Here's Mike Freeman (formerly NY Times) saying Weis will win big, but be a pain in the ass. He calls him 'Coach Protocol'.
I'm thinking that after he wrote this, he passed his hatchet onto MoC.
sportsline
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Under Touchdown Jesus' gaze, Coach Protocol rules with iron fist
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</TD><TD noWrap>Aug. 9, 2006
By Mike Freeman
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There are elegant and luminous qualities inside the brusque husk of a man who shall now be known as Coach Protocol.
Some will find it hard to believe, but he has charm and smarts, and several years ago as the offensive coordinator of the New England Patriots, few could match wits and blackboard diagrams with him. He was as sharp as any assistant in the league.
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Charlie Weis has made quite an impression since taking the Irish job. (Getty Images) </TD><TD width=15></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>The Super Bowl championships came and went and still NFL owners did not know what to make of Coach Protocol; neither did some in the media. On certain days he was spectacularly charming, on others, his mood resembled that of a donkey that had its big toe smashed by a ball peen hammer.
After years of being seen in professional football as one of the smarter offensive minds of the last decade who could not get a head coaching job,
Notre Dame did what many NFL teams should have long before: they hired Coach Protocol.
Now leader of the Irish, that school is seeing what makes Charlie Weis so talented, and at times, so unbelievably frustrating.
I have been screaming for several years that Weis would be a terrific head coach. Nothing has changed my opinion of Coach Protocol. Mark these words: He will win multiple national championships at Notre Dame. Irish fans should be thankful that Weis fell into their lap and Urban Meyer is in the rearview mirror.
"I think he's an awesome coach," said Patriots owner Robert Kraft. "We won three Super Bowls and Charlie was a big reason why. He will make Notre Dame a winner. The school is very lucky to have him. They should cherish him."
A new era is about to begin at Notre Dame as Weis will do there what Pete Carroll has done at USC.
He will win and win and win.
The problem is, along the way, Coach Protocol might alienate just about everyone around him, because if there is one thing Coach Protocol does, it is kick people in the butt with his seemingly size 15 cleats, belittling anyone who does not suck up, shut up or pucker up.
With Weis, feelings get bent, arrows slung, apologies go unsaid. That hardcore New Jersey attitude is used as a weapon and Coach P couldn't care less if that doesn't play in Peoria.
"Am I happy with his X's and O's? The answer is yes, without question," said one prominent Notre Dame booster who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal from Weis. "How could I not be? But am I happy with how he has treated some key alumni and supporters like myself? No. He has treated some of us horribly. He has already alienated some boosters, alumni, members of the athletic department and others around him. He at times can be arrogant, moody and nasty."
Other than that, he's just dandy to deal with.
There are certainly plenty of boosters and important alumni who do not feel that way. They love him. They take Kraft's suggestion and worship him.
He does good things off the field as well. Officials at the school defend him and say he goes to plenty of booster club events. They say he has a compassionate side that people do not see and there is little question he is bringing in a high caliber of student athlete.
Yet there are members of the mainstream press that cover the team who believe the personality of Weis needs more reconstructive work than the city of New Orleans.
It is here where the nickname Coach Protocol comes in.
He recently chided the press that they should follow his rules, speaking to grown men and women like they were fourth graders about to embark on a butterfly hunting field trip.
Weis instructed: "Just follow protocol. That's all. Follow protocol."
A complaint about the personality of Weis is not a new phenomenon. He fancies himself as a sort of Bill Parcells.
The problem is Parcells expertly mixes charm and belligerence, gliding back and forth between the line of rudeness and gregariousness like a longtime tap dancer. Such maneuvers take delicacy, a scalpel. Weis is more the jackhammer type and in college sports, where schmoozing and interaction with influential alumni and the media are important, well, Weis couldn't care less.
Weis does not simply discipline any member of the media that dares not follow his rulebook. Reporters who break the protocol of Coach Protocol are banished to Antarctica. You wake up with a horse's cranium in your bed.
As
Northwest Indiana Times columnist Al Hamnik reported -- has that horse head shown up yet Al? -- a sportswriter was banned by Weis from asking questions at a press conference because the writer dared pen a story not to the liking of Weis.
Smacking the media is commonplace in sports now and a reporter shrilly complaining about a hardheaded coach is almost clichéd villainy. Yet what is interesting is that Weis might be irking more than a few pencil-neck writers. He might be angering at least a handful of powerful Irish alumni.
The alumnus I spoke to tells of stories of booster clubs being snubbed by Weis and his staff and lower level athletic department officials being treated with a lack of respect. Since it is difficult to verify these stories, they will not be repeated. But the booster insists he is not being overly sensitive and he is not alone in his feelings.
Cry me an Irish river, crow the hardcore Irish fans. Who cares how he treats the media, you idiot columnist, or if a few alumni get their egos scorched? His job is to win, not please people.
That is accurate. But if I am wrong and he does not win, Weis is playing with fire. There are few recent examples, if any, where a head football coach at a top Division I program had rough relations with key booster groups and alumni and survived to talk about it.
"Behind the scenes, away from cameras and tape recorders," wrote Hamnik, "we're told he has the people skills of a prison guard. And a temper to match."
Coach Protocol will be interesting to watch. If he wins, and his at times obnoxious, moody behavior continues, alumni might be content to bite their lip.
If he loses, well, let's put it this way; there is nothing -- nothing -- like boosters and alumni scorned.
Don't think he will lose many games, though. He's too talented.
So everyone will have to just get used to the ways of Coach Protocol.
