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Irish eyes smiling too early on Weis
STEVE BISHEFF
Register columnist
[email protected]
Nowhere else in college football, or maybe in any sport, do the expectations soar to such lofty levels and the disappointments plunge to such depressing depths.
But somehow, they never seem to learn at Notre Dame.
Fighting Irish fans almost always build their hopes up too soon, stretching their heroes to almost iconic status before they've had a chance to prove they deserve it.
The result is often similar to what they're trying to deal with now in South Bend:
Call it Charlie and the Wishful Factory.
Charlie Weis came into college football's most regal program from the New England Patriots with his four Super Bowl rings, his plump body and stark crewcut and immediately stamped himself as a guy who knew how to get people into the end zone.
He brought Notre Dame a high-tech offense, scoring more points (440) than any Irish team in history and producing an eye-popping 477 yards per game.
He turned Brady Quinn into a quarterback who looked like that other guy whose last name was Brady. And all of a sudden, Weis was named Coach of the Year by the football writers, the school under the Golden Dome was high in the 2006 preseason rankings and Quinn was the odds-on favorite to win the Heisman Trophy.
Notre Dame and its subway alumni didn't think they were just wishing. They were convinced they had the next Rockne or Parseghian.
Granted, ol' Charlie didn't help himself a lot by demonstrating enough early bluster to blow the fabled Four Horsemen off their trusty steeds.
At his final Super Bowl as Patriots offensive coordinator, Weis was asked how he thought he would do coaching at the country's most famous football institution.
"Now it's time for the X's and O's," he said, smiling. "Let's see who has the advantage now."
Well, after Weis and the Irish were hammered by Michigan, 47-21, at South Bend on Saturday, it no longer seems he has much advantage. Notre Dame's new coach is 11-4 in his first 15 games on the job.
Ty Willingham, who was unceremoniously run out of town after just three seasons, was also 11-4 in his first 15 tries with the Irish. And, like Weis, he was routed by Michigan early in season No.2, 38-0.
This is not to intimate Weis isn't a better fit for Notre Dame than Willingham, because it appears he is. His offense is better suited to attracting the quality skill players he needs, and early on, he appears to be a superior recruiter.
But what we don't know about Weis yet is whether he is merely a terrific offensive coach who isn't well enough versed on the defensive side of the ball. He wouldn't be the first, or the last, technically brilliant offensive mind who didn't pay enough attention to defense.
Remember the Chargers' Don Coryell, or the Rams' Mike Martz, or even UCLA's Bob Toledo?
In his first year in 2005, Weis' team coughed up 44 points to Michigan State, 31 to Stanford, of all teams, and then 34 to Ohio State in a losing Fiesta Bowl appearance.
So it's not like some red flags hadn't been raised amid all that Irish blue and gold.
The Notre Dame people didn't want to admit it, though. They were too caught up in the Weis hysteria.
Kind of like they were a few years earlier in Willingham's first year. His team sprinted to an 8-0 start, and everyone was raving about the military-like discipline he'd wrought and how the Irish were ready to regain their status among the nation's elite.
Then a 14-7 loss to Boston College, a 44-13 beating dispensed by Carson Palmer and USC and a 28-6 defeat at the hands of North Carolina State in the Gator Bowl brought everyone back to the hard, cold earth of another Indiana winter.
Subsequent 5-7 and 6-6 seasons, and Willingham and all those early hopes were gone.
Weis is not likely to suffer the same fate. He already has a rich, new contract extension, and he should be credited with standing up after Saturday's devastating loss and taking most of the heat.
"We're all accountable, starting with me," he told the writers covering that game.
He's got that right. And he'll have his hands full fixing a myriad of problems that includes the Irish ranking among the six most penalized teams in Division I-A.
But Notre Dame still has plenty of talent, and Weis has demonstrated the sort of work ethic that should make his team improve in time.
Time is what we all need at this point. Time to watch and wait and then evaluate. We need less rush to judgment and more patience to see what happens.
It's always nice to hope that your coach will be the next Rockne or Parseghian. But, by now, you'd think even the most zealous folks at Notre Dame would begin to understand.
Wishing doesn't necessarily make it so.