(The Rock Report) – Notre Dame hasn’t been this hot with recruits since Lou and Vinnie ran the show in the late 80s and early 90s.

Putting aside the on the field performance over the last two years and looking at the overall direction of the Notre Dame program, it hasn’t been this healthy a “program” since Lou left.

No one’s going to defend the coaching over the last two years. We were a game over .500 this year against a relatively easy schedule [edited] and averaged just 22 points a game. Our offensive line run blocks like weather vanes. As one program follower told me, it’s not a zone blocking issue, it’s that Charlie doesn’t have an aggressive running scheme and we don’t teach aggressive blocking techniques. When your offensive line is as bad as Notre Dame’s has been the last three years, you’ve got a problem, but a fixable one and Notre Dame is probably going to replace Latina this year.

But stepping back and looking at the flood of young talent coming into South Bend, it’s clear the program is on a sharp upward talent trajectory. Since Malloy left, Notre Dame has made structural changes to be able to compete. See the bottom of that V on the left? That’s the crater Notre Dame’s talent fell into in 2007. The graph is overall talent weighted to the junior, senior and 5th year classes. The 3 lines up with 2008, the 4 lines up with 2009 and the 5 lines up with 2010. As you can see we’ve climbed out of the pit of despair this year, but look at the next two years out. Notre Dame’s overall weighted talent level will spike far beyond Weis’s first two BCS teams, spiking above Texas and very close to Florida and USC.

In fact, Notre Dame’s recruiting classes that comprise the current freshmen and sophomore classes have been ranked number one in the country overall, and yes that’s ahead of USC and Florida. That Notre Dame has out recruited every school in the country over the last two years is testament to the foolishness of hair puller sportswriters who have written, among other things, that Notre Dame is irrelevant, that Notre Dame can’t recruit in today’s age or that Notre Dame doesn’t capture the hearts of young players.

Notre Dame hasn’t just captured their hearts, but their signatures. Judging by the reports from Mike Frank of Irish Eyes, Notre Dame will likely be competing for the mythical national recruiting championship again next year, which will put Notre Dame in the top 3 in overall recruiting over four years. That’s a program wide talent turnaround which was desperately needed after three years of Willingham neglect (who has now decimated two programs in seven years.)

I read today where a sportswriter compared Notre Dame to Army from the 50s. One wonders if he has a editor. Yes Army is no longer a powerhouse, but that happens when you have physical restrictions and when playing pro football is not an option for your recruits (there’s that requirement to actually be in the Army.) So, yes Army has fallen from the top, but that has zero to do with Notre Dame’s situation. Of all the recent articles based in ignorance, this one may be the most far-fetched and most ill-researched. I don’t link it here, because it’s what we refer to as a hair puller article (an article written to get a reaction.)

All he had to do was Wikipedia Army to figure it out what led the demise of the service academies dominance, “the high academic entrance requirements, height and weight limits, and the military commitment required has reduced the overall competitiveness of both academies.”

One would assume even a glorified blogger as access to google.

The argument is not just illogical based on it’s faulty premise and lack of factual support, but also because it’s in direct opposition to the current trends in football. Oklahoma, USC and Alabama have all had dramatic falls from their superpower status and recovered just fine. And over the last two years, Notre Dame has out recruited all of them (maybe a push with USC) as rated by Michael Walters who compiles these ratings, “Notre Dame was 1^st over the past two years.”

So how does Notre Dame do it?

• Notre Dame is the lone national school in the country. It’s recent bowl game against Haw
  aii broke records at the gate and on TV (and this was a mediocre Notre Dame team.

• Notre Dame is the most popular team in the country.

• Notre Dame graduates all its players at a very high rate, unlike Oklahoma which graduates only 1 out of 2 of it’s African American athletes.
• Notre Dame is the 8th ranked school for getting rich as listed by Forbes/Payscale.
  
• Notre Dame is the strongest name brand in college football

Players aren’t dumb, they can see all of the above and also see the talent level coming into South Bend.

In other words, if you’re a recruit, you’ll get more national exposure than any school, you’ll graduate with a degree that means something across the country, your school will actually help you become a better student (and grow as a person) and you’ll get your shot at the NFL. If the NFL doesn’t work out, you’ll get a leg up in the business world instead of becoming one of the thousands of used NCAA athletes who don’t graduate or graduate with a “football degree” that gets you nowhere (see Michigan.) Recruits can easily check African-American graduation rates to see how they’re valued by the school that’s recruiting them.

Notre Dame will never become Army. That’s an hack analogy floated by an immature reporter with little grasp of history, facts or underlying causes. It’s a great way to get a few hits, but an exceedingly poor way to build a reputation of good reporting.

Of course, none of this is an endorsement of the last two years. Weis’s performance is rightly in the spotlight, but from a talent perspective, Notre Dame hasn’t been this healthy since Lou.