Matt Carufel Leaves Notre Dame

This is intriguing news. Matt Carufel was a highly recruited, 4-star, offensive lineman out of Cretin-Derham Hall. In 2006 he was the best player coming out of Minnesota and the 5th best OT accoring to Rivals.

I was actually at a USC/Notre Dame game in 2006 when Carufel was visiting. I noticed the CDH letterman's jacket on the sideline and then of course in the coming months he committed to the Irish over offers from Florida, Miami, Iowa and Minnesota.

As of last week he has decided to leave South Bend and is likely going to choose between Minnesota and Iowa to continue his football career. He won't be able to play a snap until 2009 so he won't be helping the gophers anytime soon but this has bigger implications than just PT at TCF Stadium.

Notre Dame has been sniping players from Cretin for years and finally having 1 kid who soured on the program there can only help (even just a little). For now the one kid that matters is WR Mike Floyd who is considering Notre Dame. Does this have any impact on his college decision? Hard to say. If he has any sort of relationship with Carufel I'm sure he'll get the 411 on why Matt was disenfranchised with the Irish. And I'm sure the CDH coaches will get a full debriefing. Could this be the year that MN lands the kid Notre Dame wants and we finally get our foot in the door at CDH? Since it is one of the top 2 or 3 programs in the state it would be nice to start keeping the best from St. Paul in state for 4 more years.