Sports
Welcome to the Charlie Weiss Era
The sordid, ugly Notre Dame football affair has been headlines for a while now: so long Ty Willingham, a good coach and a first-rate human being; hello Charlie Weiss, the next savior for Notre Dame football.
Just remember, Charlie, what happened to Ty Willingham, the last savior of Notre Dame football.
Apparently, Urban Meyer (the Notre Dame savior-in-waiting) noted what happened to Ty, which is in part why he ended up in Florida. Notre Dame canned Willingham to get Meyer (an ex-ND assistant), but Meyer calculated the variables, starting with national championships, and chose Florida over Notre Dame. It’s much easier to win when you have top recruiting in your back yard. It’s also a hell of a lot easier to win when you can recruit for 4.4 forties instead of 1000 math and verbal combined scores. Add to that the unbelievable pressure of the Notre Dame job . . . and the fickle impatience of the new regime . . . and it’s clear that what was once the dream job now may be the impossible dream.
I’ve vented my wrath over the Willingham firing at great length in other venues, so I’ll side step that topic here, other than to repeat than Willingham was good for Notre Dame football: he restored dignity to the program. I’m not saying that the program had turned into the cesspool that a lot of other college programs have become (please tell me, why does Gary Barnett still have a job?), but it was fraying around the edges, starting back in the Lou Holtz era. Willingham’s emphasis on personal responsibility and dignity above all else was a much needed values check. I would agree that his numbers weren’t up to Notre Dame standards, but everything else about the program was exemplary . . . and he had TWO YEARS LEFT ON HIS CONTRACT . . . but I said I wouldn’t get into this now, so I’m going to stop.
I’ll also not get too deep into the Meyer pursuit, other than to repeat this: Meyer, as good as he is, is no better for the job than Willingham was. Meyer is a genius at creating winning football programs, but he never had to deal with the lead weight of expectation. By taking the Florida job, he’ll have to deal with that problem, but without the extra burdens imposed by Notre Dame’s academic standards and lack of local recruiting base. I fully expect Meyer to win a championship or two before he leaves Florida, but he wouldn’t have done any better at Notre Dame than Willingham did.
My friends and I have a pet phrase that applies to Notre Dame’s coaching search: it seems that the University “f—ed up in reverse” . . . that is, they did everything wrong and ended up with exactly the right coach. You need a coach to restore a winning expectation? Then reach into the Parcells/Belicheck school and pick the most accomplished pupil (well, frankly, I would have been as happy with Romeo Crennel as Weiss, who are both equally accomplished . . . Lord knows I love a smothering defense . . . and that sure would have blunted the unfortunate racial overtones of the Willingham firing). Want someone to convince recruits that Notre Dame would be the best step toward a pro career? Then how about a guy with three Super Bowl rings, a guy who was more than just along for the ride; how about the man responsible for the offense, a man who took a sixth-round quarterback and helped him grow into perhaps the best in the NFL? Want someone who is ready to deal with Notre Dame’s difficult situation? Then how about the man who cobbled together an offense that was always just good enough to win, no matter what he had to work with, a man whose teams were always better than the sum of their parts? You want a Notre Dame man? Weiss graduated from ND in ‘78. Any more questions?
Before we go any further, I should make it clear that I was a Willingham man from the day Bob Davie left. When George O’Leary resigned after the résumé incident, I thought it another case of f—ing up in reverse. Willingham, though, didn’t get the job done (though he had TWO YEARS LEFT ON HIS CONTRACT). I say this only to put my next statement into the proper context: if Charlie Weiss can’t win at Notre Dame, then no one can.
I like the moves that Weiss made when he got the job: he made it clear that the standards Willingham re-enforced at Notre Dame were givens, and that the program had to win. Not just be competitive, but win. He made it clear that anything short of Notre Dame’s historic dominance was unacceptable. Then, he imposed a “no whining” gag order on anyone associated with the football program: no one was allowed to make excuses concerning Notre Dame’s schedule, lack of recruiting base, or academic standards. He reasoned that Notre Dame has won before with these limitations, and they can win again in spite of these limitations (actually, on this score, he’s not completely correct: Notre Dame’s schedule always had more than its share of patsies, and the unusually high academic standards don’t go back much past the seventies, though that still means Devine and Holtz won with them). Above all, he said that Notre Dame is going to win, tough schedule, academics, and all. Note that he didn’t say he was going to give it his best effort, he said it was going to happen. In the best tradition of Parcells and Belicheck, he set high standards to be met immediately, instead of plotting a course to reach higher standards. As under Willingham, dedication, discipline, teamwork, good behavior, and academics are all taken as givens . . . to that he added winning. And finally, he showed up with an offensive playbook the size of a phone book, more than twice the size of Willingham’s playbook (he is also an offensive wizard . . . remember Stanford?), reasoning “that these guys are supposed to be smart, so they shouldn’t have any problem learning all this”. That playbook, by the way, is the same one that helped New England . . . wait for it now . . . win three Super Bowls. Can we finally be done with Urban Meyer?