Picking a fight with the Irish

Watching LSU attempt to run up the score here after another crappy Brady Quinn pass. Notre Dame is 13 minutes away from losing their 9th straight bowl game (they havent won one since January 1994). For the second straight year the Irish are going to get flogged in a BCS game they have no business being a part of.

I know this is a Big 10 blog, but I have to ask the question to Irish nation: how soon until you guys start calling for Charlie Weiss' head??? After 2 seasons, Weiss' record is a solid 19-6 until you realize that 8 of those wins came against Army, Navy, Air Force, Stanford, Syracuse and North Carolina. In addition, as I mentioned before Weiss' teams have now been hammered in two straight big bowl games. This year they also got drilled by the only really good teams they played in the regular season as well. Oh sure, you can tell me that Georgia Tech is a top 25 team, but they did that in the inflated or deflated ACC where everybody gets ranked for a week or two before losing 3 in a rown (Clemson I'm looking in your direction).

Indeed, over Weiss' 2 years in South Bend he has won exactly 0 "big games" They beat Michigan last year, only to watch Lloyd Carr's squad go 7-5. They beat Michigan State this year, but the Spartans didnt make a bowl game. They beat Purdue twice, but neither of those Boiler teams played on New Years Day.

In fact, the Charlie Weiss aura seems to stem from and be attached to the almost win over USC last season. Do you know how many coaches would love to base their whole coaching legacy on almost beating a team that should have kicked their ass? The coaching graveyards are filled with coaches who "almost" beat Miami, FSU, Mich, OSU, USC, Duke, UNC, UConn, and even Notre Dame teams of years gone by.

Ok, sure, so Weiss has gotten the Irish to 2 BCS games and that is not a small accomplishment. And two years is not enough to evaluate a coaches tenure, But is that really worth the idolatry that has been bestowed upon him by Irish nation and AD Kevin White? Hardly. Weiss has 8 years remaining on his contract and fans are begging and praying that he doesnt flee to the NFL this year.

And if two years isnt enough time to properly judge Weiss, than 3 years is not enough time to judge his predecessor Ty Willingham:

In his first season Ty Willingham also beat Michigan, the Irish also beat #11 Florida State en route to a 9-0 start to the season. Willingham's team faultered down the stretch and lost in the Gator Bowl on New Year's Day. However, while that team failed to merit a BCS invite, had there been 5 BCS games like this year, they would have (and had there been only 4 BCS games like in 2003, this Irish team would have maybe received an invite to the Gator Bowl- if not worse).

The next two years Ty's teams struggled to a combined 11-11 record, missing out on a bowl game one year, and getting an invite to the Insight.com Bowl before Willingham was dismissed before the game.

Back in the fall of 2004 ND fans could not wait to get rid of Ty, even after his team went on the road and beat a top 10 ranked Tennsessee team in Knoxville. In fact, while Charlie's teams have fattened up on cupcakes, Willingham's Irish teams played a schedule filled with top programs, including FSU twice, Maryland, Bost College every year, Pitt every year, and the aforementioned game in Knoxville. Once Weiss arrived ND dropped BC and Pitt this year for UNC or Army or Air Force, or another crappy team.

So why is it that Ty was run out of town and Weiss is revered. I don't want to play the race card, but I am going to go all in and place it on the table. Weiss is an ND grad who worked with Bill Billichick, Bill Parcells and Tom Brady. He's also really fat and not so jolly. Willingham came from California, and worked with Dennis Green. Ty was the second choice after the white skinned red faced Irishman George O'Leary lied on his resume. ND did not want to hire Willingham, and were almost forced to after the O'Leary mess. Kevin White did not want Willingham around and set him up to fail from the moment he started. When he recruited all of the players Charlie Weiss is winning with (including Quinn) and could only muster a 20-14 record against a tough schedule, he was deemed expendible. Meanwhile the Great Big Fat White Hope is being pused for sainthood with only a slightly more respectable resume.

With the Irish losing most of their big time players this year, and with a game at top 5 Michigan and a home game against top 5 USC coming up there is a good chance that next year's Irish team might be looking at a 7-5 season. Don't worry, though. Charlie will be just fine, he has the right background for the job.