New coaches face a challenge

ASSOCIATED PRESS

For Brian Kelly, Lane Kiffin and Derek Dooley, the first priority at their new jobs was just keeping it together.

Keeping together the recruiting class, that is.

Coaching changes at Notre Dame, Southern California and Tennessee have added intrigue to the end of the recruiting season as three of the nation’s marquee programs have scrambled to hold on to their blue chippers.

“This is maybe the most suspenseful recruiting season in the 12-plus years I have been doing it,” said Jeremy Crabtree, national recruiting editor for Rivals.com.

Kelly became coach of the Fighting Irish last December in what was expected to be the most dramatic hire in college football after the 2009 season.

The timing of Notre Dame’s switch from Charlie Weis to Kelly was fairly typical, giving Kelly about eight weeks to put his stamp on a class that for the most part will be Weis’ last mark on the Fighting Irish.

Kelly’s task was to quickly establish relationships with players who had spent months getting to know Notre Dame football through Weis and his staff.

“That’s probably the most difficult part,” said Kelly, who was recruiting before he even had a staff in place.

Kelly and the Irish lost the highest-rated player who had given Weis a nonbinding verbal commitment. Defensive end Chris Martin of Aurora, Colo., is now expected to sign with California. Another highly touted defensive end, Blake Lueders from Zionsville, Ind., switched his commitment from Notre Dame to Stanford.

If Kelly started the recruiting race late, then Kiffin and Dooley were practically running with refrigerators on their backs. Each took over less than a month before signing day.

Before Pete Carroll left USC for the NFL he had already lined up verbal commitments from a group of prospects that was short on numbers but long on talent.

“The first thing Lane had to do is to convince them that just because you’re disappointed that Pete Carroll is gone, there’s still reason for you to be here,” said Allen Wallace, the California-based national recruiting editor for Scout.com and SuperPrep magazine.

While the Trojans probably won’t land a top-five class, which was the norm under Carroll, signing day shouldn’t be a letdown for USC fans.

Nor is it likely to be a gloomy day in Knoxville, Tenn.

When Kiffin left Tennessee, panic ensued among Volunteers fans. He had already lined up a recruiting class that was expected to be among the 10 best nationally.

Before Kiffin was even introduced as the Trojans’ new coach, there were reports he and his staff were trying to lure some of those Tennessee recruits to Los Angeles. Kiffin said he would only recruit a Tennessee commitment if the player reached out to him, interested in making a change.

Receiver Markieth Ambles from McDonough, Ga., cooled on Tennessee, took a visit to USC, but still could end up with the Vols or North Carolina.

The hiring of Dooley, the former Nick Saban assistant at LSU who had a sub-.500 record at Louisiana Tech, didn’t generate much buzz nationally. But Dooley and his staff have done a tremendous job of damage control.