Saturday will be buzzing for sure, for more reasons than one. Saturday is the day that every fan in the ND nation knows and waits for every spring, yes the Blue Gold Game. This game symbolizes like other spring games around the nation the rebirth of a program rising to fight again in a few short months. This season however, the spring game is about more than Charlie showing off an improved running game, or Clausen showing off that incredible accuracy. Its even about more than Jonas Gray showing he can hang onto the ball (actually we're still waiting for that one- dang it). This season the spring game takes on a whole new aspect that ND hasn't truly had for sometime.
This season, the Spring Game is about recruiting.
The A-list of recruits attending this game is eye opening to say it modestly. Weis has compiled a list of guys who are showing up to watch this glorified scrimmage that would make any other team in the nation jealous. There are several to watch, which I will get to later, but don't expect any to commit on the spot ala Texas and Mac Browns "special brownies" the staff must have been handing out. Rather this is a spring board into the rest of the season. Notre Dame isn't at the place where they will lock in top flight recruits this early, some certainly may be close to pulling the trigger, as I will talk about, but most will let the experience incubate. Which isn't a bad thing.
Here are the recruits that will be attending tomorrow's spring game:
Chris Martin (verbal commit)
Christian Lombard (verbal commit)
Daniel Smith (verbal commit)
Khairi Fortt
Cody Riggs
Spencer Boyd
Lo Wood
Nick Montana
Corey Cooper
Kyle Prater
Justin McCay
C.J. Fiedorowicz
James Stone
Of the above listed one to watch for a commit first would be, Nick Montana. This is a legacy recruit who of course has serious roots at ND. That said he might not end up Irish, but if he intends to be what better time to commit than a sunny Saturday afternoon amid spring green and even more green clad Irish fans and players.
A next possible commit could come from Spencer Boyd. He has been to scUM (that's Michigan for those of you wondering ) before visiting the Irish. Luckily, it has been drop dead gorgeous weather in South Bend since he arrived. He is being recruited hard by many schools, but has said that he would commit somewhere he felt right at. There are few things more right feeling or beautiful than a bright sunny spring day at Notre Dame.
As important as the potential recruits are the current verbals. Christian Lombard, Chris Martin, and Daniel Smith will all be on hand to lend their personal recruiting stories and love of ND into the ears of receptive recruits. Three top 200 players (they could all end up being in the top 100 shortly) can't hurt as they are high profile and know what sold them on ND and that can be very persuasive.
The rest of the recruits are all over the place. Some have said really good things about ND, some not much, others want to wait but place ND in their top 3-5. Notre Dame really needs to come through this spring game and sell it out to these recruits and better its position with them drastically. If they can jump into the top 3 with most of the recruits visiting then they will be more than able to make it a serious race down to the wire on National Signing Day or garner a few commits in another few months. I'll post more after the game tomorrow and let you know how the team looked and how the recruits reacted.
The best thing about the Blue and Gold game is that Notre Dame always wins.
