Charlie Weis and ND Football

Earlier I had posted a rant about Tyrone Willingham on the week of the ND/Washington game, a game in which the Irish thoroughly dominated and embarrassed the Huskies. The game was not necessarily an accurate barometer of how the Irish were progressing due to the sad state of the Huskie program. However, at that time, I thought that the young Irish team was making reasonably good progress. How wrong I was.

To back track briefly, I had thought, prior to the season, that the Irish would finish 7-5 on the season, with an outside shot at 8-4. My prediction was based on the fact that the Irish were coming off an historically bad season coupled with the extreme youth, especially on the offensive side of the ball. What I did not anticipate was that the Irish would regress after their 4-2 start. That’s the alarming part....instead of improving in the last 6 games of the season, they appeared to backtrack.

After a week of speculation, Notre Dame decided to bring Charlie Weis back for another year. On balance, it’s probably the right decision considering the need for stability in the program and considering how young the team was. In the past week or so, I’ve gone over the pros and cons of whether Weis should come back.

Here are the pros:
(1) He has done a fantastic job of recruiting. Under Weis, the Irish has enjoyed some of the best recruiting since the late 1980’s under Lou Holtz. The recruiting efforts by Bob Davie and Tyrone Willingham pale in comparison.

(2) The deck was stacked against Weis last year in terms of personnel, as noted in my earlier entry. This forced Weis to throw players into the fray before they were prepared. This year, the stars on the offense were either freshmen or sophomores. The QB, Jimmy Clausen, is a sophomore. Robert Hughes and Armando Allen, both RBs, are sophomores. The starting TE, Kyle Rudolph, is a freshman. Golden Tate, the speedy WR, is a sophomore and Michael Floyd, the other starting WR, is a freshmen. I don’t recall such a young outfit as this.

I think that it’s fair to see what Weis can do with this group and see if they can develop further. If this group had been all seniors and juniors, then I would be very disappointed.

(3) Weis is a great fit for ND. Being a graduate of the University (1978), he understands the values, culture and history of ND like very few coaches can. Despite a reputation for arrogance, he has represented the University quite well.

(4) HIs coaching ability was evident in the first two years at ND when he took the Irish to two consecutive BCS bowl games. I don’t think that he became a bad coach overnight. The appalling recruiting under Willingham greatly impacted the Irish and really showed up last year and to a lesser extent, this year. Remember, Brady Quinn did not blossom as a QB until his junior year, which was Weis’s first year. Clausen is only a sophomore and let’s see if he can explode next year as Quinn did in his junior year.

(5) More and more programs are discovering the virtue of stability and that includes ND. Starting with the fall of 2001, ND has gone through 4 head coaches (Davie, George O’Leary, Tyrone Willingham and Charlie Weis). That hardly augurs well for a program in terms of stability and especially in the area of recruiting. If ND were to fire Weis now, that would disrupt yet another promising recruiting class.

Okay here are the cons against retaining Weis:

(1) Offensive line: despite the youth of the skill position players, the offensive line are composed of veterans. One senior and 4 juniors make up the starting unit. By the end of the season, they should have played like a veteran unit and dominating opposing defenses. Yet, it has not worked out that way. ND has not had a great offensive line since 1993. It all starts with the offensive line. In terms of the running game, the offensive line has been lackluster under Weis and this has led to increasing the burden on the youthful skill position players and a certain amount of predictability to Weis’s offensive scheme.

While the hiring of John Latina, 4 years ago, was initially hailed by ND fans, it has become clear that he has not done the job. It was thought that, since he was a protege of one of the great offensive line coaches ( Joe Moore) in college football history, he might restore the reputation of ND offensive lines. When Joe Moore coached the offensive line during the Holtz years, every single offensive lineman, under his tutelage, went on to play in the NFL and that’s over a span of 8 years. That’s an incredible track record. Some coaches have the touch and others don’t. Joe Moore clearly did. It was hoped that some of the Joe Moore magic would rub off on John Latina and, judging from the track performance, it appears that has not happened.

Since ND has made the decision to retain Weis, he should replace Latina.

(2) Over reliance on clever.complex offensive schemes: That might work well in the NFL where the talent is pretty much evenly spread out and you can devote unlimited time for practices, meetings and film work. In contrast, NCAA rules dicate that players can only spend 20 hours per week in practice. This should be taken into account in deciding how complex an offensive scheme should be. More emphasis should be placed on fundamentals and developing toughness in players.

One of the shocking confessions by Weis last year was that his practices were not physical. He was taking the NFL approach (which encompasses a preseason, a 16 game regular season, plus the playoffs) in conserving his players’ energy and reducing the possibility of injuries. He needed to change his approach in light of the fact that he has more players (85 vs the 50 players on a typical pro squad) and the fact that the college season is shorter than the pro season. To be honest, I couldn’t believe it when I heard Weis’s confession that the Irish needed to be more physical in practices. When one hears stories about legendary ND coaches such as Leahy, Parseghian or Holtz, almost always you will hear about how “brutal” practices were.

I say more physicality and less reliance on complex offensive schemes, especially with regard to the offensive line.

(3) Player Development:

Some have questioned whether Charlie is doing well enough in this department. This area goes hand in hand with the offensive line situation. On the one hand, several Willingham recruits blossomed under Weis when he first arrived at ND....Quinn, Stovall and Samardzija. They had been underperformers under Willingham and then really blossomed with Charlie’s arrival.

On the other hand, there is some concern due to the fact that the Irish appeared to have regressed in the last half of this season instead of progressing. Is this indicative of whether Charlie is weak in the area of player development ? There is a fair amount of debate on the internet regarding this issue. To be honest, I’m not sure how I see this issue but think that we will have a better idea next year.

In summary, I think that bringing him back for another year is probably the best decision. There will be considerable pressure on Weis to produce next year for two basic reasons: (1) There will be no more Willingham players on the team; and (2) the 2009 team will be, on paper, the most talented team fielded since 1993. It’s fair to say that ND fans will expect a 10-2 season and a BCS bowl game win or it will be history for Weis.