During the college football offseason, there's not much that could make major headlines for the sport. Recruiting for next season is over, players are working out, coaches are devising schemes, and fans are waiting patiently for a new season.

Unfortunately, the progress of player development and team strategy is not something that will ever make ESPN's bottom line news. Essentially, only impactful negative news stories are the ones that reach the public.

The Notre Dame football program is used to being a hot topic in the offseason because of discussions about their head coach or disappointment about a lack of results on the field. What is the status of the incoming recruiting class? Which players are doing harm off the field? Or when is Charlie Weis (now gone) going to get fired?

But this offseason, Notre Dame football's headline news is far more serious and devastating than any of those complaints. Matt James, a 17-year old, 6'6", 290-pound, 5-star offensive lineman recruit died last Friday after falling from a hotel balcony during a spring break trip. James was a high school senior from Cincinnati, Ohio, and attended Saint Xavier High School, the 4th ranked football team in the state of Ohio.

Matt James was just a normal high school student celebrating his senior year spring break in Panama City, Florida. The young man fell off a balcony in his hotel, and was instantly killed.

Forget about the young man's potential football career, and just think about how devastating the news is to his family, friends, and family-to-be Notre Dame football team. The news hits hard to his closest companions, and reminds us that there are more important things than recruiting battles and football games.

I, for one, was shocked at the news of James' death because of how ordinary of a situation he appeared to be in. When I was a high school senior, I went on a spring break trip to the Bahamas and stayed in a similar kind of hotel. In fact, some of my friends actually spent their spring breaks in Panama City, the same place where James was killed. Not only that, but I have a good friend from Cincinnati who attended Saint Xavier High School and knew the James family. All around, this news was sad and shocking to me, and I can only imagine how the Notre Dame family feels, having known the young man and being excited for his arrival on campus.

Notre Dame will miss James' arrival, and not just because he was a 5-star recruit.

"He really had a dry sense of humor," new Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly said. "He wanted to make a difference. He wanted to stand out. He came because of Notre Dame, but he also came because of me," he said.

I can only imagine the sorrow that a coach feels when one of his own recruits, players, and friends is lost for good. It puts in perspective how useless the complaints and comments about the Notre Dame program are, when put in comparison with the loss of a player in the offseason.

Notre Dame football has gone through a lot of disappointment over the last couple of seasons. A new coach comes in to start a new era, and he's greeted with the death of a top recruit. The Notre Dame program will hopefully be able to come together and become stronger as a team as a result of the loss of a player.

Let's all hope for the best for Notre Dame football in 2010, even if you're one of the many fans that can't stand the attention that the school gets. Life and death is much more serious than wins and losses.