On Weis, Hold Judgment until after the 2009 Season

This article is a reply to this one. 

Charlie Weis lives for Notre Dame. He is proud of his roots. He is always at the basketball games and other sports as well. There isn't a guy in South Bend that is more passionate about the Irish than Weis.

Unlike Tyrone Willingham, Weis has worked really hard to bring in great recruits. I know somebody is thinking, "Well, he won with Willingham's recruits." That is true to a point.

The defense was horrible the first two years of the Weis regime. I give Willingham credit for Justin Tuck, Trevor Laws, and maybe a couple others. There were holes otherwise.

Sure, it was Willlingham who recruited Brady Quinn, Jeff Samardzija, and Darius Walker. However, Quinn never came into his own until Weis was there. Also, Willingham hardly played Jeff Samardzija, so how much credit do you give him for that recruit?

Weis saw something in him that Willingham apparently didn't.

The reality is that when Weis took over, he really only had a handful of really good players, and made the most out of them. After they graduated, Weis had to start from scratch.

Willingham recruited nobody his last year. Weis was still with the Patriots for his first year. That made recruiting difficult. Therefore, the 3-9 record was the product of bad recruits.

Then last year they went 7-6, which isn't great but it is a four-game improvement. Another improvement this year of that magnitude, and we are talking BCS.

My point is this: Stop judging Charlie Weis. The last two years were rebuilding years in which many freshman and sophomores played. Save your judgment for this year. The reality is that no matter what you think of Weis, in his first four years he took Notre Dame to two BCS bowls and ended the horrible bowl losing streak.

I think many will owe him an apology.