Notre Dame took a couple hits last year on National Signing Day, which can be considered as learning experiences. Charlie Weis addressed the late defections at the press conference and introduced his new recruiting philosophy – “if they’re looking, we’re looking.”
The new approach entailed a stronger commitment to Notre Dame once a recruit decides to make a pledge and a clearer understanding of what that commitment means. If a prospect did decide to commit, than it was expected that he not visit other schools or express a mutual interest.
Some felt that this type of recruiting would hurt Notre Dame’s efforts, but the opposite occurred as players quickly began jumping on board. Fortunately for the Irish, they’ve currently only suffered one loss, albeit a relevant one, Omar Hunter.
The new take on recruiting doesn’t only apply to the Irish commitments, but it also relates to how the Notre Dame coaches handle the recruitment of prospects that are committed elsewhere as well.
The Weatherford, Tex. defensive end received early interest from Notre Dame, and it quickly became a mutual feeling as he started to learn more about the university. After the Irish decided to extend an offer to Lewis-Moore, he quickly arranged an official visit with Rob Ianello for the Michigan State game.
As he started to get the sense that he wasn’t as high of a priority for Notre Dame after they landed a couple commitments at defensive end, the visit was canceled and he committed to Texas A&M.
Similarly to the coaching situation at Nebraska that allowed Notre Dame to pick up commitments from Jonas Gray and Trevor Robinson, the Aggies were also in search of a new coaching staff near season’s end. Lewis-Moore felt that he wanted to remain a “soft” verbal to TAMU, but needed to take a look at the other schools he had interest in to assure that he was making the right decision.
“I’ve reopened my recruitment,” the 6-foot-4, 230 pounder reported in mid-January. “I’m taking the whole recruiting process and starting over. Since Coach (Dennis) Franchione isn’t there anymore, I felt the right thing to do was to take a look around.”
One of those schools was Notre Dame as he rescheduled his official visit for Jan. 18. When he returned from South Bend, Ind., he reported to BlueandGold.com that he had a great time on the trip and proceeded to decommit from Texas A&M. His reasoning was that he didn’t feel comfortable with the way that their coaches approached him about planning other visits, despite it previously being discussed.
Following that decision, it looked as though it was between TAMU and Notre Dame because Lewis-Moore felt that both schools were very similar. But just three days after he decommitted from the Aggies, he decided to recommit.
With all hope looking to be lost on adding Lewis-Moore to fill the outside linebacker/defensive end hybrid need in the class, another call was made to the Irish coaching staff providing a pleasant surprise.
“I called Notre Dame earlier today and asked them if they still had a spot available for me,” Lewis-Moore revealed almost a week ago last Thursday night. “They said they did so I told them that I’m coming to Notre Dame.”
Why the sudden change of heart?
“After talking with my mom about the whole situation with Texas A&M and the way the coaches handled it, I just felt that Notre Dame was a better fit overall,” he replied. “I’m excited to work with their coaches and everything was great on the visit.”
Clearly this is big news for any media outlet to come across, but in honoring the recruit’s wishes, things were kept under wraps until he felt the time was right.
Well, other than the teaser that was posted on Rockne’s Roundtable that night.
“I’m not telling anyone,” he continued. “This was one of the biggest decisions of my life and I want to make sure that I close things off with A&M before putting it out there.
“You can just say that a good surprise is coming on National Signing Day.”
Considering what types of surprises Notre Dame fans have endured in the past, it was just a matter of time before his name was tossed in the ring with various message boards virtually having a melt down over the mystery recruit.
“I haven’t talked to anybody,” he shared on Saturday morning as things started to get more hectic. “My plans are still to surprise everyone on Wednesday.”
As word spread rampantly throughout cyberspace on Sunday with Super Bowl party preparations underway, Lewis-Moore found humor in the fact that Irish fans were so eager to find out who the “silent” commit was.
“Look at what we’ve done,” he said jokingly on Sunday afternoon after Tom Lemming revealed his identity.
Despite most signs pointing towards Lewis-Moore after the blog was released on the Chicago Sun-Times, he still wanted to go through with his original plans of notifying the Texas A&M coaching staff first and going public on Feb. 6. It wasn’t an easy call to make, but he decided to deliver the news following the New York Giants championship victory.
“I called Coach (Mike) Sherman and decommitted from A&M last night,” he shared on Monday evening. “I told them that I had a change of heart. No disrespect to A&M, but I just didn’t like the way the situation was handled.”
Lewis-Moore may have felt that there were a lot of similarities between the Irish and the Aggies in late-January, but in the end, one program offered more of a complete package.
“It all came down to Notre Dame being in my best interest,” he concluded. “I had to make one of the biggest decisions of my life. I’m excited that I’ll be playing for Notre Dame and that’s definitely where I’m going. I would sign tonight if I could.”
Through all the suspense and speculation that has occurred over the past week, Irish fans’ minds can now be put at ease as Lewis-Moore officially is a part of the 2008 recruiting class.
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The new take on recruiting doesn’t only apply to the Irish commitments, but it also relates to how the Notre Dame coaches handle the recruitment of prospects that are committed elsewhere as well.
