Charlie Weis

by SuperBentley on Nov 12, 2007 2:32 PM CST

Just a quick question about Charlie Weis. Did anybody see his postgame response after losing to Air Force?

When asked about the problems at Notre Dame, Weis said that he didnt know whether or not the blame was with "the teacher" or "the student." Now, I have been barely able to watch any Notre Dame game, but how ridiculous is it that a coach whose team is dying is even alluding to the idea that this current skid is more or less, not his fault?
I've never coached college football before, but I would imagine that it is inappropriate for a coach to use a public forum to suggest that his players are the reason for the lopsided record. Anybody think what he did is ok?

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He answers the question

just by asking it.

Only a genius can lose to non-scholarship athletes two weeks in a row. Make no mistake. Those kids playing at the academy schools would probably be playing D2 ball if not for the service commitment.

Zook turned Illinois around after a bad year -- but they at least showed a pulse last season and gave good teams a run for their money.
Something about this bad ND smells a bit different than a rebuidling project. To be searching for answers this late in the season reeks of disaster.

We'll find out if Weis is Zook or Robinson next season.

Cats and dogs sleeping together.

by EYESofBEVO on Nov 12, 2007 2:48 PM CST reply actions

I'm a fan of Zook's recruiting...

...and have enjoyed his turnaround. However, one must be honest with one's self and point out that Zook went 2-9 and 2-10 his first 2 seasons. Meanwhile, Weis went 9-3 and 10-3 in his first 2 seasons.

Zook hasn't been to 2 BCS Bowls. Weis has.

Weis didn't recruit these juniors & seniors and they suck! Weis easily has the #1 recruiting class in the country. He's pushed a good amount of deadwood out of the program and will have everyone on the same page next season. It was no surprise when Mack refused to try to make a home&home work.

--- All roads to the Big-XII Championships run through OU and the RRS. It's not just "another game." ---

by HornChamps on Nov 12, 2007 3:05 PM CST up reply actions

You give him way too much credit

Zook took a DOA program and has turned it around. They had never won more than 3 games a year from 2001-2004.

Weis is going the opposite direction and losing to programs with non-scholarship athletes who should be playing DII ball.
Kids are regressing on his watch. I live in Chicago and watch alot of their games.
It is ALL on Weis. He does not know how to turn HS kids in to college players.

It was no surprise when Mack refused to try to make a home&home work.

I seriously doubt this happened. Mack has no intention of being the HC past 2010. He would have no truck with ND in 2013.
Plus they want those matchups on nuetral sites, something I doubt Texas would give in to. It would mean television rights to NBC.

Cats and dogs sleeping together.

by EYESofBEVO on Nov 12, 2007 3:41 PM CST up reply actions

What do.....

.....Arkansas, UCLA and OleMiss all have in common? Of course these are our "tougher" OOC opponents with "history". All 3 have HCs on the hotseat. He's cherrypicking patsies, as has been his m.o. for 20 years now.

--- All roads to the Big-XII Championships run through OU and the RRS. It's not just "another game." ---

by HornChamps on Nov 12, 2007 3:51 PM CST up reply actions

S.S.D.D.

At least you're not harboring a hidden agenda. It's right out there in the open. You've thread-jacked a Diary about Charlie Weis and turned it into yet another "Mack & Deloss schedule high school teams for OOC opponents".

Well, at least they say consistency is a good thing...right?

Announcers say my adopted kid runs a 10.1 in the 300m, and announcers are NEVER wrong.

by Shake on Nov 13, 2007 8:34 AM CST up reply actions

yeah

forget the service academies, even with relatively mediocre recruiting of late (at least by ND standards), the Irish still have more overall talent than half of the teams on their schedule, and I can think of only two teams (USC and Michigan) that have a clear, unarguable edge in talent.

This means that Charlie Weis can't beat anybody with better talent, comparable talent, or as evidenced these past two weeks, inferior talent.

1-9? I know the schedule is tough, but any coach worth a damn in terms of motivational skills, organizational skills, and football strategy should be able to take this team and win 3-5 games.

by BrooklynHorn on Nov 12, 2007 4:00 PM CST up reply actions

Why should anyone believe better luck next year?

Good recruits don't get that bad for no reason. They aren't being coached on the fundamentals, and they are getting the spirit knocked out of them. It's not enough to clear out the "deadwood," you actually have to put some effort into getting the new players to grow.

Put it this way: absent anything else, if someone told you a given team was heavy on underclassmen and went 1 - 9 this year and couldn't execute on the field, would your first solution be "add more players who don't know what they're doing yet"?

I used to teach a bit in grad school and the most satisfaction I got was in finding a way to get through to the students who weren't grasping it the first time. I didn't call them out for being dumb or slow, I figured that they just needed me to find another way to say it. I did go after the ones who weren't trying, but in private.

I watched a little of the ND - Air Force game on Saturday and it wasn't that the ND players weren't trying. The best you could say about Weis' comments was that perhaps he was being inarticulate rather than throwing the kids under the bus.

As someone else noted in this thread, Ty Willingham is much better at clearly throwing his players under the bus, not that this is a trait worth emulating.

by DC Trojan on Nov 12, 2007 4:11 PM CST up reply actions