On Friday night I had pretty well finished writing a state of the Union on Notre Dame. I planned on proof reading it Saturday morning, making some slight changes after watching the game, and posting it Saturday night. My basic premise was that Notre Dame was headed in the right direction, just needed to learn how to finish games. In two of their three losses on the season they blew double digit leads. I figured (hoped may be a better word to use) that as the Irish went through the rest of the season into next they would learn to finish games and mature from a mediocre to good possibly elite team.
Even after the recent overtime loss at home to Pittsburgh I thought the Irish could win their next three games, keep the USC game relatively close (sad to say losing by 30 would be an improvement), and finish the season on a high note. Winning three out of four games and having the chance to end a 15-year bowl-losing streak could do big things to right the ship of a team that had lost 14 out of their last 22 games. I still so badly wanted to believe that Charlie Weis was on the cusp of turning Notre Dame into what USC has been in recent years.
All my optimism went out the window on Saturday night when Notre Dame was shut out 17-0 to rival Boston College. Boston College and Notre Dame haven’t always been rivals; they only started playing each other on a yearly bases in 1992. In the '92 game the Irish embarrassed the Eagles by running a fake punt in the second half of the a game they won 54-7- pushing their lead in the all time series to 4-0. The next year the Eagles ranked #17 in the nation traveled to South Bend and knocked of the #1 ranked Irish the last play of the last game of the season.
When Notre Dame lost in '93 I remember a young Brian Bardsley being upset, depressed, and more than anything shocked. How Notre Dame could lose at home to a team not even ranked in the top ten was totally beyond me. This year when Notre Dame didn't score even a single point to an unranked Boston College it was business as usual. Over the past fifteen years I've watched Notre Dame slip to the point I all but expect them to lose to a mid level ACC team, their series with BC is now tied at 9 games a piece. It has been a long time coming, but late Saturday night I realized Notre Dame does not need a State of the Union address, they need a Eulogy. After fifteen years of making hospital visits on Saturday afternoons and watching the oldest relative in my family worsen and worsen they've finally flat lined. Notre Dame football is dead.
Charlie Weis is not that man to revive Notre Dame football. He is a great coach. He helped make the NFL's best quarterback who he is today. In 2005 he nearly knocked of a great USC game in one of the greatest college football games ever*. He is a tireless recruiter who had amassed the greatest collection of talent in South Bend since the early nineties. He is a family man who has invested his time and money into helping children and adults with special needs. He is an alumnus who has shown that he understands the Notre Dame spirit and has passed that spirit along to fans and alumni. He loves Notre Dame and has worked harder than anyone to try and improve its football program. He is, at best, a mediocre head college football coach.
*Its never a good sign for a football coach when a loss is an accomplishment he highlights on his resume
With the rather large exception of Knute Rockne every successful coach at Notre Dame has had college head coaching experience. Weis is a life long assistant coach in over his head. There is a big difference between coaching a handful of professional athletes and having to run a program with over one hundred student/athletes who have just moved out of their parent's house. In the NFL Weis made a living by making week-to-week schematical changes to take advantage of opponents’ weaknesses. The players he dealt with were paid professionals many of whom had been playing football at its highest level for a number of years. A four year NFL veteran is going to be able to pick up on what Weis says a lot quicker than an 18 year old kid trying to keep up with a calculus class and learning how to do laundry for himself. Weis is trying to teach long division to students that haven't even mastered basic addition. Four years into his tenure and his teams still can't execute fundamentals on a consistent basis.
For all of Weis's "offensive genies" he fields one of the worst offensive lines in all of Division I football. Even with a boatload of highly recruited 300 pounders up front a running game in non-existent. In his post game press conference on Saturday Weis said offensive schemes were thrown off against BC because they kept getting in bad down in distance predicaments. Does he not realize the way to stay out of third and long situations is to get yards on the ground during first and second downs? For as bad as the line is on first and second down in running situations they are even worse on third and forth down in short yardage. I honestly can't tell you the last time I saw Notre Dame pick up a third or fourth and one. They might as well let Jimmy Clausen throw a fifty yard go route to Golden Tate in short yardage; it probably won't work, but trying to run it definitely won't. No matter what running back they give it to he isn't going be able to get three feet in front of the line of scrimmage with this blocking.
Early in the season after it became obvious he couldn't run the ball and Weis (smartly) decided going to four and five wide sets and letting Jimmy Clausen throw the ball all over the field. Teams knew the Irish were weak up front and blitzed to put pressure on the quarterback and force mistakes. Clausen's quick release neutralized the pass rush allowing him to find his talented young receivers early in their routes. Four games into the season it appeared the Irish had things figured out. It was just a matter of time before a smart defensive coach figured them out...
Butch Davis's defensive coaching pedigree is impressive to say the least: Defensive line coach for the University of Miami National Championship teams of the late '80s, Defensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys Super Bowl teams of the early '90s, mastermind of Miami's return to prominence as the head coach in the late '90s, and a cup of tea in the NFL with a trip to the playoffs as head coach of the Cleveland Browns earlier this decade. After two years out of coaching Davis was hired to revive a down and out North Carolina football program in 2006. If someone was going to write the book on how to stop this years Notre Dame offense Butch Davis had as good a chance as anyone.
Fast forward to October 11 when Notre Dame traveled to Chapel Hill to play Davis and the Tar Heels. Weis ran a no huddle offense early and the Irish passing game dominated the first half. Clausen ended up passing for nearly 400 yards on the day, and had his team leading 17-6 just before the half.
At halftime Davis made the adjustment to stop blitzing Clausen, and drop more people into coverage. Davis realized Notre Dame's line is so weak that pressure can be applied buy rushing three or four players and using the other seven or eight to take away passing options. The results: Two interceptions, a 29-24 loss, and a blueprint on how to beat Notre Dame. If you take away the Washington game the offense has been a disaster since the second half of the North Carolina game. There are random sparks of life and excitement, but nothing consistent. Young playmakers that make you excited about the next two years followed by disappointment.
Its not just the offense, the defense get manhandled by more physical opponents, and the kicking game is like...well, what I've come to expect over the past decade and a half. The Irish are struggling in all aspects of the game, and showing no signs of progress.
I'm still convinced Charlie Weis is a good football coach, but he isn't a good college football coach. He has been playing chess with checkers and shows no signs of learning from his mistakes*. What makes it tough is that Weis so badly wants to succeed, its his dream job, but some reason or another can't. Bob Davie and Ty Willingham didn't appreciate Notre Dame football and the level at which it should be; Weis does, he just can't get it there.
*For example, going for it on fourth and one in you own territory in a tie game with under a minute left. That might be all well and good when you are playing PS2, but there is no restart button in real life. Has Weis watched a his teams performance in short yardage over the last three years? Then again after seeing two blocked punts in the last two games maybe that was the right choice...the fact that I'm only halfway joking about that says something.
Running coaches out of town prematurely is one of the worst things a college football program can do to itself. A high turnover in coaches never allows a program to create an identity or build a foundation. One of the only things worse is holding on to an unqualified coach for too long (the absolute worst it to hire Ty Willingham).
Notre Dame needs to decide what they would like to do with their football program. Do they plan on returning to national prominence? There are numerous stories popping up about the administration and South Bend police trying to cut down on tailgating and underage drinking amongst college students on football weekends, a necessary evil (debatable just how evil a 20 year old catching a buzz before a football game actually is) of major college football. The administration hasn't hired a good football coach in twenty-two years and seems to be putting more emphasis on other sports. In the NCAA's Sears Cup standings that give points to every sport in a schools athletic department Notre Dame is rated higher when football is not added into the equation. When Notre Dame plays Syracuse at home in two weeks the game will be a sellout in the books, but expect to see a lot of empty seats. Alumni, parents, students, and college football fans who want to see a game in South Bend before they die will continue to come by the tens of thousands for the next few years, but then what? Princeton and Yale were once college football powerhouses before decided to put less emphasis on football and focus academics; does Notre Dame want to do the same thing?
If the higher ups at Notre Dame worry that a top-notch football program will compromise their academics they should make their fears public and realize the consequences. With a bad economy I have a hard time believing 80,000 people will be willing to travel across the country and play $60 a ticket to watch a lousy Notre Dame team. Alumni are a lot less likely to donate large amounts to the University when there isn't a football team to take pride in. There are a lot of restaurants and hotels in the South Bend area that need Notre Dame football weekends to survive. Football is the backbone of the University and much of the economy in northwest Indiana, is the University trying to slaughter the goose that lays the golden egg?
For Notre Dame to return to glory a change needs to be made, but who will make it? Right now Irish fans are looking to a first time Athletic Director and the administration that has failed in their last three attempts to hire a competent coach. As a fan I hope a move is made in the off season, but I'm not sure it will be, and if it is I'm not sure it will be the right choice. With that said here is my short list of candidates:
Lou Holtz (former Notre Dame coach '86-'97)- Rumors are that after Willingham was fired Holtz offered to coach Notre Dame for one year to try and right the ship until a new coach is found. For Notre Dame this would be like Ronald Regan coming back from the dead to revive the Republican party. Holtz is an accomplished coach, a master motivator, and loves Notre Dame. Weis would leave Holtz with a lot of talent and a soft schedule. If by some miracle the Notre Dame asked Holtz back and he agreed it would be the perfect storm. Mark this down right now: If Holtz is hired the October 17th home game against USC will be the toughest ticket to find in Notre Dame history. Both teams will be undefeated, and with a week off to prepare Holtz would pull that upset off. Its the combination between a pipe dream and a wet dream, and will never happen, but I can still get Goosebumps just thinking about it.
Butch Davis (current North Carolina coach)- Read the paragraph I wrote about his coaching pedigree and tell me you think this would be a bad hire.
Dan Hawkins (current Colorado coach)- Rumors are that he is is one of those guys that still considers Notre Dame a dream job. He had a lot of success while at Boise St., and has done a decent job making Colorado competitive in the Big XII.
Frank Leahy (ND coach '41-'54, died in '73)- After seeing the success Penn St. has had this season with a dead guy its looking like a better and better option.
Nick Saban (current Alabama coach)- I don't see why he would leave Alabama, but the guy loves a big payday and isn't afraid to piss people off. I've always thought of him as a slim ball for the way he moved from Michigan St., to LSU, to the NFL, to 'Bama with no regard for the people he leaves behind. If he were to be accept the Notre Dame job it would take some time, but I could convince myself he is an alright guy: He is constantly looking for a better job so he can support his family. He isn't a backstabbing slim ball, he is a kind hearted family man...there, I feel better already.
Bobby Petrino (current Arkansas coach)- Bobby P. makes Saban look like a company man the way he lies, backstabs, and moves from job to job; but I'd accept just about anyone if they can win 10 games a year and beat USC on a consistent basis.
Mark Dantonio (Michigan St. coach)- I’ve watched him beat Notre Dame the past two seasons with a group of players that weren't athletic enough to be recruited by Notre Dame. Logic says that if he had Notre Dame caliber athletes he could some good things.
More names are sure to pop up like Chris Peterson at Boise St., Mike Leach at Texas Tech, and a handful of others. The question is why would any of these guys want to go to Notre Dame? Why go to a place with out of this world expectations, bad weather, and high academic standards? For most this is no longer a dream job, but a nightmare. Notre Dame is going to have to throw a lot of money to convince a coach to come to South Bend. When you ad in the money they'll have to spend to buy their new coach out of his old contract and the $10 million they'll owe to Weis this is going to be expensive. No matter how much money it cost the move must be done. The University may lose $20 million in the next year over this, but how much will they have lost in ten years with 30,000 empty seats at home games, no NBC contract, and no BCS bowl revenue?
For the time being Notre Dame is dead. They play Navy this week and I'll probably watch the game, but if they lose it'll have no effect on me. When I was younger I used to live and die with Notre Dame football; now it is an after thought. Maybe its best I stop caring about Notre Dame football and concentrate on more important things like a career and social life. Until further notice I'll throw Notre Dame in the box with my old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle toys and California Raisins cassette tapes- things I used to care so much about but have now outgrown. Thanks for the good times; too bad I was too young to remember most of them.