Notre Dame 2011 Draft – Busted

The Fighting IRISH had nine players eligible for the NFL 2011 Draft.  But only one TE Kyle Rudolph was selected by the Vikings in the second round.  Why?

Many expected NG Ian Williams and CB Darrin Walls to get picked up late in the selection process.

Why weren’t they?

Now the eight are stuck in greed limbo between the NFL players and the owners.  Resolution and getting down to playing football is now anybody’s guess. 

To refresh your memory here are the nine Fighting Irish, eight seniors and Rudolph the junior.

Armando Allen – RB – Fought through injuries, ran behind a less than stellar offensive line for a couple years.

Robert Hughes – FB – A nice young man who played fullback for two coaches that did not have many plays in there playbooks for a fullback.

Duval Kamara – WR – Played in the shadows of Golden Tate and Michael Floyd.  Showed up overweight for fall camp and ended up in Charlie’s dog house.  Left Notre Dame and the Team before the Sun Bowl.  Strange.

Kerry Neal – LB - Hope Kerry got his degree.

Kyle Rudolph – TE - Nuff said.

Brian Smith – LB - Hope Brian got his degree as well.

Chris Stewart – OG - Chris may want to relook law school.

Darrin Walls – CB - So strange, he was such a high prospect coming out of high school.  That year he left Notre Dame for personal reasons was strange as well.  Someone will pick him up.

Ian Williams – NG - Someone will pick him up as well.

These guys are probably wondering what if they had chosen a school other than Notre Dame.  What if they had played the majority of their college careers under a different coach at Notre Dame. 

Hopefully they will all at least get a tryout with some NFL team.  Maybe Canadian Football.  Hopefully not Arena Football.

Joke of the Day:  Jim Tressel knew about the raid to get Osama bin Laden two weeks ago.  He just never bothered to tell anybody.  :+)