Eric Hansen

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - National signing day was supposed to be Jimmy Clausen’s day, the day Notre Dame head football coach Charlie Weis assured the world that the prodigious quarterback’s ego was overstated but his talent is not.

On Feb. 7 the NCAA removed the muzzles from college football coaches, who are prohibited to that point of doing much more publicly than smiling and/or drooling when a prospect’s name comes up in conversation.

For Weis, national signing day was also a day of heartache, but also of steely resolve.

Two top-100 prospects, both named Little, dropped the Irish at the 11th hour. So instead of Weis’ press conference turning into a Clausen-fest, it became an exercise in damage control and spinning forward with a new recruiting perspective and strategy.

Chris Little, a 6-foot-5, 350-pound offensive lineman, provided the most drama. He first committed to Florida State in early January, then switched to Notre Dame after he discovered he had misunderstood his mother’s wishes.

On national signing day he stood by the fax machine at Twiggs County High School in Jeffersonville, Ga., torn about which school he should send his letter of intent to.

In the end, he faxed it to...Georgia?

Durham, N.C., wide receiver standout Greg Little, no relation to Chris except in the indecision department, switched his allegiance to home-state school North Carolina.

Greg Little announced for Notre Dame on Nov. 9, exactly one month after he had held a press conference to reveal that he needed more time to make his decision.

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Earlier, Justin Trattou, a defensive lineman from Ramsey, N.J., and Arrelious Benn, a wide receiver from Washington, D.C., backed out on their verbal commitments to Notre Dame for Florida and Illinois, respectively.

Benn’s commitment was of the dreaded "silent" variety. Conversely, cornerback Gary Gray (South Carolina), linebacker/defensive end Brian Smith (Iowa), and kicker Brandon Walker (Louisville) all switched to Notre Dame after initially committing to other schools.

"We’re going to spend a lot more time making sure if a guy wants to verbally commit to us that everyone is clear on what that means," Weis said after two 11th-hour decommits reduced the number of national letters of intent Weis received on signing day by two.

The Irish class settled in at 18, including three early enrollees. Weis is a proponent of an early signing period to help bring some order to poaching and switching that was so prevalent nationwide this recruiting season, and he made that point at the annual college coaches’ convention last month in San Antonio.

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But the coaches must first agree on when that signing period should be before they nudge it into the NCAA legislative process.

In the meantime, Weis has already reconstructed the letters he sends to prospects, underscoring that mixed feelings will no longer have any part in his future recruiting classes.

"No soft verbals, no silent verbals, no quiet verbals," he said. "Either you’re committed or you’re not committed.

"It’s like your married to somebody, but then you’re looking at other women. I don’t think there’s any in-between there.

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"And I think one of the things we’re going to make sure we do differently than we’ve done in the past is that when a guy wants to say yes to us, there’s a clear understanding from everyone that they’re not going to go visit anywhere else.

"They’re not going to talk to anyone else. They’re either committed to us, or you’re not."

Lost in the Little losses and the absence of a top-100 player in the defensive front seven was the fact that Weis assembled a consensus top-10 class for the second year in a row, and reeled in the nation’s No. 1 prospect, Clausen.

Clausen, running back Armando Allen, and Gray all enrolled at Notre Dame in mid-January and will be eligible to participate in spring practice.

Virtually all 18 recruits are expected to compete for playing time in the fall, including Clausen at quarterback.

The Littles’ defections are softened by the fact that the Irish are loaded at offensive line and wide receiver both in this class and on the veteran roster.

The challenge, as Weis moves forward, is recruiting top-100 caliber players in the defensive front seven.

The hiring of new defensive coordinator Corwin Brown and adding 3-4 looks and personnel to the defensive scheme should help.

And Weis is already thinking about next year. The Irish have already had dozens of juniors in for unofficial visits, and the coaching staff had a 6 a.m. meeting scheduled the day after national signing day to kick off the 2008 recruiting cycle.

"Fortunately/unfortunately the process has been pushed up so much in recruiting," Weis said. "When you finish (signing) day, if you're not on next year's class, you're already falling behind."

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