Floyd of Cretin-Dale

When offensive guard Matt Carufel, bummed over his fluctuating level of playing time and apparently never very comfortable as a Notre Dame student, announced he would transfer eight days ago, the general consensus was that Notre Dame had lost two players for the price of one. Not only was Carufel, the top prospect from the state of Minnesota in 2005, on the move, but surely this (coupled with the announcement that he would be helping out as a coach at his prep alma mater, Cretin-Derham Hall, for the rest of the high school season) would doom any chance for Notre Dame to land the superbly-talented Michael Floyd, a 6-3 playmaking wide receiver from CDH. To top it all off, Floyd was in attendance at Saturday's 38-0 beatdown from USC, so the Irish chances had dropped to virtually nothing...right?

Apparently we were all wrong. Though Floyd had long been pegged as a Notre Dame "lean" in the recruiting sub-culture, he insisted that he'd come into South Bend for the weekend with an open mind. He left having given a verbal commitment to the Irish and calling his other finalists, Minnesota and Ohio State (several 'inside sources' had said he would wind up with the Buckeyes) to tell them his decision was final. So while the Irish slug through a disaster 2007, the cavalry is in fact appearing in the distance - Floyd's announcement gives Notre Dame an even 20 commitments and (for the time being) a firmer grip on the #1 ranking for this recruiting cycle. Of course, any Texas fan could tell you that titles aren't won in February (if they were, Mack Brown would be a five-time national champion by now). Even so, the titanic struggles of this year's Irish squad and the swarm of negativity haven't led to a collapse on the recruiting front (not yet, anyway. I wouldn't predict a mass exodus, but if Notre Dame can lose three commitments late in last year's cycle after going 10-3, I wouldn't bet on all 20 staying committed for what will be 5-7 at best). Despite the dark clouds still hanging over the football program, this was a small bit of good news no matter how you slice it. Just keep in mind that recruiting is merely a small part of the overall battle. (Author's note: pictured above, left is Floyd of Rosedale, one of the more dubious and inane traveling trophies in all of organized athletics. It is awarded annually to the winner of the Iowa-Minnesota game.)

On a humorous/disturbing aside, this comes to us from Rakes of Mallow, the SportsBlog Nation ND site:

Hat tip to the Alumni guys on Madison for showing Floyd a good time on Friday night.

Part of me wants to ask, but a much larger part doesn't want to know.

George

UPDATE, Oct. 23 @ 4:30 PM - Apparently Pat G. was right to quote sources in his comment. News out at this hour that 4-star running back Jonas Gray has switched his commitment from Nebraska to Notre Dame in the wake of uncertainty surrounding NU Coach Bill Callahan and an impressive job of closing on the recruiting trail by Corwin Brown. Irish now have 21 verbal commitments.

Trivia: Name at least two other people who went to Cretin-Derham Hall.