(Notre Dame is) keeping him warm. Chances are good they're not going to go after him. |
[Barnett's] got nine lives, but I think he's used up eight of them. Right now, it's a dead issue, but if something else brings it back into the public eye, one more thing could really screw up Barnett. |
A lot of quarterbacks commit to a college and fall into a system rather than choosing a college that will develop their talent. |
All of a sudden, a kid shows up and sneaks into the picture without a jersey on. I didn't know who he was. Later, he introduced himself. He was on an unofficial trip to Iowa with his father. He was just trying to make people aware of him. |
Any time you have a small senior class, you feel it. There are leadership issues. But the real challenge is that team is going to be lacking in depth, rather mature depth, guys with experience. The plus side is that the guys coming in will be much better athletes, and Charlie's not afraid to throw a young guy into the fire. |
But you watch him on film and they may have made a mistake. He's got a lot of people offering him. You get him, redshirt him a year and let him get into Iowa's weight program -- which is probably the best in the country -- and let him take off. |
by getting high-profile kids out of their normal areas. |
Charlie also has an advantage when he's talking to kids, because he's won Super Bowls with his offense. Not every pro coach who comes into the colleges can say that. Now Pete Carroll surrounded himself with great recruiters and he's a great recruiter himself. His pitch was that he could get his recruits to the pros, and he's delivered. USC is not that easy of a place to recruit -- the facilities are below average, the stadium's below average, the neighborhood's below average, but he's made it look easy. |
Clausen is in a class with the best quarterbacks I have seen in 27 years -- with Jeff George, John Elway and Dan Marino. He is the best I've seen since [Florida's] Chris Leak three years ago. |
Eddie is very quick, strong and explosive, and it's a teeth-jarring impact when he hits a ball carrier. He moves exceptionally well laterally, and when you watch Eddie pass rush, he's adept at the swim move, gets good leverage and has a closing burst like nobody's business. |
Every year kids get mad. It's just not in front of the Knight Commission. |
Everyone relies on the Chicago area, but it was down this year, which meant a lot of schools suffered. At least 30 offensive linemen had the size to play Division I. But they had bad senior years. Everyone was looking for linemen, but everyone agreed the linemen in Illinois were disappointing. |
Florida has always been a sleeping giant. Being in Florida they have a big advantage. This year they took Miami and Florida State to the woodshed. Meyer has put together a great staff. |
For schools like Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, (and other) schools that recruit the Midwest, it's a bad year, ... If you look at the state of Iowa, there's not one real blue-chipper. |
He has the best hands of any back I've seen in the country. He catches everything. |