Whitlock article on Charlie Weis [Archive]

stlchiefs

11-07-2007, 07:03 PM

Weis' NFL experience not helping him now
Jason Whitlock / FOXSports.com
Posted: 8 minutes ago

For the record, I never said Notre Dame was racist for firing Tyrone Willingham.

I said racism played a role in Notre Dame giving The Great Weis Hope a record contract extension after a 5-2 start three years after giving Tyrone Willingham a pat on the back after an 8-0 start. I also strongly insinuated that the lazy and biased media co-signed off on Notre Dame's stupidity because the media are lazy and biased.

It's all right here in the column I wrote after Notre Dame prematurely gave Mr. Charlie a 10-year extension three years ago.

At 1-8, the captain of arguably the worst offense in Division I football and the leader of the worst Notre Dame team in the school's storied history, there is now a consensus that Notre Dame administrators need their asses whooped for making such a colossal mistake.

Oh, you still have your Great Weis Hope apologists who believe 1-8 is all Tyrone's fault. You see, Tyrone didn't recruit enough four-star recruits. I mean, seriously, it's unfair to expect Mr. Charlie to kick a game-winning 41-yard field goal against Navy without a four-star long snapper, holder and kicker. Nope, it was the lack of four-star recruits that caused The Great Weis Hope to eschew basic common sense and go for it on fourth-and-long rather than kick.

Teflon Charlie better be glad he doesn't coach at Nebraska, because fans of that legendary program have no problem identifying bad coaching. When Mark Mangino's band of two-star Kansas recruits smacked Bill Callahan's four-star All-Americans with 76 points, Callahan had to answer immediate questions about his impending resignation.

But I'm rambling, taking too much time getting to my bottom-line point.

I want to discuss why The Great Weis Hope is bombing. It's a combination of factors, some of which Notre Dame should've recognized long before hiring him.

Notre Dame is not the place to learn how to be a college head coach. It didn't work for Gerry Faust or Bob Davie. It's not working for Mr. Charlie. As fun as it might sound, you don't want to lose your virginity to Jenna Jameson. You won't last long. She'll get bored and frustrated. And everyone who sees the tape will fall down laughing. Sounds like most Notre Dame games this year, doesn't it?

Coaches with extensive NFL backgrounds can be ill-prepared for the transition to college football. This can be especially true for coaches whose confidence level has moved into arrogance. Weis is one of a handful of college head coaches who never played college football. There's a confidence that is born from having athletic success. That confidence at an early age can help you manage your ego when success comes later in life.

Weis showed up at Notre Dame full of himself, convinced that his NFL, Bill Belichick-approved X-and-O schemes would overwhelm Notre Dame opponents. We, the media, signed off on this, failing to consider that the college game has far more to do with development than schemes.

In the NFL, Weis worked with finished products, and he had eight hours a day to mentally prepare them. You get half of that time in the college game, and the players, particularly at Notre Dame, have a pesky distraction called schoolwork.

It's a totally different coaching animal. Weis had success his first two years because Willingham left an experienced, talented offensive group behind. What you're looking at now is what Weis has developed the past two years. Not much.

He's acknowledged that he made a mistake by not having more full-contact practices. You have to teach kids to tackle. You have to teach them to be tough. You have to wear them out in practice and then ask them to think, make plays and be physical when they're exhausted. You do it in the spring. You do it in fall camp. And you do it to a lesser degree on Tuesdays and Wednesdays during the season. When you take over a program and you're trying to instill your philosophy, the same week you're preparing for Michigan, you have to prepare a 30-play Tuesday scrimmage for your freshmen and sophomores not on the two-deep.

In the NFL, you spend all of your energy thinking about Sunday. In the college game, you have to consistently think about next year.

In the NFL, you're working with the best, the brightest and a 53-man roster. You're always worried about injuries. You're worried about surviving a 16-game schedule against properly trained, highly skilled professionals. You concentrate on schemes and keeping everyone fresh. Development is not a major focus. And neither is projecting.

A great college coach can recognize the high-school linebacker who might be a nose tackle, defensive end or center in college. He can see the step-too-slow running back who would be a hard-hitting strong safety. An effective college coach knows what mental buttons to push on a pampered high school superstar to turn him into player who won't negatively impact team chemistry. A good college coach might look at a 6-foot-3, 205-pound, high-motor kid from a poor family and see a 250-pound pass rusher once he's been exposed to weight training, three square meals and a stable environment.

Am I stating unequivocally that Weis and Notre Dame won't rebound in 2008? No.

I'm stating that Charlie Weis is overpaid. I'm stating that Weis is not the second coming of Bear Bryant. I'm stating that Notre Dame had no business giving him a contract extension, and we all should've pointed it out then. I'm stating that if the man was going to run out on his alma mater and head to the NFL after one year, then it would've said a whole lot about his lack of ethics. I'm stating that high-ranked recruiting classes won't single-handedly fix Notre Dame.

The Great Weis Hope needs to fix himself first by toning down the arrogance and acknowledging he has much to learn about what it takes to win consistently in the college game.