Bank It: E.J. Banks is Irish

The Irish received their second commitment from a defensive back when EJ Banks pledged to Charlie Weis on media day. Banks will join Marlon Pollard in next year's class. EJ plays quarterback but Notre Dame is recruiting him as a defensive back.

Here's ESPN on Banks:

Banks is a dual-threat quarterback with outstanding speed, acceleration and quickness as a runner and will end up likely at wide receiver, but many coaches are going to want to see how he'd turn out at corner first.Plays with confidence and is highly productive. He competes. Overall, Banks is an instinctive guy with very good overall tools and exceptional quickness and suddenness with the ball in his hands. Should make for a fine wide out or corner once he sees fulltime duty there.

I love this from Buckeye Planet (except for that last part)

I am EJ Banks' cousin, his father Edgar Banks is my first cousin...and yes, Joey Galloway is our cous from Bellaire Ohio...Aunt Carol and Uncle Deenie(his parents)...anyway, I think I can have info that may be useful for your site...from time to time...EJ is a excellent student-athlete who has accelerated his football and bball game to the almost elite Pittsburgh status...kinda bias I know...but, being really really real...E will be a steal to whomever signs him next year...and personally all of us here(his family) are telling him tOSU all the way...so when I get a scoop I will pass it along...hope to be back soon... Sonny RoxStar White
McKees Rox

Here's what Banks told the Pittsburgh Gazette:

“It means a lot to me to be going to Notre Dame,” Banks said. “I know that, when I graduate from there, a lot of doors will be opened for me that wouldn’t have been opened if I had chosen to go somewhere else. For football, it is a great place, but it is a lot more than that and all of that weighed into my decision.”

The Fightin' Irish

Manners have their place. The football field is not one of them. For too long it seems that ND has been Monkified on the football field. Neutered, declawed, deboned, denied, defeated.

Thinking back, the Fightin' Irish haven't played with emotion and true grit as a team for years. Oh sure there have been a couple of games, but in many ways the team's play typified the effete lace curtain standard set by the old regime. Ever notice that niceness and politeness often give way to complacency and losing... almost becoming an excuse unto themselves because those other guys "didn't play by the rules?"

The reality is that the rules are defined by the field of play on that day. If the refs are allowing holding, you hold. If the refs are allowing physical play, you rise to the occasion and hit them in the mouth. Those who hide behind the rules are doomed to failure.

"Go out there and hit 'em, crack 'em, crack 'em, smack 'em! Fight to live. Fight to win, win, win, win!" - Knute Rockne

Every game has rules, but once you get on the field, the rules bend and sometimes break under the stress of competition. If you're going to win you have to press your man and many times the rules to the breaking point. That's life. Like Rockne said, you have to fight to live and fight to win. One of the things I give Charlie the most credit for is for not complaining about the Bush Push. USC did what they had to do and won. Those aren't the rules, but they were on that day.

And when the players do get into a fight here or there, talk a little trash or celebrate too much, Irish fans have to know, that's okay. It's part of the game. ND fans are full of micro policy police worried that every brush with the edge will tarnish ND's reputation. Like the playground mother who won't let boys be boys because they worry how it will make them look... that we'll be like everyone else. Well, if that's fighting for victory, so be it.

"It's not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or how the doer of deeds could have done them better, but the man who is actually in the arena, who's face is marred by dust and sweat and blood." - Teddy Roosevelt

When ND won in '88, it wasn't always pretty. But guys like Stams and Pritchett would do whatever it took on the field to fight and win.



Now, of course there are boundaries and hopefully we won't look as stupid as Boston College tearing up the turf or MSU/USC planting flags. But I write this because Charlie's expecting a more vocal, more physical and more emotion filled football team this year... the Irish HAVE to play that way if they're going to win and we saw some evidence of that at the Blue and Gold game. But I expect fans to use some perspective when things don't look quite how they would have acted. We're going to look cocky sometimes and nasty at others.

Football is a violent sport and not always fair.

If the Irish are going to win, they're going to have to do it being the Fightin' Irish.

It is our legacy.

Harrison Smith to be Irish

The 6'2", 205 safety stolen out of the cradle of the Vols not only clocked a sub 4.4 40, but he has natural football skills. Smith told Scout, "Awareness is probably my best strength. I can read what's going on and what people are doing around me." Those who have seen his film confirm his speed and his instincts, a rarity for so physically gifted an athlete.

Smith and huge Irish target Chris Donald both finished behind Irish recruit Golden Tate for Mr. Football in Tennessee. According to Scout's free page,

he recorded 61 tackles, 11 tackles for loss, five interceptions (two returned for scores), three forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries. On offense, Smith ran for 1,312 yards and 17 touchdowns on 155 carries. He also caught 32 passes for 446 yards and six touchdowns; he bench presses 305, squats 385 and has a 36" vertical jump. Smith reports a 3.7 core GPA, 28 ACT and an 1850 SAT.

So he's smart, too.

Rival Maryville High coach George Quarles offered up a strong compliment for Smith, "Harrison Smith is - and I love the guys we have from Maryville - but Harrison Smith is the real deal, I think," Quarles said on the News Sentinel Sport Page radio show. "He's super talented."

WBIR interviewed Smith earlier this month.