Posted on 11/30/2009 11:14:11 AM PST by My Favorite Headache
Charlie Weis is out as Notre Dame head football coach, a source close to the program told the Daily News.
AD Jack Swarbrick has decided to make a change after Weis finished the season with a 6-6 record and four straight losses to Navy, Pitt, Connecticut and Stanford.
Weis coached Notre Dame for five years and leaves with a 35-27 record. He has told friends in South Bend he has at least six offers from NFL teams to become their offensive coordinator.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/college/2009/11/30/2009-11-30_source_notre_dame_fires_head_coach_charlie_weis_.html#ixzz0YN6yjvNp
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
The problem is Lou got 5 exemptions per year from the the University’s academic standards which are much higher than the NCAA’s.
No one since has been able to get them. Which is why Urban Meyer is in Florida.
how many ND defensive players have been drafted in the last 5 years?
you give a blue-chip linebacker the choice of USC or ND and see how fast they run to southern cali. oh wait, they won't get into ND anyway due to the academic requirements.
As a Bearcat fan who attended UC, I certainly hope not!
ND is not what ND was 15-20 years ago. Not even close. There is little draw to go there any longer not being a state college that is going to a BCS Bowl which is usually how it works.
Without mentioning names, I know first hand of some reprobates that have played for ND unde Willingham and Weis.
Your point is well made and taken. I have a feeling, in Weis' instance, the problems were more defensive, rather than collegiate, in nature. Weis constructed a potent and effective offensive at ND, and he recruited some very able talent to a difficult school to get into. His problem was he couldn't build a defense that could stop a powder-puff team. For some reason, like a lot of great offensive coordinators, quality defenses just escape them.
NDs problems seems to have been more in the trenches. ND has probably one of the most talented offensive skill players, as a unit, in college. But the defense has been pathetic.
Yup it has gone from THE football school down to “Northern Inidiana Catholic University”
Fixed after Zero's visit:“Northern Inidiana Catholic In Name Only University”
LOL, good one with the CINO...lol
I don’t root for them any longer.
ND certainly doesn’t represent Catholics.
I know about the incident to which you are probably referring. No organization is perfect, not even ND - but, ND (and many of the teams that aren't perennial BSC favorites) have far fewer problems than a Ohio State or some of the SEC teams.
Moreover, ND graduates FAR more players than Ohio State could ever dream about graduating, to say nothing of the SEC teams. And, to give credit where credit is do, Carrol has done a good job of improving graduation rates at USC.
To be a successful college football coach, you need to spend 70% of your time recruiting and 30% coaching. For the pros you spend 80% of your time coaching and 20% handling personalities (good and bad) on your team and the owner. Two different management problems. Not surprised college coaches do poorly in the pros (i.e. Lou Holtz) and pro coaches do poorly in college (i.e., Charlie Weiss). One of the few that did it well in both was Jimmy Johnson. I talked to a lot of former “Landry” Cowboys who couldn’t stand Johnson. They described him as “Rah Rah”. When you look at what Johnson did was pretty much clean the stables in Dallas and start over with nothing but rookies (college players) who were probably still into the rah rah thing. Ultimately, Johnson failed to manage the owner and was gone. But he left with a ring and put the Cowboys on center stage for a decade. Not a bad resume. Mind you, this is a Redskins fan saying this.
NICINOU, I like it
I am glad you approve of my change. :)
Despite the limited action, Pike's passing numbers are actually slightly better than those of Florida's Tim Tebow, who won the Heisman in 2007.
Pike:
+ 162-for-249 passing, 2,048 yards and 23 TDs and 3 INTs.
+ Passer rating of 162.22.
+ He's had two games with 30+ completions, and four games with 300+ yards.
Tebow:
+ 162-of-244 passing, 2,166 yards, 17 TDs and 4 INTs.
+ Passer rating of 160.67
+ He hasn't completed more than 17 passes in a game this season, and hasn't thrown for more than 255 yards.
Certainly Tebow is the most dangerous running quarterback in the country, so he's got a large edge over Pike in that category. But Tebow also has one of the nation's top defenses in his own locker room. Pike's defensive mates aren't nearly as dominant, so he's had to earn his unbeaten record this year more than Tebow has earned his.
Being born in 1968 I never got the whole Catholic = Automatic ND fan formula thing but I can understand older generations where they grew up with explicit or implicit “Catholics Need Not Apply” sings at most unviersities.
You are absolutely correct. You can’t compare the USCs and OSUs to ND academically. They are at a disadvantage versus those schools on the field due to that.
But, I really think that if you look at the poor records of Weis and Willingham, that a big part of the problems is finding the right coach that can take advantage of the talent that ND does get, which is still top flight...just not up there with some of the elite schools player for player.
An innovative coach like Urban Meyer did very well with alot of 2 and some 3 star athletes at Utah before getting the UF gig.
The issue at ND is not beating USC and OSU, the critical issue is losing to Navy,UcoNN and Pitt etc.
They have underperformed their recruits compared to the teams that beat them on the field...same goes for Purdue,BC and Mich St type teams, they are out recruiting those schools as well.
“Without mentioning names, I know first hand of some reprobates that have played for ND under Willingham and Weis.”
I’m sure that there are a few reprobates that ND admits. However, it just takes too many of them to build a top college football team. The top state U’s will let any ham sandwich into the school. My sister-in-law was an English professor at Oklahoma for several years. The writing ability, or lack thereof, of many of their players was horrendous. Bob Stoops is a good coach, but if he can’t get these types of students into the school he will not win. No matter where he is. It is much easier to build a national championship basketball team, because you need less borderline academic, ahem, student athletes.
Oddly enough, as a Ohioan myself, I've never seen the Bearcats play. But, his record of accomplishment speaks for itself there. I don't know the terms of his current contract to include whether or not it includes an escape clause.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.