Knicks, that is literal, New York is the largest media market in the world. For Notre Dame, it is more figurative, their broad national appeal makes them the most media-friendly team in college football. As Bobby Bowden commented on the appeal of the Irish to high schoolers (even as he has his own football power at Florida State), “If you can halfway play football, you can win the Heisman (at Notre Dame). I mean, all you gotta do is wear that shirt.”

It is a pitch that is oh, so appealing.

However, there are also drawbacks for these influential teams.

In the Knicks case, Lebron would not get the max salary he deserves, and the team’s overall depth would still be a question mark (most feel that winning a championship is high on Lebron’s priorities), and New York winters.

In Notre Dame’s case, you have the academic standards, weather, and that fact that kids from talent-rich states are staying closer to home, all swaying recruits to look elsewhere (and this is from a guy who used to think that Notre Dame had less negatives that any other school).

So, in summation, each team can offer an opportunity that nobody else could. Not the Lakers in the NBA, not USC, Florida, or Alabama in college football.

They also have negatives that the aforementioned opportunity might not be enough to overcome.

We’ll know real soon how the pitch plays out for the Knicks.

For Notre Dame? We’ll have to wait to see what the Brian Kelly era brings.

I thought prep-star quarterback Bubba Starling was going to be Brian Kelly’s first big-name quarterback recruit. His hand-picked, face-of-the-program, on-field general to carry out his orders, and lead the Irish back to the land of the elite. His Tim Tebow.

Oh, and what a fit it would have been! A top 100 quarterback talent, together with an offensive guru coach whose teams score with the abandon of Wilt Chamberlain (and I mean off the court). A match made in heaven.

However, Bubba decided to go his own way, and signed with Nebraska instead. I’m sure it felt like the right decision to him, but he said no to playing in a Brian Kelly offense, so he could play for a defensive- minded coach (Bo Pelini), who would prefer to see a quarterback taken off the field in a stretcher rather than one throwing a touchdown pass. (In fact, Nebraska was more likely to score a touchdown when their defense was on the field last year. Defensive lineman Ndamukong Suh caught more passes than Nebraska’s wideouts did.)

Bubba made a bad choice. Really bad.

We’re talking bad along these lines:

-Like legendary San Diego anchorman Ron Burgundy substituting milk for Gatorade while traversing by foot on a hot day.

-Like BP’s decision to “keep drilling.”

-Ditto to Magic Johnson back in the day.

-Like Rod Stewart’s daughter’s decision to ride a motorcycle.

-Like going against the Dread Pirate Roberts in a “battle of wits“.

-Like IBM not realizing they should probably purchase that pesky little software that would become known as an “operating system”.

Why would you do that, Bubba?