Teddy Greenstein skewers Weis

I have no issue with Notre Dame being an independent. None. If they can hack it, then good for them. People forget that 20 years ago, there were a bunch of independent powers. Penn State. South Carolina. Florida State. Miami. Luckily for Notre Dame, just as the television landscape was changing, Lou Holtz came along and turned them into the best program in America for about five or six years.

If another school wants to strike it out on its own and negotiate a television deal, nobody's stopping them.

And to Notre Dame's credit, at least they don't play any Division I-AA schools. And I'm also sure they didn't expect Washington to be this horrible when the series was scheduled. If you look through the years, there are usually about three big-time, traditional powers on the schedule -- USC, Michigan and somebody else (Miami, Florida State, Ohio State for a couple of years, Penn State on occasion). I have to imagine Washington was supposed to be a big game when they locked into it.

I doubt they saw Keith Gilbertson coming.

Notre Dame is definitely struggling to get things going. But I don't think it's the talent. I don't think it's the schedule. I honestly think that it's the coaching. They should be better. That being said, I'd probably give Weis one more year to prove himself. I would feel bad for Ty Willingham, who didn't get the same luxury. But you need some stability. And you need to show the next coach that you'll be reasonably patient, or else good luck luring anybody good.

 

I think the ending was also meant to show how Weis felt like Pryor should be kissing his ass to go to ND, like, "hey, kid, give me a call, but I might be busy while I watch my player get drafted, because of me."

It's also interesting that Weist mentioned that if he couldn't hack it as ND's signal caller, they'd just shift him to receiver. Meanwhile, no other school even broached that. If I were an egotistic high school stud, I'd be highly insulted at that notion. It's also "slotting," or whatever they call it when you put white players in one position, blacks in another.

That being said, I might doubt the veracity of some of the coach's recollections. Not that he's lying, but perhaps exaggerating for effect. Either way, it was a good column.

 

I'm with Silent Bob on this.

I can't stand Weis, and I think people on here can't stand Weis.

But this was not a strong piece.

 

I'm really confused....

I can't find the thread, but I read on this board earlier in the week that people were skewering the writers who were saying Weis is on/should be on/will be on the hot seat because it was all speculation, with no quotes to back it up.

So then Teddy comes along with a column that takes on Charlie with a very solid (even if there is exaggeration) anecdote about last year's top recruit. That high school coach has nothing to gain and possibly a lot to lose with telling stories about a college coach. And yet, he did it anyway. But still, a lot of people on this board are also displeased...

I like Teddy's column. It relates specific incidents and explains why some people don't like Charlie. Told me information that I didn't know before.

 

This is one of the reasons the strength of schedule needs to be back in the BCS. We could have a whole forum on that, but imagine how an 11-1 ND would impact the BCS landscape. If they were, say 11-1 with the schedule they have in '09 among a mess of one-loss teams like this year it would be awful.
They would be ahead of teams like Oklahoma and Penn State and they'd get a sweet BCS game like the Orange Bowl and lose by 34.

I would much enjoy watching them lose by a ton of points, but then we'd still be missing out on a good game and someone would get hosed out of a good game.

 

100% agreed. Examples, anecdotes, on the record quotes -- what more do you want? Almost any column can be improved, of course, and this one is no different. But I don't see how anyone could make the case that this wasn't a strong piece.

 

If you're going to bash the football coach at Notre Dame, you need to come up with something a little stronger than "high school coach accuses Charlie of being arrogant" and "cameras catch Weis on the sideline accusing refs of bull**** call." (That one still floors me.) That might work with the head coach at UCONN. But not at Notre Dame. The topic is fine. But he tried to anchor it with a "this is what Charlie is really like" approach, and his reporting didn't support it.

 

You mean the column anecdote about Pryor is supposed to somehow indict Weis?! The whole story is about a top-rated recruit that gets away from Weis, but that would be significant only if Weis was pulling in recruiting classes ranked out of the top 20 and Pryor would be an example of bad recruiting. However, we now know that recruiting is a Weis strongpoint----something in Weis's favor that contradicts the last part of Teddy's column.

If I remember right, Pryor never had Notre Dame as one of his top 2 or 3 choices anyway---wasn't it Ohio State and Penn State in the end??? It's not like Pryor had committed to ND and then changed his mind after this. Now THAT would have been worth columnizing about. I'm not yet convinced that Pryor is anything close to being a Tebow-caliber QB anyway---it's not like Tressel is starting Pryor ahead of a couple of Heisman-worthy QBs.

 

In 2006 Charlie Weiss claimed he was slapped by MSU WR Matt Trannon after Trannon was driven out of bounds on the Notre Dame sideline.

Afterwards, people began studying the replay. No such thing happened.

Weiss is a liar and a poor role model.

 

Oh and then there was this year when he cheated by having a laptop in the press box. There's two instances right there. Just involving the team I read about in my home state. I'm sure others can think of many more.

 

Believe what you want but overall ND team speed is not where it needs to be. It matters at all positions - not just skill.

Clearly Ohio State could not compete in BCS because of team speed.

 

I guess that means Michigan should have lost to Florida last year in the Citrus Bowl. Percy Harvin was soooo fast when he got walked down by Morgan Trent.