Unhappy in South Bend

It has been almost a week now since Charlie Weis’ firing and I think it is time for me to voice my opinion on Weis’ five-year stay in South Bend. First, I’ll start with the numbers: Weis was originally hired in December of 2004. His contract was for six years, for about $2 million a season. His extension, which he received just seven games into the first year of his contract, was for 10 years and valued at approximately $30-40 million. This extension was given after Weis led Notre Dame to a 5-2 start in 2005. One of the games they lost in the 2005 season was the memorable “Bush Push” matchup against USC. Notre Dame went on to finish the season 9-3, ending with a Fiesta Bowl loss to Ohio State.

In his five seasons with Notre Dame, Weis posted a record of 35-27. Not bad, but also not worth the $30-40 million extension he received. After the 9-3 finish in 2005, the Fighting Irish improved in 2006 with a 10-3 record, finishing with another bowl game loss, but this time to LSU in the Sugar Bowl. Then, in the 2007 season things began to take a turn for the worst as the Fighting Irish finished their season 3-9. The 2008 season showed signs of hope when Weis led his team to a 7-6 finish and finally won a bowl game, defeating Hawaii. This year, Charlie’s 6-6 record in his final season in South Bend did not meet expectations, and ultimately led to his dismissal.

After Weis’ first two seasons at Notre Dame, I originally believed that he was indeed the “offensive genius” many had titled him to be, in addition to being a generally productive coach. Boy did he have me, and the rest of the football world, fooled. It took me a while to figure out why Weis’ last three seasons were completely different than the first two. Recruiting sure wasn’t the issue. In 2006 Notre Dame had the eighth-ranked recruiting class in the country, in 2007 they had the eighth-ranked class again, in 2008 they had the second-ranked class and in 2009 they had the 21st ranked class—all impressive numbers for a team that wasn’t bring home many wins.

This fall, I had an epiphany, realizing that Weis had been winning in his first two seasons with someone else’s players. Former Notre Dame coach, Tyrone Willingham, and his staff recruited Brady Quinn, Jeff Samardzija, Anthony Fasano, Maurice Stovall, Tom Zbikowski, Darius Walker and many other playmakers Weis used to win games. Typically, when a new coach takes a college football job, they are given a two to three-year grace period to recruit and develop the players they feel are best for their system. For whatever reason, Charlie Weis did better with the players he didn’t recruit than with those he did recruit.

In my opinion, Weis was not fired because of the poor records he was producing. Instead, it came down to a few key statistics. While Charlie Weis was head coach, Notre Dame went 3-2 against Navy, losing to them two out of the last three seasons. They tallied an embarrassing 0-5 record against USC, being outscored 85-190. They made only three bowl appearances and lost two of them. Finally, as an underlying college football standard, at least one that I grew up with, Notre Dame is never supposed to lose to Syracuse, Air Force or Navy, which were all done while Weis was head coach.

Like most people, I am happy with Charlie Weis’ dismissal and think it was well deserved. He has proven with his time in the NFL that he is a fantastic offensive coordinator, but his five seasons in Notre Dame showed that great assistants do not always translate to successful head coaches. Although Weis has taken endless amounts of criticism over the past two seasons, he is a winner in the end—at least at the bank. Notre Dame owes him $18 million for firing him, and he will most likely return to the NFL to accept an offensive coordinating job. His legacy in Notre Dame is something I’m sure he would like to forget, but he can prove himself to be a winner again once he takes a job in the NFL. For Notre Dame, I just hope this is a lesson learned and the coach they choose to fill Charlie Weis’ position has prior head coach experience.