Comments on: Off the Bandwagon, Under the Bus

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:55:32 +0000

I’m old enough to remember the Kuharich years which were, without question, the worst years in the programs history. At least Weis will be leaving the shelves better stocked than his predecessor and for that we can be thankful.

By: JerseyShoreNDFan

JerseyShoreNDFan — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:14:17 +0000

I don’t even want to watch the UCONN game. Our “D” has been letting freshmen QB’s look good all year, just imagine what Zach Frazier will be able to do with a little bit of a chip on his shoulder. We go down this week, we’re in the tank for Stanford, we finish 6-6 on the year and then we’ll be praying all these commits don’t jump ship for sunnier (and more victorious) climates. Oy vey its tough being Irish.

By: Ron

Ron — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:57:55 +0000

K-mart Here is my opinion. After Willingham, we all wanted a coach who could lead us to the promise land. I honestly thought they would hire Clements and I thought someone with ND roots should be hired. The admin and most ND fans bought into the bravado of Weis and believed it because he told us what we wanted to hear. NJ tough means what? Is that like Scotts 1000 foot roll of toilet paper? 4 super bowl rings, from a pedigree program, but a pomposs windbag. He never played football or any sport who becomes head coach? His football history makes him not a good hire as our Ara P states. He sucked up to the Tuna who opened doors for him. In short he was a babysitter for QB’s. However, he did bring cumba ya to ND.

We’re fairly smart and we should have seen through the BS. I could have had 4 super bowl rings with Brady and New England. His contract was not renewed by Belechek before we hired him. The first year was good because he ran into a sleeper named Zmarrza. Year 2 through now have been worse and worse but we all blamed it on lack of prior recruiting. Talent was not the answer, coaching was and Weis was and is not now a good coach. He should have been fired during year 3, but we allowed him any number of excuses because next year was going to be different with the national championship on the line. We who believed are now National Chumpiones.

By: Kmart

Kmart — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:06:34 +0000

@Ron – How can you call hiring Weis a “monumental mistake”? The premature extention was a huge mistake, but calling Weis’s hiring a monumental mistake is a bit overkill.

I’d say hiring Willingham, Davies, O’Leary – all monumental mistakes. Weis not so much. If anything Charlie at least deserves some credit for delivering star-studded recruiting classes and disproving the tired argument that ND can no longer recruit top-tier talent due to academic limitations.

Weis has shown he is capable of landing top recruits and playing bowl-worthy football. He’s not a disaster, he’s just not Urban Meyer or Pete Carroll.

I agree Charlie’s likely a goner, especially cause this team won’t win at Stanford, but let’s not kick the man when he’s down. He did good things for this program. He just wasn’t the right man for the job.

By: Tim blake

Tim blake — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 15:44:19 +0000

From today’s Chicago Sun-Times…
“If athletic director Jack Swarbrick decides Weis’ Notre Dame career is over after his fifth season, a source said Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops and Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz will be in the mix to replace him. The source said Stoops has told confidants he would be interested in talking to the Irish.”

Pony up Jack…Bring Mr. Stoops to South Bend!

By: Ron

Ron — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 12:35:50 +0000

I used to watch Willie Mays and in his later years when he should have walked away from the game, he didn’t. This is what Charlie Weis is looking like. Sad to watch him having having to grovel explaining the losses.

This is a sad time for ND and all their fans, not just loosing football games, but their pride and their reputation at the same time. And yet no word from the administration that a new dawn will start today.

Admit that a monumental mistake was made hiring this coach and move on to a new day and revive the hope. This team could win the national championship with someone who we can honestly call “Coach”.

I’m not an ND grad, my wife and son are, so I can get back to rooting for DePaul on the gridiron.

By: John

John — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 11:22:53 +0000

Question….Was Northwestern a powerhouse when Ara was hired away from them? This ND mystic is a load of crap. The Ghosts have let the Stadium. Get a F’ing coach in here that can relate to the kids. An overweight coney dog eating, snot running down his upper lip guy that never played the game simply can not relate. There are plenty of athletes on this team but the staff can’t seem to figure out how to use them. Clean house NOW.

By: Ron

Ron — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 04:52:39 +0000

Am I to conclude that if someone is a competent coach at another school and has a consistent winning program, they could not coach at ND because they don’t have pixie dust on their hair. This fairy tale magic you keep talking about is nothing other than being competent at the position of coach. Look! Brian Kelly’s team is 10-0. What an incompetent coach. He’ll never make it at ND like Brennan, Faust, Davies, Willigham or Weis.

We now know that it takes more than talk and promises to be able to coach. One needs to deliver and that is something that has not been done in the last 3 years. We wanted to believe that all that talk was reality and we learned it wasn’t.

We now have our team running onto the field prior to the game followed by the Pillsbury Dough Boy. No wait. When the players take off their helmets, they’re all Dough Boys.

One thing I do miss this season is Charlie Jr. at the side of his Dad helping coach the team. I wasn’t aware that Charlie Jr. was hired by the University. Then what the h-ll is he doing on the field??????????

By: Ron

Ron — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:35:24 +0000

Bobbie – This Notre Dame program is not better with Weis. He had one good season (the first) and like Willingham has had progressively worse seasons after that. The 3-9 season should have been his last. Alway starts fast and ends slow. You think that this season was good? I’m not sure what games you’re watching, but I can tell already during the second quarter what kind of game it will end up.

I think Claussen is good but I don’t think he’ll make it in the pros. Most of his passes are airballs that luckily his all american receivers can get to.Most of the time he isn’t even looking where the receivers are. The def backs in the pros are not going to fall for that.

Sometimes when I’m reading these threads I think that some of the writer must have illusions or be airheads. Not being a ND graduate, I have to believe that they are more realistic about this team and what needs to be done for this program

By: Eric

Eric — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:18:10 +0000

@Rozman: I don’t think it necessarily will a blowout either way. I think we have proven that we can score points on great defenses (USC) and give up points to mediocre teams (MSU and UW). I won’t be surprised if it ends up being a close game. Now it certainly won’t be close if the team that played Navy shows up.

@Bobby: I’m not sold on B. Kelly. I think this year could have been disastrous for him when Pike went down but he was fortunate enough to have a player of Collaros’ caliber and metal to be able to step in and not miss a beat. Obviously you have to give Kelly the credit for Collaros being there and the play calling around him, but still it was pretty fortunate for Kelly to have a sophomore play out of his mind.

If Kelly gets a huge payday from ND, he needs to buy that kid something as soon as he’s done with the NCAA.