Notre Dame is America's college football team. Notre Dame is another one of those teams that college football needs to be good. They have an easy path to play in the BCS game every year. They even have their own network. The problem is the last five years the Irish have not been nearly as dominant as the Irish and their fans thought it would be. Now it looks like the Charlie Weis era is coming to an end.
When Weis was hired he said at his first press conference " You are a 6-5 team, and you are what you are. If you hired me to be a .500 coach then you hired the wrong guy." Weis is a .500 coach and Notre Dame is who they are. A school that thought it was so superior that it could lure the offensive genius of the New England Patriots to their school and restore the Golden Domer's to the top of the college football world. What they did was dump Tyrone Willingham before his contract was up. That was wrong and now the school is suffering from that.
Weis, along with Eric Mangini, Romeo Crennel, Josh McDaniels and Bill Belichik have all benefited from one player. Tom Brady. He has made and makes all these guys better coaches. Brady is the one who makes adjustments on play calls and throws the ball around the field. Weis was given so much credit as being the architect of the Patriots offense that Notre Dame people overlooked that he had one of the greatest qb's in history. Your play-calling looks a lot better when you have a super stud running your offense. Charlie Weis just couldn't coach up his stellar recruiting class.
To be a college football head coach, you are the face of the school, especially in South Bend. Being smug to the press and not being around in the community can definitely hurt you. Charlie didn't like all the responsibilities that come along with being the head guy. The NFL is a business and franchise's are run like such. You can isolate yourself completely with your players and in the complex. College football requires you to mingle with high school coaches, recruits and even alumni events. There are reports that Weis didn't like doing those things. You have to go to the chicken dinners and ice cream socials even if they seem cheesy.
Its one thing to be a great coordinator, its another thing to be a head coach. Even though head coaches have their specialities, you still have to know how to manage people and make sure you have the right people in place. Weis's offense have been pretty good but his defense's have been awful. They can't stop the run or the pass. As the head coach you can't be so concerned with one side of the ball. Some guys are just great coordinator's and not head coaches. Charlie probably should go back to the NFL and help some of the terrible offenses there.
Charlie Weis is who we thought he was. A great coordinator who didn't bring America's college football team back. Hopefully Notre Dame does the right thing and not let him off the hook.
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