Instant Analysis - Nov. 30
Charlie Weis Fired By Notre Dame
Pete
Fiutak
Charlie Weis is out as the Notre Dame head coach, and it’s a year too late for many Irish fans.
Don’t weep for him; this is not your normal firing of a head coach. He’ll be paid roughly $18 million to go away, and he’ll have an NFL offensive coordinator job for the taking the second he wants it. His life will be fine, he’s set for a few lifetimes in his bank account, and he’ll be able to do what he does best without all the headaches of being the head coach of college football’s most visible program.
Weis was the equivalent of a great play call that didn’t work. He was what the program needed as far as an Xs and Os coach, but he lacked the personality, the people skills, and the recruiting ability to make Notre Dame a superpower again. He failed to let others into his program to provide insight and to try to help, and because of the BCS runs in his first two seasons, it was impossible to convince him, or anyone, that the whole thing needed to be torn down and rebuilt to get to the level that Notre Dame wanted to be at. And why should he have thought any differently?
Remember what was happening at the time. Had Matt Leinart’s fumble gone through the end zone and not out of bounds, and had Reggie Bush not shoved Leinart in the back for the winning touchdown in USC’s epic 34-31 win in 2005, Notre Dame would’ve won the game and would’ve played Vince Young and Texas in the Rose Bowl for the national championship. After the USC loss, Notre Dame won its last five games of the regular season, including wins over BYU and Tennessee, and the hype would’ve been so off the charts after beating what some considered to be one of the greatest teams ever that it would’ve been a lock to send Weis and his team to Pasadena. Instead, the Irish lost to Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl, got back to the BCS after a nice 10-2 season, thanks to a tremendous year from Brady Quinn to hide the miserable pass defense, and were exposed by JaMarcus Russell and LSU in the Sugar Bowl. Why wouldn’t Notre Dame want to lock up Weis after his first two seasons?
But there’s far more to being a big-time college football coach than simply knowing how to coach on the field. It comes down to players, and it comes down to forging relationships to get those players in the first place. While Weis was able to bring in a some big-time recruits here and there, like OT Sam Young and QB Jimmy Clausen, he didn’t get the bulk talents to make the Irish a superpower. Pete Carroll is a nice coach, and Urban Meyer is a solid tactician, but they’re legends because they have consistently brought in lots and lots of elite players. Weis's good recruiting classes weren't good enough, but the bigger problem was his inability to be a proper figurehead. The Weis act works when the wins come; then he’s seen as a genius who does what he has to in the name of winning, like Bill Belichick. When the wins aren’t there, then no one will do much to fight for his cause.
Even in hindsight, Notre Dame did the right thing to give Weis one more year. This was the season when his recruits matured and the team was supposed to hit its stride and be special, and in several ways it was. Clausen blossomed into a first round draft pick, Golden Tate became the best wide receiver in the country, and the offense became explosive and productive. While 6-6 isn’t good enough for a program with dreams of the BCS, all six losses came by a touchdown or less. It’s a cliché and it’s not always fair to do this, but yeah, Notre Dame really was six plays away from going 12-0.
Now Weis will be a footnote in the long and storied history of Notre Dame football. It didn’t work out, but it was extremely interesting theater.
Richard
Cirminiello
Karma. You really never want to poke it with a stick. Charlie Weis learned that the hard way over the last five seasons.
Weis arrived in South Bend like the bully who’d owned the playground for years. Brash and outspoken, he said all the right things, but never backed it up during those five years, boasting the Hawaii Bowl as his lone postseason triumph. With no head coaching experience or experience at this level, he wound up being out of his league, yet the arrogance, not to be confused with confidence, always found its way to the surface with Weis. At a school that prides itself on its bridge to the past, he earned a reputation for thumbing his nose at pockets of alums, which followed him throughout his tenure. If you want to channel the cantankerous Bill Parcells, you better be able to back it up on the field like Parcells. Only after he’d been humbled by back-to-back miserable seasons and incessant questions about his job security did Weis begin to shed the aura of arrogance and superiority. Too late.
Five years was more than enough time to recognize that as head coaches go, Weis is a pretty darn good offensive coordinator. He’ll go back to the NFL where he belongs and Notre Dame can begin yet another search for the next Lou Holtz. The Irish and AD Jack Swarbick better get this one right because after Bob Davie, Tyrone Willingham, and Weis, this program can’t afford another lightweight on the sidelines.
Michael Bradley
The nation’s worst-kept college football secret was finally revealed Monday afternoon when Notre Dame cut a colossal check to Charlie Weis and sent him on his way, the third straight coach in South Bend to underachieve but by far the most expensive. Weis came to ND on the heels of a successful run with the Patriots, but given the revelations following his departure of the team’s cheating and sign-stealing, it makes one wonder whether part of the Weis “genius” was simply knowing what the other guy was going to do, before he did it. Weis wasn’t even the school’s first (or second, or third, or fourth) choice. He got the gig when Urban Meyer, Bob Stoops and Jon Gruden turned it down and George O’Leary thought he needed to pad his educational resume to get a football coaching job. That’s like a physics professor lying about his collegiate athletic experience to land a teaching position.
Weis’ “schematic advantage” never materialized, and he only won big with Ty Willingham’s players. He paid scant attention to the defensive side of the ball, while trying to load up the offense with playmakers who could make him look more smart. But his biggest sin was in having never led a program at any level. That made him susceptible on the recruiting trail and during the operation of a game. Weis finished 2-8 against Michigan and USC and 1-12 against ranked teams. His teams lacked talent, and he lacked the ability to manage big games. His decision to throw late in the game against Michigan this year led directly to the Wolverines’ comeback win and was just one of many gaffes. Weis wasn’t ready to lead a program, and inserting him into one of the toughest jobs in college football was a mistake by Notre Dame.
There will be plenty of people who are happy to see Weis go, especially among South Bend supporters, and he should have been cut loose after last season. Had ND given Ty Willingham more than three years, it probably would have axed Weis following the ’08 campaign. Instead, it felt guilty about cutting Willingham’s tenure so short and went too long with Weis. Whoever is next in line had better have experience running a program, recruiting players who can handle a rigorous academic load and living up to expectations that seem unreasonable given the landscape of college football and Notre Dame’s desire to be a world-class academic institution. Weis couldn’t do any of that and is out of work. He’s rich, but he’s unemployed.