So when I left you...beloved coach Ty was being made aware that there was trouble afoot in South Bend and, well, he might want to rethink any "longterm" real estate ventures he had been considering. Unbeknownst to Ty, the Notre Dame board of trustees had met sort of on the sly (meaning that the heirarchy of the board met--not the entire board) with current ND president Monk Malloy and incoming ND president Father Jenkins. Suddenly, during the meeting, an epiphany occurs.
The curtains are opened, the shelves are dusted, the room is vacuumed......and.....it suddenly dawns on the CORRECT people (i.e....someone other than Monk) that the Notre Dame football program has become the complete shits. Thank the Lord and pass the gravy the incoming president appears to be in favor of our football team kicking ass old school style because he was one of the people who voted to show Ty the door along with a "thanks an awful lot, but see ya later".
So with all of the speed of a Rocket Ismail kick return, Ty Willingham is out....Notre Dame is eviserated in the national media as racist pigs who hate the blacks and only care about winning, and....well, its a tough week to be a Notre Dame fan. That is if you give one crap about what the idiots on ESPN have to say. I personally love how the reporters on ESPN---oh hell, I'll say it--the BLACK reporters on ESPN suddenly began crying their eyes out that "poor old Ty" wasn't give a fair shake because he wasn't given 5 years like every other coach. This is true. Of course, every other coach hadn't lost more than 6 games by 25 points either, but none of those media giants saw fit to mention that little blurb. So Ty hits the highway.
Thoughts on Ty? Hmm....nice guy, very decent man.....not a great coach. A better
"man" than "coach". He certainly appears to be a molder of young men. Which is great, except he wasn't also a molder of winning football teams---which always looks better on a resume, no matter what Michael Wilbon wants you to believe.
So the search for a new coach begins yet again, and the usual fantasy candidates are brought forth....guys like Jon Gruden & Bob Stoops....who really wouldn't consider the job for a variety of reasons, but it sure sounds fun to think about it. Mike Shanahan may or may not have been interested, but honestly John Elway is out of eligibility and may be too old at this point to make a Shanahan team interesting. So we are left with essentially two candidates (there were a few interviews are inquires of minority candidates....but lets be serious...we've already been down that road and should be exempt from interviewing a minority just to save face. I mean, we hired one for God's sake.). Those two names are Tom Clements--former Notre Dame QB and personal alltime favorite Irish player ever...currently the offensive coordinater for the Buffalo Bills and Charlie Weis--a former Notre Dame STUDENT (not player) and offensive coordinater of the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots. Both are held in high regard are the NFL but have the stigma of never having been a head coach before. I'm rooting for Weis. Despite the fact that Clements was my boyhood hero, I've heard he has a rather surly personality and I'm trying to figure that personality out on the road trying to convince an 18 yr old to come to South Bend. Weis on the other hand, is sort of a friendlier Bill Parcells, with a quick wit and an air of cockiness about him. Multiple Super Bowl wins will do that for a guy.
Finally, Weis gets the nod. A new problem begins with the reality being that Weis won't be able to fully asume the position until after the end of the NFL season. I figure at this point that even that is worth it to rid the team of the Willingham stench.
Charlie begins working double shifts, with part of the day spent on preparing the NE Pats for another Super Bowl run and the other part spent hiring a staff of assistants and making initial contacts with prospective recruits. He truly must be burning the midnight oil because he comes out of it with a very impressive staff of assitants, including David Cutcliffe--former Ole Miss head coach and Tennessee assistant and the man generally credited with developing both Eli & Peyton Manning--Rick Minter, who was the defensive coodinater under Holtz in the early 90's before an almost 10 year stint as head coach for the Cincinnati Bearcats--and Bill Lewis, former head coach of East Carolina & defensive backfield coach of the Miami Dolphins. Those three plus a number of very capable younger assistants who are regarded as being real go getters in recruiting. It looks like the best group of assistants the Irish have had since the first few years of the Holtz years. Recruiting ends up being a somewhat mixed bag, as the double duty work of Weis doesn't give the chance to establish a lot of facetime with some potential recruits. Consequently, some potential recruits are lost, including one now infamous recruit who told Weis that he hoped he would lose a playoff game so that they could meet face to face.
Weis told him that he doesn't want anyone who hopes he loses and pulled the kids scholarship offer.
The Patriots go on to win their amazing 3rd Super Bowl in 4 years, do in large part to the success of the offense that Weis has created, which is lauded as being one of the most sophisticated and varied as any the game has seen in years. I think it would be a pretty safe bet that next year's Notre Dame squad will be improved offensively, going from the malignant tumor that was Bill Diedrick's offense under Willingham to the innovative offense that Weis and his crew of assistants will bring to the school.
The start of the offseason has been another breath of fresh air. Recruiting pundits have openly applauded the new coaching staffs approach to recruiting...calling it light years ahead of the rather lazy approach that Willingham and his staff took to that rather necessary evil. Strength & conditioning programs have been started with an eye towards spring football in April. Coach Weis has begun to hit the rubber chicken circuit, making speeches at coaching clinics and to the media. It is almost hilarious the difference between the close to the vest approach of Ty, who almost never showed his cards or allowed his mood to be expressed, and that of Charlie, who not only talks a lot....but who talks a lot of shit, openly talking about a personal rivalry that he has with USC coach Pete "The Poodle" Carroll. Is ND as good as USC right now? No, and Weis admits that. But they will be.
And it sure is nice to hear someone speak with an air of confidence about the Irish.
As someone posted on one of the message boards.....if all these other schools are going to hate us for being Notre Dame.....we might as well give them a reason to hate us.
Later,
Jeff
PS.....Next.....the Minnesota Vikings, 2004. And you thought ND had drama????
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