He's on campus this weekend! Hopefully he enjoys his experience. Would be a hell of an addition! Impact player who has played in a ton of big games
Pagano
- Thread starter Dropkickirish
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Bodizephax
I've posted how many times?
Would be great. Should be an easy sell. Top academics and guaranteed to start asap (should be at least)
Getting Pegano would be huge, but don't think this is anything more than a football business decision for him. He shared time with a couple future NFL teammates who are younger, and he is looking for the opportunity to play a lot to showcase his skills to improve his draft prospects. Our academics and culture, etc... are not very important to this decision, but playing time on national TV on a big stage is. I think we are well positioned if he likes Elko's defensive schemes and he believes we will win. Not sure I like being on the front end of his list of programs he plans to visit, but this staff has proven to be great recruiters thus far, so maybe he'll surprise everyone and commit this weekend.
Academics, I agree.
Culture.....completely disagree.
When you have a guy who had lots of options out of high school going to Clemson (remember, that was 3-4 years ago too), the "smaller school" culture must important.
I would imagine the factors in the decision are
1. Playing Time
2. Scheme
3. NFL Coaching/Development
4. National Exposure
5. School Culture
6. Chance for Continued On-Field Success
Decker, don't agree with your small school culture, but Hope you are right. The small school culture you reference doesn't appear to be a consideration based off the schools he plans to visit besides ND: Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and Oregon. All large State Univetsities except ND. If a small school environment is part of the decision, bodes exceptionally well for ND.
Those are just the school's that he's taking Official Visits to. From what' I've seen he also going to visit additional schools on the West Coast (such as USC).
Some of those schools, like USC, reflect the "small school culture"
I'm not saying that it will be the deciding factor, but when you have a kid who already chose a school with that culture and he's visiting at least some other schools that already have it, and he's from a "smaller area"....it's pretty hard to imagine it not being a factor
Again, I hope you are right. Not interested in splitting hairs, but the reference to USC as a small school he plans to visit is not really comparable to ND. USC has over 19K undergraduates, and over 25K post graduates and professionals, whereas ND undergraduate pop. Is over 7K and post graduates pop. Is over 8K. USC was a small private college when I used to visit friends there over forty years ago, but they have morphed into a pretty large university with outstanding academics and research credentials. No longer the easy to get into private small college with lots of pampered rich kids with a great football team. I think the USC appeal for Pegano is their tradition of recruiting Hawaiians who have found success on the DL there.
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He'd be a grad student. There are lots of those matriculating to ND every year.
From tos he had a great visit. He has other visits but ND did very well with him. Stay tuned!
I think he'd be a huge addition to the team. He has been on a team that went to back-to-back title games and has a culture of winning. If he was an integral part of that and can show the young guys on the ND defense what it takes to win, I'd welcome him with open arms.
The transfer vs. grad student is an important distinction as well. It is a testament to his hard work off the field that he graduated and would potentially be accepted by ND's grad programs.
The transfer vs. grad student is an important distinction as well. It is a testament to his hard work off the field that he graduated and would potentially be accepted by ND's grad programs.
Based on his list of schools, I could understand Texas and Oklahoma, Oregon for the west coast and Notre Dame because it's Notre Dame. Not sure about Arkansas
Pagano is not a native Hawaiian. He is Black/Italian. His father was in the service and was stationed in Hawaii. He did live in San Diego at one time.
I think he wants to start. Clemson has two elite DTs returning, and he wouldn't start there. However, he did get a lot of PT, and won a NC. So there's a lot he's giving up by leaving there.
Cousinclem is correct...Pegano is not a native Hawiian. He lived there starting at age seven and was raised in the culture, was rated the #1 Hawiian recruit out of high school, and his favorite players were Seau and Manti, etc... raised and nurtured in the Hawiian culture, but no Polynesian blood. Regardless, he would be a huge get for us, and I hope Polian's ability to connect with Hawiian players applies to Pegano as well.
Good point but reality is he will play football and take grad courses for one semester and with football workload I would seriously doubt he's on a normal grad degree track ... unlike frosh FB players who live in dorms and are on a degree track like every other student ... when I was at ND they were very much part of student life.
(1) he's graduating.
(2) probably looking for a good program where he'll get more playing time.
vs a good program at Clemson where he doesn't get as much playing time as he thinks he should.
You forgot basket weaving. That one's been around since the 60's. Strong program.
