We can finally stop writing and hearing about this.

Meyer turned back to the golfers and said, “I’m not going to Notre Dame. Ever. I’m going to be the coach at Florida for a long time, as long as they want me.”

Thank you, Coach.

To help fill one of the few remaining positions of need — Defensive Tackle — Omar Hunter from Buford, Georgia has verbally committed to play for the Florida Gators in 2008. Omar is a 5-star recruit and ranked the #2 defensive tackle in the nation on both Rivals.com (Updated) and Scout.com, a 4-star and #4 defensive tackle in the nation on rivals.com and ESPN.com has him as the 37th-ranked player in their overall ESPN Top 150 and the #2 defensive tackle in the country. Omar is a 6′1″, 300lb playmaker who has been described anywhere from disruptive to dominant. There has been talk that he might move up to the #1 DT on the ESPN list in its next update.

What really spices up the Hunter saga is his previous commitment to NBC’s own beloved University of Notre Dame. That’s right, Hunter was not only one of the best defensive linemen in the country, but he was going to play for the Irish. This meant a huge spotlight and lots of steamy man-love from Notre Dame homer/recruiting analyst Tom Lemming. For those who don’t know, Tom Lemming has such a history of Notre Dame bias that saying he favors the Irish is sort of like stating Jack Nicholson favors the Los Angeles Lakers. This is a man who Myron Rolle accused of trying to steer him to Notre Dame and told him to keep Notre Dame in his top three if he wanted to have a chance at being MVP of the All-American game and getting interviewed by NBC.

Hunter was expected to commit to his childhood favorite Michigan Wolverines before a trip to South Bend changed his mind and he threw his lot in with Charlie Weis. Coach Grimace . . . errrr . . . Weis has been burned by recruits in the past. Last year the Fightin Tranquil Irish lost their top defensive end, Justin Trattou of New Jersey, to the Gators late in the process. They lost several recruits in all which gave way to the new “you shop, we drop” strategy (similar to but more militant than the “you shop, we shop” attitude by such coaches as Nick Saban and Mack Brown).

A great analysis of the kind of hypocrisy shown by Coach Weis and his staff is explored more fully at Get the Picture. Some of Blutarsky’s summary highlights include:

1. If you’re a recruit who’s committed to Notre Dame and you want to look around to make sure you’ve made the most informed decision about where to spend the next four years of your life, you’re dead to Charlie Weis.

2. If you’re a recruit who’s committed to another school and you want to look around to make sure you’ve made the most informed decision about where to spend the next four years of your life and one of the places you want to explore is Notre Dame, Charlie Weis would be happy to talk with you.

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Sunday, September 16

Dear Diary,

It happened again today. I had to watch my beloved Irish demolished in front of a national television audience. And to Michigan for Chrissakes. Michigan is so bad this year that they lost to Appalachian State… a school so bad they don’t even know where they are located. They are in North Carolina, there is no state of Appalachia. I wonder if they are some sect of those hillbilly militia boys who decided to create their own school or something. Hillbillies make me think of pancakes, I’m getting hungry now. But I digress, it’s so hard to concentrate these days.

Jimmy played QB again or at least he was supposed to. I have no idea what the hell he was really doing out there. I thought he had been groomed by one of the top High School programs in the country on the basics of playing quarterback but it looks more like he was trained by X-Box NCAA Football 2000. The sad part is he did improve from his first game. Against Tech he looked like he was playing that Coleco football where all you can do is run side to side and try to avoid the defensive dot coming at you. Thank God we weren’t at home this week, I don’t know if we’d have been able to hear our play calls through all the booing. (more…)

Part Two of our continuing series on Urban Meyer and Charlie Weis and their impact on their respective teams.  For a history and explanation of the scoring and categories click here –> Meyer vs. Weis Part I

Criteria 3:  Did the team improve in specific categories (offense, defense, special teams)?

In Weis’s first year Notre Dame did improve in several categories.  Despite their overall perception of having a porous defense, their passing defense and first downs allowed did improve from the previous season.  The rushing defense declined and the team allowed 11 more rushing TDs than the year before which counteracted the reduced number of TDs allowed through the air.  Punt returns improved slightly and scored 2 more TDs than the year before while kickoffs remained the same.  The punting statistics were similar however ND had nearly twice as many punts in 04 than in 05. (more…)

Two coaches took over elite football programs following the 2004 football season.  Although Florida and Notre Dame are not age old rivals, are in different regions of the country and are not matched up in bowls with any frequency . . . the recent past of these two schools have become strongly intertwined and the comparisons obvious.  It began when both schools attempted to woo Urban Meyer from Utah.  Meyer had strong ties to Notre Dame having coached there as an assistant under two different Irish head coaches.
 
After Meyer accepted the job at the University of Florida, Notre Dame turned the reigns over of their football program to New England Patriots offensive coordinator Charlie Weis.  Weis, a Belichek and Parcells disciple, brought his pro style offense to the Irish and turned a mediocre team into an offensive juggernaut which immediately propelled the Irish into a perpetual top 10 ranking.  Meyer took his spread option attack to Gainesville and, although the offensive results have been disappointing, restored a program to national and SEC prominence.
 
Its only natural to compare these two men and their accomplishments in the past two years. 

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