Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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the fifth quarter lou somogyi L Competitive World Masks Reserve Talent et's say for one day you can be the recruiting coordinator at Notre Dame. Your mandate is to assemble a four-man defensive line — including a hybrid rush linebacker/end — that is considered championship caliber, one that maybe even can compete against a warm-weather superpower such as Alabama or Florida State. Would you be willing to take the following personnel with the information presented as follows? • This defensive end/tight end from California was good enough to be named Lineman of the Year by the Los Angeles Times — an area known for some elite-level football. With his 29 tackles for loss as a senior, and 11.5 sacks, he also was invited to play in the Offense-Defense All-American game all the way in Myrtle Beach, S.C. • Speaking of football hotbeds, there is none better than South Florida. Our second prospect, an end/linebacker, was selected by the Miami Herald as the best defensive lineman in Miami-Dade County. He also played in a national all-star game — in Austin, Texas — but all you really need to know is he was offered by the likes of Florida, Florida State, Miami and LSU. • Our third prospect played in the prestigious U.S. Army All-American Game, was deemed the No. 1 prospect in New Jersey and was rated by ESPN as the 32nd-best player in the land (and the No. 3 defensive tackle). Even Sophomore Jarron Jones is one of a slew of Notre Dame defensive linemen who arrived with much fanfare. photo by joe raymond USC and UCLA, both clear across the country, were listed as having offered him a scholarship. • Finally, we have another U.S. Army All-American Game player who was ranked as high as the 20th overall player by MaxPreps. Eventhough the 6-5, 300-pounder was knocked for playing less competition in football growing up in New York, he also was athletic enough that in a varsity basket-