Prister did a great job on this Shawn Wooden interview Spoiler After batting down potential game-tying touchdown passes in No. 1 vs. No. 2 college classics and a nine-year career in the NFL, former Notre Dame cornerback Shawn Wooden has carved out a successful career in finance in his home state of Florida. He’s also beating the drum for Irish head coach Marcus Freeman and the excitement he has generated amongst Notre Dame football alums. “He’s just a genuine person, he’s literally just a genuine guy who’s real,” said Wooden, who knocked down Charlie Ward’s last-ditch-effort pass in the end zone of No. 2 Notre Dame’s 31-24 victory over No. 1 Florida State in 1993. “That’s why I think he’s so successful in recruiting. Kids can understand and see it. If he gets in front of somebody -- if he gets in front of parents -- he’s going to be successful. I’d put him against the best recruiters out there.” Wooden -- Vice President, partner and Financial Advisor of Associated Investor Services in South Florida -- has been waiting for the opportunity to reconnect with his alma mater. Efforts to be a more active participant in Notre Dame football since his playing days under Lou Holtz have been difficult. Four head football coaches at Notre Dame have come and gone. Four football coaches who, in Wooden’s estimation, didn’t undertake anything like Freeman has since he was named head coach the first week of December. “As for the approach toward the legacy of Notre Dame and the role that the former players have played in it, I think Freeman does a much better job than previous coaches, previous regimes,” Wooden said. And thus, when Freeman reached out via Zoom to Notre Dame football alums in January, Wooden was an active participant. He’ll remain involved, including a trip back to his alma mater for the April 23 Blue-Gold Game. “For the Blue-Gold Game, we have a golf outing, a networking dinner, cocktail hour with the coaches…” Wooden said. “They invited the former players. They invited us to his pre-game speech. No previous regime would allow that, even at the spring game.” Wooden, 48, can help the Notre Dame football program through his connections in Florida. Born in Philadelphia, he is well known in the South Florida community for his volunteer work with various charities and organizations after settling into the region upon his conclusion of an NFL career with the Miami Dolphins. He’s stayed connected to the high school football scene through his college and professional football associations. “I was part of the first Zoom meeting with Marcus Freeman, and I asked a question in regard to how we can help without violating NCAA rules,” Wooden said. “It’s a hotbed down here and I have former teammates that are coaches. Places like St. Thomas (Aquinas), American Heritage and Christopher Columbus High Schools have four- and five-star kids. “So I asked how we could help. The answer is to make high school coaches down here more comfortable with Notre Dame. (Freeman) said, ‘We’re definitely going to reach out to you guys. We’d love to brainstorm that.’” Of course, it’s not just in South Florida that Notre Dame football alums can help the Freeman regime spread the word about Fighting Irish football with a new leadership, a new commitment to communication with the Notre Dame football family and the opportunities afforded student-athletes. “I’m not talking about just Florida,” Wooden said. “I’m talking about Texas, California…(Notre Dame football alums) are everywhere. “Seeing Jerome Bettis going back to school, what does that tell parents? That Notre Dame’s message is real. That we’re going to make sure your son is taken care of. If you invest four years, we’re going to make sure you get 40.” Wooden has seen football programs such as Alabama and Georgia enter the state of Florida to grab recruits. Miami, with new head coach Mario Cristobal, looks primed to make a run at returning to its football glory. Notre Dame has a whole bunch to sell, too, and Wooden is excited about playing a supporting role for his alma mater. In Freeman, Wooden sees a young coach with a modern-day approach and a still-fresh knowledge of what it’s like to be in the football fray. He also sees a guy who understands what Notre Dame stands for beyond football. “He’s younger and he played for Ohio State,” Wooden said. “It’s not long ago that he was on that field bleeding. “Marcus is the right guy to say we’re going to do it the right way, the ethical way, to make sure we’re not compromising kids down the line. That’s an important message.”
The whole “the visit went absolutely perfect but he didn’t commit” line is pretty disingenuous. Either the staff was completely off in terms of expecting a commitment, or the visit didn’t actually go perfectly well. Either way, our coaching staff and/or our reporters don’t have as good a handle on the situation as they’re letting on. Is that cause for freaking out like some of our fans are? Absolutely not. But the situation also isn’t totally fine. Same for when Christian Gray didn’t commit on his visit, and now that’s seemingly getting away from us. The staff needs to close. Hopefully they can.
The last few years I spent very little energy paying into recruiting day to day. Just was over it and our staff didn't take it super serious imo. But this year Freeman/our ND writers sucked me back in man. And I'm much worse off for it. I kind of miss not caring until November
It doesn’t help that our reporters also tend to sway overly positive, and not just in their actual reporting. Driskel for months has been saying the month of April could change the entire outlook of our program. He then creates a poll on his message board asking folks to predict how many commits we have in April, and follows it up with personally predicting over 5 or 6 (I forget his actual number). Then he freaks out on his message board posters for getting negative when the expected commitments start saying they’re not close. These people need to learn to set expectations low.
I kind of see his point. He said April. We’re just 1/3 off the way through the month with 2 guys likely to commit in the next few days, and maybe something around BG. He can still be right, it’s dumb to do to yourself but hey Recruiting is dumb.
I very rarely listen to Mike Frank but I ran out of things to listen to so I just listened to his podcast. He said there are two groups led by former players who he described as players we all love. One group is handling NIL for current players and that side is up and running. The second group is going to handle funding for NIL for recruits, they aren't up and running yet because they have some legal paperwork that goes into it but they are making progress and will be active soon. Is this new? I haven't heard anything said about it until now.
On one hand, I agree. On the other, there are more than a handful of recruits that our staff is “surprised” that they haven’t committed yet. It’s not just one or two at this point. That’s a trend, and I wonder what’s driving it. NIL? Negative recruiting (this became a huge thing once Weis proved he could recruit at a high level)?
Sure seems like they all expected Jagusah to commit pretty quick and that doesn't seem to be the case.
Hanafin, Gray, Moore, Houstan, etc. All of them are considered surprises at this point for not committing, per reports. Either the reports are wrong, our staff is overly optimistic, or there’s a sticking point stopping these kids.
The assumption that our staff is “surprised” is debatable. Not sure how much I trust recruiting pundits who make money off of click induced anxiety.
Honestly I think a lot of it is people underestimating the pandemic travel ban. These kids usually would have been visiting places for years now
It's April 13. Go back look at April 13 of any previous year and compare. You won't find ND in a better position recruiting-wise in April in ANY previous year. Not even close. This staff is neither surprised nor worried. Nor is there any good source other than the usual sunshine pumping reporters to make us believe they expected Moore in by now. It sounds to me like lines of communication have been open all along.
I do pause and laugh at our freaking out when we have 9 commits and “the big 3” have 9 combined. we’re fine and we need to get used to real recruiting.
Agreed 100%. More than anything, I think our recruiting reporters need to get used to real recruiting. They’re the ones complaining about the monster they’ve created.
Have to say how odd it is to walk out of your office for the day and come face to face with Ed Orgeron
iirc Hawaii will only let you visit if they actually believe they have a chance. and user beeds07 is too blue chip for them.
i was incredibly surprised to hear that last year was ole misses first 10 win season ever. un fuckin real
This made me think.. Tate took a pretty big fall in the ESPN rankings, that, in theory, could hurt his NIL potential. Who will be the first kid to try and sue a ranking company for dropping them and messing with their earnings? It'll get laughed at but I can see shit like this happening.
Damn tried listening to todays ITG with Justin tuck but could not understand him at all. Terrible audio quality.
You might have better luck. I was driving while trying to listen, but could not make out really anything he was saying