Much of the Irish class of 2006 recruited by Bob Davie
By: ANDREW SOUKUP
Associate Sports Editor
In the middle of December, wide receiver Maurice Stovall had a better chance of walking on Mars than attending Notre Dame.
Who could blame him? In just two short weeks, Notre Dame fired Bob Davie, and George O'Leary resigned in disgrace, leaving the Irish football office in shambles. Stovall dropped Notre Dame to fifth on his list of five schools.
Then Tyrone Willingham arrived. And everything changed.
Willingham's straightforward personality and his commitment to a pro-style offense were enough to convince the Pennsylvania high school standout to cause him to reconsider and eventually declare his intent to play for Notre Dame.
"It was hard for me to believe they got him, especially with everything that was going on with their coaching situation." recruiting analyst Max Emfinger said. "He's a big, big commitment."
But while Willingham was able to secure late commitments from blue-chip recruits like Stovall, Davie established the foundation of this recruiting class.
In fact, it's hard to say how Willingham affected Notre Dame's recruiting, and it's even harder to describe his recruiting style. Most of his time spent in the month since he was named head coach revolved around him trying to convince players who committed to Davie that they would still be able to play under Willingham.
"Most of the class is Davie's because Davie was recruiting for months," recruiting analyst Allen Wallace said. "Ty Willingham hasn't had very much time to come in. Ty was able to switch over to a lot of recruits that he couldn't go after at Stanford. It's been a big change of pace for him."
While Willingham's coaching staff can be credited with securing the commitments of several top recruits like Stovall and Travis Leitko, Davie's staff laid most of the groundwork for the current class of recruits.
Before the 2001 season even began, Notre Dame already had an unprecedented 12 commitments. By comparison, in 2000, Notre Dame only had three commitments before the season began.
It appeared as if the Irish were well on their way to landing a top-ranked recruiting class.
But when Davie was fired Dec. 2, the recruiting was put on hold until Willingham was hired Jan. 1. During that time, many of the assistant coaches and administrators remained in contact with recruits to maintain stability.
"I think it was extremely important to have that group of already committed young men in place," Willingham said. "But I think it also made it very difficult because you had a group of young men associated with one personality and one group of coaches, and now you were kind of breaking those ties. I think to kind of reunite or rebound that group was an important element."
Willingham wasn't able to keep every player. Linebacker Jeremy Van Alstyne switched from Notre Dame to Michigan when he reportedly wasn't contacted by Willingham. And wide receiver Josh Hannum dropped Notre Dame in favor of Penn State because he said he felt more comfortable with the Nittany Lions' players.
But the fact that Willingham couldn't keep all of Davie's commitments nor land top prospect Lorenzo Booker isn't necessarily a bad thing. In fact, most recruiting analysts believe Willingham's ability to recruit at Notre Dame can only be evaluated next year, not this year.
"[The new staff] is going to have bring in an aggressive style of recruiting," recruiting analyst Tom Lemming said. "A hard working style, but we won't know until next year how well it works."
"I think he did a marvelous job recruiting at Stanford," Emfinger said. "I think he got a lot of players at Stanford who were good academic players who weren't as good on the field. I think he's an excellent coach, and I think at Notre Dame he will do a great job."
All Sports Stories for Thursday, February 7, 2002
