Blame It On The Reign

Today, Charlie Weis is doing his best, albeit unconscious, imitation of Alex Kapranos. Alex Kapranos is the lead singer of the band Franz Ferdinand, whose big hit is "Take Me Out." Weis has been singing this song for the past two years, possibly since the very beginning of his tenure. Think about it.

Notre Dame fans are well known for many things, few of them positive. But ALL fans are known for one thing that they have in abundance: Impatience. College Football passes itself off as a democracy, where anyone can win. We know that CFB is actually an oligarchy: rule by a few. There are your superpowers: Michigan, USC, Oklahoma, Florida, Alabama, etc, etc, etc. There are your middle of the pack-ers: Oregon, Texas Tech, Georgia, Virginia Tech. And then, there's everybody else.

Notre Dame, under Knute Rockne, Ara Parseghian, Dan Devine, Lou Holtz, etc, was a superpower. Not only were they always winning, they were always mentioned in the same breath with Ohio State under Woody Hayes, Bama under Bear Bryant. They were good. They also sent a lot of good players to the NFL: Tim Brown, Nick Buonoconti, oh, and some scrub named Joe Montana, was he any good?

But with success Touchdown Jesus got lazy, forgetting that a coach is not only a recruiter, he has to get the team through Saturday with a win. Not that he always should, just that he should do it enough to get the team to a BCS berth. Also, with Lou Holtz's retirement, the team took a header because players that Holtz had recruited seemed lost with Bob Davie.

Speaking of Bob Davie, I've always believed that he got a raw deal from the university for the way he was handled. Don't get me wrong, he wasn't great, but...the guy won in three of his five seasons. He did lose three bowl games, true, but he got there. There's that impatience I was talking about. And please, don't tell me I have no idea what I'm talking about, Illinois hired a coach who was unfairly run out of Gainesville only to prove that as a coach, he has all the creativity of the writers of Accidentally On Purpose.

The firing of Bob Davie opened the door to the hiring of George O'Leary. But that potential flaming disaster was quickly averted by the discovery that O'Leary did something you could probably get away with in the real world, but not when applying for the job of Head Coach of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Ty Willingham was a guilt hire by the university. And in this case, despite his awfulness, he got little support from the alumni, less from the fans, and none at all from the administration. In that situation, it's almost a blessing when you get canned.

Which brings us to former Patriots offensive coordinator Charlie Weis.

The Bill Belichick coaching tree has many branches. Charlie Weis, Romeo Crennell, Josh McDaniels, Eric Mangini. These are all talented coordinators. But here's the problem: These men are all skilled on one side of the ball.

Belichick, despite the seething hatred he tends to inspire from fans of other teams, is special. He proved it last year when Matt Cassel led the team to 11 wins, while Eric Mangini was derricked, as was Crennell, as Weis had a bad year.

Of course, you could say that any team could win with Randy Moss. Let's ask the Raiders about that one. Seriously, Moss is a game changer the NFL hasn't seen in years. And while we're talking about Randy Moss, I have a question for the idiot fans in Minnesota: Why did you people go berserk about the whole fake moon thing?

Jackasses in Green Bay do it to the Vikings all the time, he did it back to them. Simple. You gave away the best WR in the game...for what? And worse, you gave him away for a pick that turned into...Troy Williamson? Were you had, or what?

Say whatever you will about Moss, while he was here, he came to play. He sure came to play against the Bears, whipping their behinds every time he walked into Soldiers Field.

Getting back to the article, what we all failed to realize is Belichick is Belichick. What works for him does not work for Eric Mangini. Football players respect wins, and Belichick looks for players who fight the impression of being spoiled, pathetic crybabies.

For some people, this seems like front-running. Think about it: Belichick keeps signing Old Man Tackles, also known as Junior Seau. Why would he do this unless he really though Seau could contribute? Mangini, on the other hand, bosses a Browns team that has already completely quit on him.

What works for Belichick doesn't work for everyone. Then again, if you keep jerking Brady Quinn around and playing Derek Anderson because he makes NINE MILLION ****** DOLLARS A YEAR, what do you think is going to happen?

Weis, an alumnus of ND, is in the situation he is in for two reasons. He opened his stint by telling his team that they had a schematic advantage because they were using plays developed in the NFL.

This is what we call "bulletin board material" Although it worked for the first two seasons, mainly because Weis had Willingham's players, it all eventually led to the question "what is Weis going to do when he has his own players?"

This question was resoundingly answered in 2007 when the Irish and their NBC-exclusive contract won three games. Boy, those must have been great ratings.

The other reason Weis is in the situation he's in is the 10-year extension he was given halfway through the 2005 season. Here's a tip, folks: NEVER give a coach a 10-year extension. NEVER.

There aren't enough NEVERS in the world to express the vehemence I say this with. Because it doesn't work. When you give a coach a 10-year extension, you're opening yourself up for mistakes and missteps. This year is a prime example.

Weis has never beaten USC (but neither did Willingham, so we'll give him a pass on this one) He lost to a Syracuse team that had eight losses at the time. He has a 3-17 record against winning teams. Twice he's lost to Navy, Michigan, and USC, IN THE SAME YEAR. 

And most tellingly: He's never beaten a top 10 team. The Irish got run off the field by Air Force, for crying out loud. No BCS wins in five years of coaching. If you coach the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, how on earth does this happen?

So if I'm not a fan of the Domers, why does this bother me?

Well, while I'm not a fan of the Domers, I don't hate them. It bothers me, though, that this is Ty Willingham all over again, but THIS  incompetence is being rewarded. Because frankly, I'm sure Weis won't be fired. He should be, he could be, if ND wasn't run by a bunch of balding wetbrains he would be fired ON MONDAY.

He's not a good head coach. Great coordinator, but so is Kevin Gilbride. Knows his offense, but so does Sean Payton. But the man is just not the guy who should be roaming the sidelines for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. And that at the end overrides every argument that could be made to keep Weis.

That Mark Mangino may be fired before Weis seems patently unfair. But Jon Gallop writes it on the whiteboard during my business law class all the time: Life Is Not Fair.

You may laugh, but this is tradition. This team was a superpower. Not only aren't they a superpower anymore...despite whatever ESPN might think, despite the multi-year, multimillion dollar exclusive contract with NBC...they're not even a power.

And the only way to possibly change that is by getting rid of a millstone named Charlie Weis. Sorry to say it, it's true.