BGI Member: Lou, when did all these recruiting sites start? Has there ever been a two-star or less from Notre Dame make it to the NFL, and who were they?
Lou Somogyi: The first individual to receive extensive publicity for his recruiting service was Joe Terranova, a Notre Dame grad during the Joe Kuharich days who became an executive with Ford Motor Company in Detroit. During his student days at Notre Dame, it always bothered Joe that Notre Dame would finish 2-8 in 1960 - or 5-5 in 1961 and 1962 or 2-7 in 1963 - with so many players who became outstanding pros such as Daryle Lamonica, Nick Buoniconti, Myron Pottios, Monty Stickles, Joe Carollo, etc.
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| Joe Terranova is the "godfather" of recruiting services. |
So, Joe took up following college recruiting as a hobby and eventually made it a cottage industry for himself on the side in the 1970s. In 1978 (or maybe it was 1977), Sports Illustrated began using his recruiting rankings in its "Scorecard" section every year, and Joe would always do it with humor. For example, he referred to 1980 Irish recruit Tim Marshall as "Darth Vader in cleats." Or, he would write a story of how he'd watch film with Gerry Faust and say, "Coach, this kid doesn't know the meaning of the word fear!" Then, he'd write that Faust would retort, "I've seen his transcript - and there are a lot of words he doesn't know the meaning of."
Terranova's popularity inspired Chicago's Tom Lemming, who was working as a mailman, to begin his own recruiting service sometime around 1979 or 1980. Through hard work and developing contacts, Lemming's popularity grew tremendously in the 1980s, and others from various parts of the country - Allen Wallace (SuperPrep in California), Max Emfinger (Texas), Phil Grosz (Pennsylvania), Bill Buchalter (Florida), etc. - soon followed suit. Their newsletters expanded into 900 numbers in the 1980s and 1990s, and fax services, too. All did their own form of rating players, with top 100s being the most popular. Emfinger devised his own system of chips - green, red, blue, with a gold-chip being the highest.
With the advent of the Internet in the mid-1990s, recruiting services became the new rage by the turn of the century.
Regarding two stars or five stars, all I can tell you is that pretty much every recruiting class will have lesser-rated players who surprise, and others who never do emerge. Conversely, there will be four- and five-star players in every class who never come close to the hype, and others who live up to it. There are thousands of stories on both ends. For my money, I'd rather take my chances with people who are much more highly rated (although I do usually get squeamish about "Golden Boy" quarterbacks).
In Lou Holtz's first class (1986), he signed a couple of "five-star" type linemen in Paul Glonek and Jeff Pearson from Chicago's St. Laurence. Glonek eventually wasn't admitted and had a so-so college career at Arizona and Iowa, while Pearson transferred to Michigan State, where he had a good but not great career. Two of their high school teammates, guard Tim Grunhard and corner Stan Smagala, were regarded as "throw ins." Both became three-year starters, including the 1988 national champs, and played in the NFL, with Grunhard's career lasting more than a decade. Chris Zorich was relatively unheralded in 1987 and became a two-time All-American and Lombardi Award winner. Conversely, Jason Ching was a USA Today 1st-team All-America defensive tackle in 1996 but didn't play for numerous reasons.
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Terranova inspired others like Max Emfinger.
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However, to be fair, Holtz's 1990 class with people such as Bryant Young, Jerome Bettis, Jeff Burris, Tom Carter, Aaron Taylor, Jim Flanigan, etc. was his best - and that group lived up to the accolades. Sometimes classes or individuals pan out, and sometimes they don't. That's just life. Notre Dame had three straight No. 1 classes from 1981-83 with Faust, but the records were 5-6, 6-4-1, 7-5, 7-5, 5-6 and 5-6 from 1981-86. It takes coaching, too, cohesion, a good system, discipline, intangible and some luck.
There are no guarantees in this business. Let's just say I'd rather have Florida's five stars this year than Vanderbilt's two stars - and I'll take my chances. Ten times out of 10, Florida will be considered a better candidate to win the SEC East than Vanderbilt. Now, Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina also have been recruiting well, so with those schools there is not as much disparity, and it wouldn't be a surprise if three or four years down the road they win the SEC East instead of Florida. It's a very thin line.
Oklahoma won the national title in 2000 with classes that weren't ranked in the top 20, never mind top 10. Then people started to say, "Wait until Bob Stoops gets his own recruits...then they'll be even better." Well, OU has had better-ranked classes since then, but have not been able to replicate the success achieved in 2000.
USC has had top recruiting classes since 2001 and it's shown on the field - so has Texas, and then more recently Florida and Ohio State. On the flip side, teams such as Boise State, Wake Forest, Louisville or West Virginia have also flourished just fine without all the hype that comes on Signing Day.
I could write a book the length of War & Peace on this topic, but I have to be more succinct in this forum.
If you have a question regarding Notre Dame football, or even college football in general, Lou Somogyi probably has an answer. Our members can submit their questions at "Ask The Somog'".
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