Weis decided after the 2006 season that the defense needed a new direction and replaced Rick Minter with Corwin Brown of the Jets, who instituted a 3-4 defense.  This year he has added John Tenuta, lately defensive coordinator of Georgia Tech, which was known for his attacking, blitzing defenses.  He has also delegated play-calling to Mike Haywood, his offensive coordinator, who is also a Notre Dame graduate and was in a similar position at Texas.  Notre Dame may be the only D-1 team where both coordinators are African-American.  Corwin Brown is a Michigan alum who played in the NFL, a terrific recruiter and a young, talented defensive mind.

Notre Dame has recruited three top 10 recruiting classes as Weis and his coaches have worked tirelessly to add speed, size, strength and talent.  The only other football programs that have similar top 10 recruiting results over three years are Florida, USC, and Georgia.   His staff has three former heads of recruiting at different schools.  Notre Dame is completing rebuilding with this next class and is restocked and reloaded.  Recently, the top rated running back in the nation chose Notre Dame over USC and UCLA.  Weis is reconstructing Irish football team year by year to build a program to the level of LSU, USC, Florida, Georgia, Texas and Oklahoma.  Rockne:  “I’ve found that prayers work best when you have big players.”

Weis is as likely to discuss teaching intangibles as fundamentals and techniques.  At his spring press conference, one of his goals was to teach “swagger” and “coaching confidence”.  He wanted his players to be instilled with a “very, very great sense of urgency similar to the first year I got here”.  Rockne:  “Football is a game played with arms, legs and shoulders but mostly from the neck up.”

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