the worst part is waiting.
Mexican Irish | Email | Homepage | 12.05.08 - 10:14 pm | #

Congrats to Chris Stewart for being
ISP/State Farm Student-Athlete of the Year. From B & G Illustrated:

The junior offensive guard and history major is a member of the Academic Honors Program at Notre Dame with a 3.53 GPA, as well as the school’s history honors program. He was selected to Phi Alpha Theta, the national honor society for undergraduates studying history.

I'm glad he came back and did not give up after thinking things over in Texas. I'm hoping he has a great bowl game and 2009 when he becomes in position to be a leader of the most critical aspect of next fall's team.
Jacques du Lac | Email | Homepage | 12.05.08 - 10:49 pm | #

Is Act V where he shoots Hans, only to face off against his brother in the next Die Hard?
Dekom | Email | Homepage | 12.05.08 - 10:52 pm | #

Your title refers to a Steinbeck novel about abandoning your morals to get back your business? Was that an accident? I like the tragedy analogy. It's already a tragedy - like Macbeth, Charlie doesn't know he is the main tragic figure.
jerry | Email | Homepage | 12.05.08 - 10:52 pm | #

Jerry, I'll just say that Steinbeck stole that title from someone else.
Jay | Email | Homepage | 12.05.08 - 11:00 pm | #

At least Jay didn't reference "Of Mice and Men"...because we'd all be wondering who would play the role of Lenny. Gotta go with Charlie...based entirely on their the physical similarities.
Felipe | Email | Homepage | 12.05.08 - 11:12 pm | #

This post is both poignant and funny (hopefully).

Well done, sir.
DomerOC | Email | Homepage | 12.05.08 - 11:15 pm | #

Farce.
Buck Mulligan | Email | Homepage | 12.05.08 - 11:29 pm | #

Horror-comedy buddy flick.
Pat | Email | Homepage | 12.05.08 - 11:41 pm | #

Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this son of York;
And all the clouds that low'r'd upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.

Those are the words of Richard III, notorious hunch-back, child-murdering traitor. Basically, though often misunderstood, this little speech is indicative of Richard's duplicitous nature - saying all the right things, but harboring no such good intent (Hooray for Edward!...now how do I go about stealing the throne?). So, I guess the question is whether CW (and perhaps JS) is just saying the right things right now, or is there actually going to be a some change we can believe in around the throne room at the Gug? Personally, I think CW offers his kingdom for a hummer at the end of the '09 season.
Thundershaker | Email | Homepage | 12.05.08 - 11:56 pm | #

Now that I think of it... I can't imagine anyone who would want to go anywhere near CW's "throne."
Thundershaker | Email | Homepage | 12.05.08 - 11:59 pm | #

I want some of what you're drinking.
Hoosier95 | Email | Homepage | 12.06.08 - 12:06 am | #

So does this mean at the end of next season Charlie is either going to get married or get killed?
Kyle | Email | Homepage | 12.06.08 - 12:13 am | #

From Wikipedia:

Explanation of the novel's title

The title is a reference to the phrase "Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this son [or sun] of York," from William Shakespeare's Richard III.


As for ND's situation, and ND's fans nose dive, I thought Theismann made the most intelligent statement about where ND football is at during tonights football banquet.

You'll have to check the paper to see his quotes. But Theismann hit the nail on the head. Its amazing so many people have been so clueless about ND football's current state of affairs.
atepesm | Email | Homepage | 12.06.08 - 12:15 am | #

And yes, we are definitely witnessing a comedy.

Oh ye of little faith . . . .
atepesm | Email | Homepage | 12.06.08 - 12:23 am | #

"An Offensive Line! An Offensive Line! My kingdom for an Offensive Line!!"
Curse of the Class of '98 | Email | Homepage | 12.06.08 - 12:38 am | #

In honor of Thundershaker;
Who absolutely nailed it!!
Well played thunder. Well played!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-...h?v=- f1cwycSWq0
Anonymous | Email | Homepage | 12.06.08 - 1:34 am | #

Marlowe, Fry and Shakespeare generally wrote a comedie in three acts, a tragedy in five. There are the crossover hybdrids which played out in four. We're in unknown territory here - we've seen a Comedy of Errors (which is one act too long), and Charles 1st (which is one act too short). To be, or not to be, that is the question. Whether to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune ....
Burbank Steve | Email | Homepage | 12.06.08 - 1:41 am | #

More like Theatre of the Absurd...

I think I'll go hang myself for an erection.
IrishBruin | Email | Homepage | 12.06.08 - 2:49 am | #

I seriously learn things from these posts and the comments.

When will they pick the bowl?
Mexican Irish | Email | Homepage | 12.06.08 - 3:48 am | #

From the perspective of all others, it's Schadenfreude.
Big Brown | Email | Homepage | 12.06.08 - 6:10 am | #

You gotta quit drinking that stuff
gwzimm | Email | Homepage | 12.06.08 - 8:17 am | #

Jay

I guess it depends on how much you drink. I'm sober and I think it's a trajedy.
GB | Email | Homepage | 12.06.08 - 9:13 am | #

The Irish will rise again under CW.
NC's in 09-16.
Bank it!
Anonymous | Email | Homepage | 12.06.08 - 9:30 am | #

I certainly hope the Irish will rise again, but the damage inflicted by Malloy may be irreversable ... huge crash like now and the depression when all the ND football related money disapears ... may the perpetrators (malloy et al
) rot in hell
Peter | Email | Homepage | 12.06.08 - 10:13 am | #

Notre Dame Woman's Soccer team advances to final's of NCAA v. North Carolina.
Now that's a football team Notre Dame fans can be proud of.
Anonymous | Email | Homepage | 12.06.08 - 11:01 am | #

'Tis why I love thee, Notre Dame, where jocks fraternize with nerds, and it's all the same person!
flannercock | Email | Homepage | 12.06.08 - 1:17 pm | #

Peter:

Which circle in DANTE'S INFERNO ?
Dana Payne | Email | Homepage | 12.06.08 - 1:36 pm | #

That's an interesting way to look at it...

Rice, Hawaii, Louisiana Tech, Ball State, or Buffalo -- pick your poison?
Louie | Email | Homepage | 12.06.08 - 2:22 pm | #

We're watching a tragedy worthy of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Perhaps you are familiar with his most famous ND soul-destroying tear-jerker, '(Gerry)Faust', but you are unaware that in the last couple of years you have been witness to a masterful adaptation of his lesser known 'Sorrows of Young Werther (Starring Jimmy Clausen as Werther)'.

Here's hoping that next year feels more like Samuel ('not Josh') Beckett's 'Krapp's Last Tape'.
Joe Subway | Email | Homepage | 12.06.08 - 4:56 pm | #

maybe im just the uneducated one on here, but when i saw the "which one are we in, a comedy or tragedy?", i immediately thought of stranger than fiction.
tito | Email | Homepage | 12.06.08 - 5:30 pm | #

oh my GOD just looks at shaquelle's highlights:


http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=W...feature=related

you KNOW out in cali the competition is stiff....he looks like a video game, I'm more excited about him than I was about floyd!!!!
CommonSense | Email | Homepage | 12.06.08 - 5:46 pm | #

THAT KID HAS SOME AGILITY AND SPEED TO BURN!
CommonSense | Email | Homepage | 12.06.08 - 5:46 pm | #

Shakespeare wrote comedies in 3 acts? I think you must have been leaving early, Steve.

We're obviously stuck in one of the later plays that critics refer to as "problem plays" because they cannot be easily classified as comedy or tragedy.

As Wikipedia puts it, "despite ending on a generally happy note for the characters concerned, the darker, more profound issues raised cannot be fully resolved or ignored." Sounds like a prediction for the 2009 season!
Paul | Email | Homepage | 12.06.08 - 7:48 pm | #

Farce - as evident by CW's comments this week (per AP):

Weis said he’s confident he can be successful.

“I don’t think it’s going to be five years down the road or 10 years down the road for that answer to come to fruition. Because you’ve gone from three wins to six wins, now what’s it going to be?” he said. “I think we’ll all have a better answer for that question sitting here this time next year.”
PZ | Email | Homepage | 12.06.08 - 8:58 pm | #

The Malloy comment is interesting...didn't many think Hesburgh had submarined ND football from '54 to '63? (I could have his start wrong)

I have yet to see numbers on what Holtz was allowed to bring in GPA-wise vs. every ND coach since...is there a link to this stat/fact?
mikes1160 | Email | Homepage | 12.06.08 - 9:12 pm | #

Anyone who thinks that ND can't win anymore based on talent is delusion. I have never bought that argument at all.

Holtz won at ND. This was because Holtz was a great coach. Since then we've had Davie (no prior head coaching exp.), then Willingham (woefully unprepared, bad coach, no coordinator exp.), and Weis (good coach in my opinion, just never been a head coach before and has some depth chart and fundamental problems).

It has nothing to do with talent. Great coaches win lots of games. Decent coaches with half their games. Bad coaches win less.

The only problem that the Irish have had in the last 15 years is that we haven't had a great coach.
Brad | Email | Homepage | 12.06.08 - 10:18 pm | #

Now sure about Shaq Evan's. He seems to give up a lot of celebration penalties. :)
ColoradoIrish | Email | Homepage | 12.06.08 - 10:35 pm | #

well, i'd rather get 10 celebration penalties for td's than none :D
CommonSense | Email | Homepage | 12.06.08 - 10:56 pm | #

deep, dark, tragedy
brian custer | Email | Homepage | 12.06.08 - 11:50 pm | #

probally more along the lines of a fantasy, how about "The Tempest",
ND is the
CFB island that we find our selves stranded on, led by Prospero, played by CW.
Gabby | Email | Homepage | 12.07.08 - 1:08 am | #

"Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce." - Karl Marx

If you'll forgive a slightly elongated metaphor - we HAVE seen this before, albeit quite a while ago. And Weis is a farce, however one wants to dice it...

Hesburgh did in fact essentially submarine ND football at first, though I think rather passively. He admired Robert M.Hutchins, who like Fr. Ted became head of a major university - the U. of Chicago - at the age of 36, in the mid 1930s. Hutchins declared that big time collegiate athletics were incompatible with the mission of a university and promptly withdrew the school from the Western Conference (popularly known as the Big 10) and ended most intercollegiate sports, including football - this despite the fact that a U. of Chicago player, Jay Berwanger, had just won the first Heisman Trophy.

I don't profess to know what Hesburgh was thinking, but his actions speak to his intent. He maneuvered Frank Leahy out - the second winningest coach in collegiate history after Rockne - who might have stayed had Hesburgh's admin pushed to keep him.

But it seems that Hesburgh and Joyce didn't much like the odor emanating from Leahy's program - low graduation rates for players, obvious lack of sportsmanship (Frank Varrichione and the fake injury play against Iowa), widespread accusations of dirty on-field play and cheating.

Leahy's first replacement was the milder good guy everyone loved, Terry Brennan. His teams went 9-1 in his first year, 8-2 in his second - and 2-8 in his third. They hovered around .500 or the rest of his tenure. The players graduated more frequently, the reputation for good conduct was restored - but the team didn't win very much.

So the university raided the pro ranks for the very expensive Joe Kuharich, who as coach and GM of the Philly Eagles had extended his own contract as coach with a hefty pay increase. Now Kuharich was an alum and been a great two way player for Leahy, but he was pompous, arrogant, boorish, and more. He bragged about how he was going to bring a "professional ethic" to the underperforming college players at ND - his version of a "decided schematic advantage."

By the time Kuharich's failure was evident - after the '62 season - even Hesburgh seemed to realize that the overall success of his vision for the university was going to depend to a degree at least on the revenue and reputation that winning football engendered, and though he himself had little interest in athletics and tended to leave them to his trusted confidante Fr. Ned Joyce (and Joyce's guy and ND's last great AD, Moose Krause), he supported (again due to Joyce) the eventual hiring of Ara Parseghian, whose intensity and drive and will to succeed made a neat synergistic match with Hesburgh's own.

It doesn't take much imagination to see the tragedy/farce bit here. Brennan was a tragedy (down to his legendary firing [supposedly] on Christmas Eve) where Willingham was farce; Kuharich was, well, borderline tragic (a great recruiter who, for those too young to remember, stocked the NFL with more players than any other two schools combined in the 50s through the late 60s - players who until Ara never won at ND) - but the arrogant great recruiter Weis(supposedly - I have yet to see any one of Weis' players as fast as five on any top rated team or about 20 at USC) is such a ridiculous excuse for a coach that in each of his four years his teams' performances have declined as the years went on, and (with Willingham and my intentionally unreferenced Davie) has reduced Notre Dame football to a national object of humor and scorn (and if anyone doubts it, I'll be happy to provide an extensive and painful list of jokes and jibes at our expense).

Now, I think Swarbrick has done the right thing in keeping the clown for next year, for all the good and cited reasons about consistency and recruiting. But it takes what Patrick Henry called "cling[ing] to the delusive phantom of hope" to think that Weis will every restore ND football to an elite level. Didn't happen in the past at ND - losers and mediocre coaches like Layden, Brennan, and Kuharich just did not get better given more time, whereas the good/great ones like Leahy, Ara, and Holtz did turn it around in fairly short order (3 years) - and if one thinks that that's just a matter of era, look at similar performances today by Saban, Meyer, Carroll, Stoops, and more.

So - tragedy first, farce second. In the post We-s era, the question is - how long will it take to restore a reputation that is going on nearly 15 years of damage?
JimK | Email | Homepage | 12.07.08 - 1:29 am | #

Look at what Florida did to a good Alabama team last night. They are clearly on a different level.

Why would Urban Meyer want to leave there for the train wreck in South Bend? Never gonna happen.
gwzimm | Email | Homepage | 12.07.08 - 7:07 am | #

Why cant Jimmy Clausen run on the sidelines, hit his players, get his defense pumped up, give a little yell and inspiration to his teammates, much like Tebow was doing to his last night. The energy that was on the sideline and on the field was probably more in 1 UF game than in all of ND's season combined. Nope, JC just goes and sits on the bench by himself after an offensive series. JC needs to spark the bench, he is the unofficial leader on the sidelines. I know he wont have the talent that Tebow has, but it doesnt mean he cant have the same enthusiasm and spirit
iuirish | Email | Homepage | 12.07.08 - 7:55 am | #

Go Irish!
iuirish | Email | Homepage | 12.07.08 - 7:55 am | #

For all you can say about Urban Meyer, his players respect him and enjoy playing for him. Ever see a player hug Weis and joke with him? Meyer keeps his team loose but intense and they have fun. Much like Carroll and Stoops. Weis needs to disassociate himself from the NFL and grasp the color and magic of college football. He hasnt yet and nothing tells me that he will.
DB12 | Email | Homepage | 12.07.08 - 9:46 am | #

So, is it v. Rice in the Texas Bowl? No-win situation.
Alum Son | Email | Homepage | 12.07.08 - 10:50 am | #

JimK-
Your outstanding posting rooted in history should appear out in the open on B & G S!
Jacques du Lac | Email | Homepage | 12.07.08 - 11:33 am | #

JimK is absolutely right. His representation of the history dating back to Leahy and the interaction with Hesburgh is absolutely true. I was a student through the Kuharich years and a bigger asshole never strode the sidelines, BUT he did recruit a lot of eventual NFL players.

The Brennan experiment was Hesburgh's way of taking control from Leahy, and by the way, I think Leahy was a great leader and molder of men. I'm less concerned about his grad rates than I am about the way his players turned out.
gwzimm | Email | Homepage | 12.07.08 - 12:36 pm | #

JimK,

Excellent post. I believe Heshburg's decisions were also influenced partly by the president of Oklahoma university saying that he "hopes they can build a university that the football team will be proud of." I dont think Heshburg wanted that same picture of ND.Heshburg was shrewd though and knew the value of a highly competetive and ranked team. Malloy never grasped that understanding.
DB12 | Email | Homepage | 12.07.08 - 2:07 pm | #

Great analogy

Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce."

The difference between the resurrection of the football program via Ara and Lou is that there exists now a number of factions that Fr. Hesburgh did not have to deal with:

1.Monkism. There still remains this cancerous group at ND who would prefer a football program that would play “ aspirational peers” and sports at ND would be remanded to being a contender for the Sears Directors Cup . The Monkist’s would prefer to concentrate on building ‘white elephants’ on campus ( a “Fine Arts Center in South Bend???) and push our academic rankings on US News. A successful ND football program is something they clearly see as an impediment to their goals.

2.The next faction is the “ND is more than football” group. You see them everywhere engaging in charitable and academic endeavors. They are the ones that put on the TV commercials of some ND grad building bird’s nests in the Amazon in order to save some bird nonone cares about. They essentially are misguided buy equally as obnoxious as the Monk adherents.

The Jenkins administration to its credit is dedicated to returning ND to the prominence where it belongs. The problem is they do not fully understand what needs to be done, nor how to do it. E.G. When was the last time a Catholic priest actually accomplished something significant.

The current ND AD was selected because he would not compete with Weis or Jenkins for control of the football program. Now that Weis has lost his ‘political capital', this new AD by default has been placed in a position to have a major impact on the football program. We shall see, but anyone who is a lifelong “Hoosier” is clearly suspect.
Peter | Email | Homepage | 12.07.08 - 3:22 pm | #

Maybe I'm as stupid or misguided as Peter, but I in no way see success in football and "everything else" as mutually exclusive.
DJ | Email | Homepage | 12.07.08 - 4:16 pm | #

Wow. Just...

I love ND Football, and yes the way ND Football is spiraling down makes me wil and gnash my teeth like in the eternal fires of Gehenna,

but some of the above...

*shakes head*

You really think it's impossible to raise academics, promote fine arts, do charitable works, have other sports succeed and have the football team back to the winning ways of the Holtzian era?

Really?

I don't.

Monk's problem (and may he end up in some circle of hell) is that in doing so, he unnecessarily viewed much of what was good about ND as impediments to his goals (yes, the football program is part of that - but the way the communal social life has suffered on campus is equally as important IMO)


After all, we shouldn't "aspire" to anyone. Everyone else should aspire to be Notre Dame : At it's best a perfect mix of athletics, academics, faith and civic service.
tfina | Email | Homepage | 12.07.08 - 4:24 pm | #

How bad is ND? Just saw the AP top 25. ND only played two teams in the top 25 - both were losses (PItt and Mich St.)
So we stunk it up and lost to mediocre teams! Good thing we brought Weis back!
Danirish | Email | Homepage | 12.07.08 - 4:26 pm | #

i happended to be at a party on friday night with a guy was a ND grad from the late 90s. he could not have been more dismissive of the football program and anything that had to do with sports. said football overshadowed what ND was about. i hope to God there are not alot more guys like him around.
belocki | Email | Homepage | 12.07.08 - 4:28 pm | #

Then your friend missed the point. And if you think that ND is only about football, so do you.
DJ | Email | Homepage | 12.07.08 - 4:30 pm | #

DJ - Interestingly, that was the exact conclusion that Fr. Hesburgh came to and that he articulated in an interview (sadly, I can't remember where, though I believe that the Atlantic Monthly did a major article on him and his advancement of ND from an inward-turned institution typical of old-line US Catholicism's isolationist tendencies prior to JFK's election to a major player in the top tier of American universities). This would have been some time in the mid to late 60s, when football had enjoyed a major resurgence under Ara as the school rose in everyone's academic estimations.

As I recall, the interviewer brought up Fr. Ted's supposed de-emphasis in the early 50s, and without completely admitting/agreeing to it, Hesburgh remarked something to the effect that he had come to believe that if any activity was worth doing at a university, it should be done with the same commitment to excel at it as with any other program.

I always wondered if he said that to put to rest the ghost of Robert M. Hutchins....
JimK | Email | Homepage | 12.07.08 - 4:32 pm | #

JimK, the quote was "We will be the best, or, God willing, we will cease to exist." Which is the only way to give honor to Himself -- be the best you can be in everything you do.
DJ | Email | Homepage | 12.07.08 - 6:15 pm | #

Bowl games filling up.

Any idea where we may be heading?

MOTOR CITY (Dec. 26, 8 p.m., ESPN)
The Site: Detroit
The Matchup: At-large vs. Central Michigan


HAWAII (Dec. 24, 8 p.m., ESPN)
The Site: Honolulu
The Matchup: Pac-10 #6 vs. Hawaii

INDEPENDENCE (Dec. 28, 8 p.m., ESPN)
The Site: Shreveport, La.
The Matchup: At-large vs. Louisiana Tech


PAPAJOHNS.COM (Dec. 29, 3 p.m., ESPN)
The Site: Birmingham, Ala.
The Matchup: Big East #4 vs. At-large

SUN (Dec. 31, 2 p.m., CBS)
The Site: El Paso, Texas
The Matchup: Pittsburgh vs. Pac-10 #3
OldFan | Email | Homepage | 12.07.08 - 7:37 pm | #

I believe we will play Hawai'i.
DJ | Email | Homepage | 12.07.08 - 7:40 pm | #

For all those in love with Urban Meyer, go on the Internet and scan the FireMeyer websites that cropped up 15 months ago or so.
mecheng | Email | Homepage | 12.07.08 - 8:05 pm | #

Christmas eve in the Hawaii bowl.

Enjoy the warm weather and the sights, lads. :)

Dave
Dave in the basement | Email | Homepage | 12.07.08 - 8:07 pm | #

Hawaii, heh?

I wonder if ND and Charlie plead hard for the gig to get another shot at landing that Te'o kid?
Berger | Email | Homepage | 12.07.08 - 8:37 pm | #

Hawaii, CHRISTMAS EVE, 8am EST.

http://und.cstv.com/sports/m-foo.../ 120708aaa.html

Who plays a bowl game at 8pm on Christmas Eve? Guess we'll have to figure out a way to tape it and watch it after church. I don't think my parents have TIVO.
Erik '04 | Email | Homepage | 12.07.08 - 8:56 pm | #

That should be 8pm, of course.
Erik '04 | Email | Homepage | 12.07.08 - 8:57 pm | #

We will do anything to end this winless bowl streak, even if it means leaving the 48 contiguous states......
mikes1160 | Email | Homepage | 12.07.08 - 9:13 pm | #

Hope they get the T'eo kid. I doubt if they can win over there. With the travel and the sights, I don't know how anyone could concentrate on football.
aloha | Email | Homepage | 12.07.08 - 9:54 pm | #

I predict the bowl streak will continue in a very embarassing fashion. Shoulda gone to Shreveport to win against La Tech.
Aay | Email | Homepage | 12.07.08 - 10:00 pm | #

I like Hawaii. Those kids have been through a couple of rough seasons and deserve to go to a sweet locale. Thank goodnews they aren't heading to Idaho or Detroit.

DanIrish, we also played USC as well as BC who is ranked in the AP. That is about typical of most major conference teams these days. Take a peek at some schedules this year. Alabama's only top 25 wins were against #15 UGA and #25 Ole Miss. Florida only beat UGA and Alabama.
Texas beat only 3 (MO, OK and OK State).

I was not as impressed by Florida after their game. I expected them to smoke Alabama but they had serious problems stopping the run. They have a very young d-line (talented but young). I have watched Alabama several times and their offense is not impressive to me. They have won games thanks to turnovers and special teams (the things the Irish should be doing since their offense is so young). I would not be surprised to see Meyer win after a month to prepare, but playing right now, I think Oklahoma wins in a shootout. (as would Texas and USC).
Michael | Email | Homepage | 12.07.08 - 10:11 pm | #

and Catholic churches across the Eastern US are changing their midnight masses to 2 AM....

The ND Club of Kumamoto, Japan (Me, my wife, and our 3 year old) will have just finished opening presents at 10 AM, so it's perfect for us.
Nate | Email | Homepage | 12.07.08 - 10:12 pm | #

Anyone in the Administration who doesn't understand that a clean, strong and successful football program is the single greatest recruiting advantage ND has for attracting great students of all kinds to South Bend has his head in a hole.
Mike81 | Email | Homepage | 12.07.08 - 10:14 pm | #

Weis has to win the bowl game has too. It so hard now days to stick up for chuck. I belive that we will be 4-0 next year and be pump up for the Trojan WAR and that means every single ticket holder be pump WE MUST WIN !!!! IN WEIS WE TRUST !!!!
stadiumDudeNamedChip | Email | Homepage | 12.07.08 - 10:36 pm | #

>>>For all those in love with Urban Meyer, go on the Internet and scan the FireMeyer websites that cropped up 15 months ago or so.

The fact that some idiots paid for a domain name is some sort of indictment on Urban Meyer?
Pat Hobby | Email | Homepage | 12.07.08 - 11:03 pm | #

The last two years have been a comedy of errors for Weis. We need to face facts – whether it’s teaching fundamentals, game management, psychological motivation, all of it – measure for measure, Charlie has simply proven to be an inadequate head coach. You can defend him or make excuses for him as you like, it doesn’t matter much anymore though. They say he loves ND football and that coaching here is a labor of love for him – if so, sadly, his love’s labor’s lost because the results just aren’t there.

After sitting through the USC debacle a week ago, I realized it was the twelfth night this year I stayed up late on Saturday wasting hours on ND football – reading message board comments, fretting about the team, worrying about the future – what you will. I remember, I was so angry during the Pitt game, I couldn’t watch, so in the 4th quarter I decided to open a Google page (when Pitt came back and tied us) and run a custom search for names of replacement coaches. Then I realized the fool I was playing, and how powerless we all are – all of the online speculation about the board of trustees and athletic director and so forth, it’s all much ado about nothing that any of us can control.

In my opinion, although he is only the school President and not (at least in name) its unquestioned Emperor or King, John Jenkins is the true power behind all the decisions, as the representative of the CSCs. If he’s been secretly taking lear jets around the country in the past weeks to talk to other coaches, we won’t know about it. Trust me, those guys keep their own counsel – I remember years ago when Fr. Richard Warner was Monk’s top advisor, and even when a fellow student asked Richard the third time why Lou Holtz was allowed to leave, he still wouldn’t answer. (I actually thought Lou left because his wife’s cancer had returned to smack Beth, him, and his family pretty hard.)

The winter’s tale this year in the media will be yet another post-mortem of a squandered Irish season, with perhaps some excuses of young talent, but mainly more and more criticisms of ND, and all that stuff about Willingham – let them have their fun. But by the spring, things will die down considerably, and before long we’ll all be wasting away the months of June through August, amid summer nights dreaming of the upcoming season, and perhaps our anger will subside.

But at the team’s first slip-up next year, the tempest of doubt and anger swirling around Weis and the program will explode. Once again he’ll become a symbol in the media of our perceived arrogance (Oh, they’ll overreact, you can bet on it), and I’m certain that when everything flares up, the losses and the criticism of everything from his weight to being on the sidelines with his son, it’s all going to be too much, and he’ll be fired.

I think Weis will probably end up with an NFL job – my old girlfriend Julie is friends with current Seahawks player Julius Jones, and Julius sees her every now and then, and she told me he says lots of NFL teams would want Weis. I also heard a report that his old Patriots friend Romeo Crennel of the Browns thinks Weis will succeed again as an NFL OC; maybe in time they’ll be proven right – both Romeo and Julie – yet.

And despite everything, I am still confident that in the end ND will hire a great new coach, and we’ll wish Charlie the best as we move on to the next guy, and happily agree that… (wait for it) …

…all’s well that ends well.
Curse of the Class of '98 | Email | Homepage | 12.07.08 - 11:03 pm | #

Jeff Carroll has a great article in the SBT about CW and the myth of youth on the team.
http://www.southbendtribune.com/...295/1021/ Sports

ND is going to the Hawaii Bowl.
GB | Email | Homepage | 12.07.08 - 11:57 pm | #

Jeff Carroll is ass, and a shitty writer. We have to put up with his crap in the South Bend area far too much. Pay no attention to him.
Brad | Email | Homepage | 12.08.08 - 1:51 am | #

Brad

I would not say anything until you read it. It made a lot of sense to me.
GB | Email | Homepage | 12.08.08 - 2:26 am | #

Oh, I read it. I still felt the need to write what I did.

Thing is, when people talk about youth on a football team, it isn't just about who is on the field. What has hurt ND the most in my opinion over the last two years is a lack of depth and a lack of experience.

That experience goes to a lot of different things, like what's happening in the locker room, and whats happening during the offseason. We have few numbers at the junior and senior spots, and I think it hurts us.

I don't think that makes up for poor fundamentals, or excuses what we saw on the field this year. But experience has been a major factor regardless.

There's an old saying that football coaches use, and it goes something like this...

When you're a freshman, you just want to get on the field.

When you're a sophomore, you just want to be a starter.

When you're a junior, you want to win.

When you're a senior, you want to win....but you also have your eye on some of those individual awards.



What I've seen from this ND team is a whole lotta players who are just happy to be on the field, or happy to be fighting for a starting job. Many of them are still learning their positions (high school players just dont know how their positions are REALLY played). We don't have enough players who are truly focused on winning. Teams rely on the juniors and seniors to provide stability, leadership, and focus. And right now, I just don't see those things.

An experienced head coach would know these things. I'm not suprised Charlie didn't (but even then, I think few coaches could handle such a situation well).





In closing.......Latina needs to be fired.
Brad | Email | Homepage | 12.08.08 - 2:48 am | #

Very nice, Curse.
Jay | Email | Homepage | 12.08.08 - 10:41 am | #

Thanks, Jay. A moment of uninhibited former-English-major-dork-ness came over me and I couldn't stop it. Glad someone appreciated it..

For some reason after reading your post I wanted to see if I could write up an entire spiel about Weis and ND while working a Shakespearean title into every sentence. I ended up with 20 different play titles and one reference to his poetry embedded in there.

Rather silly, the whole thing, I suppose. These are the sad depths to which this awful season has brought me.
Curse of the Class of '98 | Email | Homepage | 12.09.08 - 10:40 am | #