Hutton: Lack of D-I interest in Dieter puzzling

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TAB MUG HUTTON Andy Lavalley/Post-Tribune ptmet

Updated: December 17, 2011 8:33AM

SOUTH BEND — I’ll never completely understand the art of college football recruiting.

I covered Lowell and Fort Wayne Dwenger in a semistate game in 2007 and John Goodman, a highly prized, highly publicized, 6-3, 207-pound wide receiver/quarterback for Dwenger, had already committed to Notre Dame. Dwenger was 13-0 and pretty invincible. Or at least that’s what I was led to believe after I talked to the sports editors at the Fort Wayne newspaper for some background.

Goodman didn’t play well, Dwenger didn’t play well and the Saints lost to a two-loss Red Devils team.

Off-night for Goodman is what I chalked it up to. I had no real basis to project his future success based on one game. Goodman is finishing up as a backup wide receiver and punt returner on a team that, once you get past Michael Floyd, doesn’t have a deep pool of talented receivers. It’s pretty clear that, for whatever reasons, Goodman wasn’t as good as the high school hype.

Four years later, Gehrig Dieter of South Bend Washington arrives at Morton as a 6-3, 210-pound wide receiver. He set the national record for reception yardage in one game and he’s the career leader for reception yardage in Indiana. He runs a 4.6 40-yard dash, according to Rivals.com. He caught four passes for 116 yards against Morton despite being blanketed by Alfred Dickey, a pretty darn good defensive back.

He had an absolutely amazing 51-yard interception return that ended on the 1 — and yet he is having trouble getting an offer from a major Division I school. He has had an incredible high school career. According to Rivals, only SMU has delivered a scholarship offer. ND is his dream school but they’re not biting.

Lots of MAC schools are dangling offers. A Rivals story said that Goodman actually called Wisconsin 25 times to try to drum up some interest because the Badgers were short on receivers. No one returned his call. It’s possible that it’ll all end well for Dieter whether he gets a major Division I offer or not. Maybe the best schools are waiting to see who’s left when the dust clears.

I hope it works out well for him. He’s a heckuva player and it seems like he’s been type cast as a MAC-level player by the experts.

BCS a long shot for ND: A BCS bowl game for Notre Dame? Forget it, says Jerry Palm of CBSSports.com.

The Irish are ranked for the first time since the beginning of the season but they have to move into the BCS top 14 to get a bid. There needs to be a chain of upsets for the team to even have a chance.

And Palm, of Schereville, says it’s virtually impossible, pointing out that no three-loss team without a conference affiliation has ever earned BCS bid.

“I wouldn’t hold my breath,” Palm said. “Beating Stanford isn’t going to move the needle for them that much.”

ND’s Brooks could have big role: Watching Joey Brooks try to play offensively for the Notre Dame basketball team the first two seasons, it was fair to wonder if he’d ever be more than a defensive specialist off the bench for specific situations.

With an offensive-minded coach, Brooks seemed clumsy and out of sync trying to find the right spots in Mike Brey’s offense.

When he did get the ball and shoot, it was usually a hold-your-breath moment, followed by a crooked shot.

It was strange to see a Big East player, who averaged 22 points his senior year in high school, so uncomfortable shooting the ball.

It’s early but Brooks could star in that “Never Stop Believing” video.

He was the most valuable player of Notre Dame’s 59-53 victory over Detroit, shutting down Ray McCallum Jr. for about 30 minutes after he torched the Irish for four 3-pointers. He also scored 13 points. Brooks was still awkward offensively at times but he scored four of the first six points and he had some huge rebounds.