Shocking Accusations!

Now, I know it's not productive for Notre Dame bloggers to go into a tizzy every time some hack sportswriter in some backwater redneck town writes a scathing and accusatory piece about the Irish. For one, I would have to quit my job and abandon my social life, spending 24 hours a day huffing and puffing and pointing out factual and grammatical errors for the Fort Klugworth Daily Picayune-Bugle sports column. However, today's latest smearing came from a sports column in South Carolina, where a columnist took a few words from a Clemson recruit and turned it into a ham-fisted indictment of Notre Dame's recruiting ethics.

The long and short of the article implies that Weis and his staff aggressively recruited Jamie Cumbie, a Clemson commit, and sent him several postcards and a letter spelling out the advantages and disadvantages of going to Notre Dame that was, allegedly, littered with slanderous statements about Clemson. Now, I am shocked -- shocked -- that Notre Dame could possibly be accused of negative recruitment, seeing as we are the shining beacon for all that is good and right about college football. The debasement of saying mean things about other colleges is a vile and scummy practice that I'd just as well leave to every other college football program who are unburdened by the heavy crown of being the conscience of an entire sport. Before I get too off-track in my sarcastic rant, let me return to the key issue here. The fact of the matter is that the contents of the letter were blown way, way out of proportion. I have secured, through my contacts, a copy of this offending letter, and it is a huge stretch to say any negative recruiting occured here. Have a look for yourselves.