West Coast Ties Are Crucial To Improved Notre Dame Staff

One of the most talent-filled and highly recruited regions in the country is the West Coast, where states like California, Nevada, Arizona and Washington are pumping out hundreds of blue-chip recruits every year.

In the 2016 class, 17 of the 100 players in the Rivals100 came from that region. The Rivals250 featured 46 players from the West Coast in the 2016 class, which is 18.4 percent.

Historically, this has been an especially important area for Notre Dame in terms of recruiting.

Blue & Gold Illustrated senior editor Lou Somogyi ranks California as the fifth-best state in Notre Dame history when it comes to producing players for the Irish program. In 2015, Notre Dame had starters on its 10-3 Fiesta Bowl team that hailed from California, Arizona, Washington and Nevada.

Consider some of the West Coast players to don the blue and gold at Notre Dame:

John Huarte, QB, California — Winner of the 1964 Heisman Trophy.

Aaron Taylor, OL, California — Winner of the 1993 Lombardi Award, first-round pick (No. 16) of the Green Bay Packers.

Jack Snow, WR, California — First-team All-American and fifth in the Heisman Trophy voting following the 1964 season. First-round pick (No. 8) of the Minnesota Vikings.

Kevin Hardy, DL, California — Three-time All-American, lettered in three sports (football, baseball and basketball) and first-round pick (No. 7) of the New Orleans Saints.

Mark Green, RB, California — Captain on Notre Dame’s 1988 national championship team.

Nick Eddy, RB, California — Third in Heisman Trophy voting in 1966 when he led Notre Dame’s national championship team in rushing.

George Kunz, OL, California — First-team All-American (1968) and first-round pick (No. 2) of the Atlanta Falcons in 1969, one spot behind former USC running back O.J. Simpson. Eight-time Pro Bowler.

Demetrius DeBose, LB, Washington — Captain of Notre Dame’s 1992 team (10-1-1) and a second-round pick (No. 34) of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Lake Dawson, WR, Washington — Leading receiving on Notre Dame’s 1993 team (12-1) that finished No. 2 in the polls. Third-round pick (No. 92) of the Kansas City Chiefs.

There were many, many more players from the West Coast. More than 140 players from California have seen game action for Notre Dame.

The driving force behind Notre Dame’s 2012 run to the BCS National Championship Game was consensus All-American linebacker Manti Te’o, the Heisman Trophy runner-up that season who hails from Hawai’i.

Notre Dame’s recently hired special teams coordinator, Brian Polian, was the primary recruiter for Te’o, who shocked the recruiting world when he picked the Irish over USC on National Signing Day.

Polian and then head coach Charlie Weis made a living out West, with Polian alone landing 12 players from the West Coast during his five seasons in South Bend, including Te’o, 1,000-yard rusher Cierre Wood, two-year starting right tackle Taylor Dever and wide receiver Robby Toma.

Weis and Polian tag-teamed to land back-to-back five-star quarterbacks in 2007 and 2008 when they inked the nation’s top player in the 2007 class, Jimmy Clausen, and followed that up by landing Dayne Crist.

Clausen went on to put up tremendous numbers at Notre Dame’s starting quarterback from 2007-09.

In a four-year span beginning with the 2006 class and ending with the 2009 class, Notre Dame signed a total of nine Rivals250 recruits. Six of those recruits were Rivals100 players and three of them (Clausen, Te’o and Crist) were five-star recruits.

Brian Kelly and his initial staff at Notre Dame continued the program’s success out West. From 2010-13, Notre Dame signed 15 West Coast prospects, including four Rivals100 recruits and a total of 10 Rivals250 players.

The crown jewel of Kelly’s West Coast success was the 2013 class, when Notre Dame signed five-star defensive tackle Eddie Vanderdoes, five-star safety Max Redfield and Rivals’ No. 133 player in the country, Cole Luke.

Vanderdoes never arrived at Notre Dame, instead choosing to get out of his letter of intent so he could sign with UCLA. Redfield was a two-year starter, but was kicked off the team prior to the 2016 season after being arrested. Luke had a breakout sophomore season, but regressed each of the next two seasons.

The top West Coast recruit in the 2012 class — Rivals100 cornerback Tee Shepard — arrived at Notre Dame as an early enrollee, but was gone before the next season began.

Of course, Notre Dame had several successful players from the West Coast during Kelly’s tenure. Left tackle Ronnie Stanley — a consensus All-American and a first-round pick of the Baltimore Ravens — hails from Las Vegas. Three-year starting cornerback KeiVarae Russell — a third-round pick of the Kansas City Chiefs — is a Washington native. Tight end Troy Niklas — a second-round pick of the Arizona Cardinals — is a California native.

Since that 2013 class, Notre Dame’s success out West has taken a major hit. In the 2014, 2015, 2016 and now the 2017 classes, Notre Dame has signed just 10 players from the West Coast. Only one of those recruits — 2016 wide receiver Javon McKinley — was a Rivals100 player and only five were Rivals250 recruits, including the team’s leading receiving in 2016, Equanimeous St. Brown.

Things hit an all-time low in 2014, when Notre Dame’s only West Coast recruit was three-star tight end Tyler Luatua.

Notre Dame will continue to make inroads into the Southeast and Texas, but becoming more effective in California is an absolute must for Kelly and his program. Making matters difficult is the rise of Stanford, which owns a 5-2 record over the Irish since Kelly arrived.

Former offensive coaches Mike Sanford and Mike Denbrock had strong roots out West and were able to make inroads in the 2015 and 2016 classes, but the upcoming class has just one West Coast commit — Rivals250 offensive lineman Aaron Banks of El Cerrito (Calif.) High.

Kelly has taken dramatic steps this offseason to fix the program’s recent West Coast woes. Bringing back Polian, who coached at Stanford for two years following his stint at Notre Dame, was a strong first step.

Hiring former Arizona State recruiting coordinator Chip Long was another strong step. It is being reported that Kelly is going to hire former Arizona State and Wisconsin coach DelVaughn Alexander to coach wide receivers. Alexander is a USC graduate and Los Angeles native with strong ties to the West Coast.

That’s three new hires to recruit what once was a fertile recruiting ground for Notre Dame. As Kelly looks to rebuild his program, making that happen once again is a big first step.

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