Better early than never, ND decides
Quietly, with all the fanfare of a bye week, Elkhorn, Neb., offensive lineman Trevor Robinson becomes a Notre Dame student today -- ahead of schedule and hoping the jump start pays off somehow, someday.
It's the third straight cycle for Irish football early enrollees, but the first to engender a rather ho-hum response. When James Aldridge, George West and Chris Stewart broke ground in January 2006, it shook the college football world, if for no other reason than no one saw it coming or knew quite what it meant in the bigger picture.
When Jimmy Clausen, Armando Allen and Gary Gray followed last year, it gave rise to Jimmy Clausen-mania, Elbow-gate and certainly was a contributing, if not dominating, factor in Notre Dame setting an attendance record at its spring football game last April.
And now the 6-foot-5, 300-pound Robinson and 6-4, 283-pound defensive end Sean Cwynar of McHenry, Ill., are Nos. 7-8 in a lineage that resumed after four decades of resistance. There was never a written rule banning or even discouraging January enrollment, but the idea was never embraced, even for non-athletes.
"I really don't look at it as that big of a deal," Robinson said. "I think maybe it's going to be an easier transition playing spring football than it would have been coming in the summer or fall. I don't know, I was just ready for something different."
Dan Saracino, Notre Dame assistant provost and director of admissions, acknowledged early enrollment is different. Very different. And that's largely why there was so much reluctance to get in step with a trend that had been growing in college football over the past decade.
Saracino's own son transferred from Cal Poly into the regular-student population at ND in January of his freshman year, shortly after his father had taken his current job roughly a decade ago.
"He came very close to transferring back to Cal Poly," Saracino said. "Now, he has gone on to graduate, but he would tell you exactly why admitting students in January at Notre Dame isn't a good idea. It's gray, it's dismal here. The winters are brutal, especially if you're not from this part of the country.
"They had a hard time finding a roommate for him, and when they did, it was someone he was completely different from. He had a hard time meeting other freshmen. His courses were a little out of sequence. He didn't get exactly what he wanted as far as course selection. For all those reasons and more, that's why we're reluctant to do it -- especially with kids graduating from high school, not to mention kids transferring in."
The reason other schools do, and that ND got in step, is that it gives them a loophole to exceed the NCAA limit of 25 scholarships in a year, something ND did in 2006 and could do again this year if its current 22-man class swells as the Feb. 6 signing date approaches. Early enrollment also deepened ND's recruiting pool.
Quarterback Brady Quinn, who came to ND before the policy softened, chose ND despite not being able to fulfill his desire to enroll early. Former Florida quarterback Chris Leak eliminated the Irish for the same reason.
"I used to be a proponent for early enrollment," CSTV recruiting analyst Tom Lemming said, "but I think in most cases it really doesn't help kids. They ought to just enjoy the end of their high school careers."
For Robinson, it feels almost like an escape from a weird recruiting process. Two of his three finalists experienced coaching changes -- Nebraska and Michigan.
"It's tough, because you get to know the position coaches so well," Robinson said. "It's really hard when you've spent so much time with guys and then you feel like you have to start over. So it's kind of unfortunate, but it worked out well for me in the end. Notre Dame is where I wanted to be."
He wanted to be at ND -- despite the offensive line producing the ugliest sack numbers (58) in school history and in the NCAA Bowl Subdivision since it became a trackable team stat in 2005. ... Despite visiting on a day when USC throttled the Irish 38-0. ... And despite being barraged with the notion that fourth-year ND head coach Charlie Weis continually had some explaining to do.
"None of that stuff scared me," Robinson said. "I really like (offensive line) coach (John) Latina. I think a lot of the problems with last year's team had to do with inexperience. And to be honest, I liked the fact that coach Weis stood up and said he made some mistakes.
"I think it's important to his players to be humble and for someone of his stature and his presence to say he thinks he could do things differently or do things better. I think that's always a positive for anybody."
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