Simply put… Ouch

That is unbelievably depressing. And after one of the most embarassing losses we hear resolve that nothing will ever change his coaching method? What's the basis for such entrenchment except for arrogance or obstinate delusion? I fiercely backed Charlie, but now I'm embrassed in front of all those I had "explained" things to over the last three years.

It's terrible when an ND grad looks for other teams to root for while ND is still playing, and has to resort to Schadenfreude to get any enjoyment out of game day. Pathetic.

What sucks even more is now Michigan looks as horrible as we do, and we lost to those a-holes.

Does anyone here think that he keeps his job if he beats Pitt, UCONN, and Stanford??

Will anyone count Pitt as a signature victory?? I saw #8 in the AP and #12 in the BCS??

I'm not sticking up for the guy. We lost to Navy…..a 7-3 navy team that almost beat OSU, and plays a tougher then expected schedule. What if he fires Corwin Brown or/and John Tenuta?? He fired John Latina, and look what happened? We got a new coach and the offensive line is a lot better.

I'm a skeptic too, but it is not Charlie's fault Floyd botched a play and Jimmy fumbled.

I'm in agreeance with everything written in the article….pathetic, but When you call for his head remember these things…

unless Urban Meyer really does want to come here or Brian Kelly….why doesn't anyone ever mention Paul Johnson?? Ok….back to what I was saying….

1) other then those coaches who could we get?? Do you really think Gruden would be the answer?? I don't think so…..he lost that tampa team's focus after he won a title. He does seem to have that Pete Carrolesque charisma though.
2) What will happen to recruiting unless you deliver on a big name coach?? You do have to remember that these recruits believe in ND because of Weis. We could lose some freshman or sophomores, and our name would drop off of most high schoolers top choices.
3) I know it points back to weis, but it is John Tenuta and Corwin Brown's fault. Weis is a QB coach and OC, and this is his first Head coaching job….ever. Meyer, Saban, and even Holtz had one or two head coaching jobs prior to coaching on the big stage.

One more question/theory?? Weis couldn't even warrant a head coaching job in the NFL. The most he would get is an OC job. Is it really that out of the ordinary to think that perhaps he stays on as an OC/QB coach/Recruiter for another big name coach?? He would be the highest paid OC, but you can't argue what he has done in the of JC, BQ, and recruiting. Now that Verducci is here he has been able to run the ball, which has added to his schematic advantage.

Do you roll the dice and thrown an offer out to Belicheck?? (i know I know….pipe dream)

I want a better coach too, but as we learned before, we can't get whoever we want whenever we want.

One thing is for sure. Notre Dame was correct in firing Ty Willingham! Look what he did at Washington! They need to do the correct thing again and bring in a proven collegiate coach.

really Robbie – you think we get Bill B as our head coach. Kegs and Eggs are only supposed to be on weekends

Regarding fact number 1, I think that stat regards total wins and total losses over the three year span, not each season.

Over the past three seasons, ND is 16-18. ONLY if ND wins out this year will that stat go over .500 to 19-18.

Don't give this to me. Send it to Jack Swarbrick and send it register mail so that we're sure he gets it. I'm sure you can find his address…

I love stats and analysis because both usually confirm what your gut tells you and what you see in life. I haven't believed that Weis was the guy since we lost to Michigan at home in his second season, and while I don't post often, I have never backed him. I also felt Davie and Ty were mistakes as well. I don't know the answer for a new coach, but it definitely isn't Weis (or Belechick,were you serious?). But here are my recommendations for finding the right guy:

1) Get someone that has been a winning head coach. No assistants. We need someone that has held the job.

2) Get someone that has competed at the highest level. My concern about Kelly is that he has done an amazing job beating tier 2 and tier 3 teams, but like anything in life, you need to have been in those high level situations, live the experience and have some wins. Remember Lou had years of competing with the best in the country at Arkansas, and while he didn't win them all, he has some signature wins.

3) Bring in someone who knows how to use energy and emotion to get you through the season. This is a tool that needs to be dialed up and down during the season, but when used correctly, it makes the difference.

4) Get someone a bit younger. Sorry to say but in the age of twitter, college sports is changing and when leading young men you need to teach them fundamentals, leadership but be able to understand what motivated college student athletes. When I hear coaches say they will not change, they missed the boat.

5) Get someone who has been in a higher pressured head coaching experience. The pressure on the next guy will be really high. You need someone who can handle it. That's why I feel a Meyer, Miles, Stoops would be best.

It'd be great to get an experienced head coach who has won pressure games at a big school. Urban Meyer, though saying ND was his dream job, went to Florida b/c it's easier to recruit, esp. defensive players, and win there. It's highly unlikely that Meyer, Stoops, or Miles, or any other big-name coach at a big-name school is coming to ND. Look at what has happened to our last three coaches. Ruined reputations, out of football. I agree that hiring a youthful coach may be a positive, but he has to be an excellent recruiter, motivator, and innovator. Our only hope is to get a head-coach from a smaller school who has these skills, or someone like Gruden. And the person, first-and-foremost, better be able to recruit or 2007/08 will become a continued reality and fans will become happy w/ 9 win seasons.

Wow, as much as I wish Dave's comments were not true, they really are, except for the talent piece. I would argue ND has better talent than Navy, at least when they came out of HS. But, Dave is right, ND's glory were the Knute, Leahy, Ara, Lou years, and it has been almost 20 years since ND had a team that competed. However, most programs go through these types of changes, and it will be interesting to see how ND chooses to get through this dilemma. I will say this, it will not happen by scheduling Western Michigan late in the season, that is a mistake that could be a tipping point to push ND out of the spotlight.

To be fair in the comparison b/t previous coaches, take out their worst year (esp. since 2007 was considered a result of horrible recruiting). Then you have the following winning % for each coach: Davie – 30-18 (excluding 1999) for a 62.5% wp. Willingham – 16-8 (exluding 2003) for 67% winning %. Weis: 32-15 (excluding 2007) for 68% winning %. Remember, Willingham's main failure was recruiting and Weis will leave the future coach with talented players.
By using consideration w/ re to the 2007 and Weis's culpability, you also must consider his achievements:
-winningest coach in first two years in ND history
-dramatic increase in offensive output in 2005, 2006, and a top-5 offense this year, rebuilt from scrap from two years ago
-first coach since Holtz with bowl win
-best recruiter, according to Rivals and Scouts, since Holtz

In light of that perspective, it's only fair to give Weis a chance in these last three games. Improvement from Willingham's scrap heap in 2007 to 2009 has been remarkable, on the offensive side of the ball. The defense is what is holding this team back and needs to improve dramatically. Nonetheless, the revitalization that this team had in 2005 and dramatic improvemet since 2007 shows evidence that Weis can coach and certainly develop the offense. The last three games of this season may very well confirm or deny his capability as a head coach.

Bye CHARLIE
He will lose his next 3 games, 4th in a row, and will not be around to coach the bowl game.

Dave makes some good points. "I saw a smart disciplined team run roughshod over the Irish. These teams play 10 times, and I guarantee you Navy wins 7….".
Taking this a step further: Let’s concede for a moment that ND and Navy have equal talent across the board. What then was the difference in the game? I say discipline and fundamentals. Having a process and executing it consistently. In a single word, coaching. Smarts, discipline, and fundamentals are the responsibility of the coaches. If the talent is equal, coaching is the difference. That being said, on the whole, the talent on ND’s roster is at the very least equal to the talent on Navy’s roster.

What about fortunate bounces and things the coach can’t control? Things like actually knowing the signals so that you’re not blocking when the pass is coming your way, or protecting the ball when it’s in your possession and pouncing on any loose ball, or putting a hat directly on the ball and causing a fumble – are all fundamentals that can be taught. Chance favors the prepared mind. Navy was better prepared to be opportunistic and to a degree create their own luck. Navy was better coached. Discipline and fundamentals.

Coaching. There must be consequences for missed assignments or bonehead plays, i.e. disciplined coaching forces disciplined play. How many times this season have experienced, senior leaders (e.g. Sam Young, Eric Olsen) been called for bonehead, undisciplined penalties? And how many of those times have they been yanked and received an ass-chewing, or more, because as experienced, senior leaders, they should know better? Discipline and fundamentals.

Discipline and fundamentals.
Being able to stop the fullback dive play, because they’ve run it before.
Covering the SC tight end on the play-action fake, because they’ve run it before.
Defeating a lame-duck coach and his 2-8 football team, on your home field, on senior day.
Not having to go “back to training camp” 3 games into the 2007 season because you don’t know how to block and you can neither run the ball nor protect the passer.
Discipline and fundamentals solve a great many problems.

Give me an experienced college head coach that understands what ND stands for and teaches discipline and fundamentals. We’ll be just fine. We’ll simply lose when the other team is better than us. I still won’t like it then, but that I could live with.

We all know the shortcomings of Charlie Weis when it comes to the defensive side of the ball, but the most glaring problem I see is his inability to motivate his players game after game. The team shows NO emotion. EVER. And that is because they have followed the lead of their coach. As much as I despise USC, Pete Carroll is one of the most enthusiastic and emotional coaches out there and his team's consistently respond to the tone he sets.

Because our players are never FIRED UP to play (see Navy for an example of this), Notre Dame stadium is no longer a feared place to play as anyone, and I mean anyone, is capable of coming in there and leaving with a win.

Until the admin and AD realize the unparalleled importance that emotion plays in college football, we will continue to flounder.

We need a fiery, emotional coach who will restore the confidence and bravado that teams back in the late 80's and early 90's showed. So long as we're susceptible to the current methods of motivation, we should be content to expect second-tier bowls and home losses.

19-13 at home.

To everyone touting Weis' offensive genius…what part of the red zone futility this season has struck you as an improvement over teams in the past? Where has the decided schematic advantage gone? Is it in the plow into the line twice and then throw a fade that's up for grabs? Or the predictably fourth-and-short plays?

I will withhold judgment until after the season is complete, but the body of work is pointing toward yet another dismal finish.

When Aldridge got hurt I thought it was an unfortunate fall. The after Floyd I thought it was bad luck. Now after Rudolph, has the Mecca of football forgotten how to take care of a field too?

Next coach should be Jim Harbaugh. Team plays hard nosed, smash mouth football. Team has overachieved in a top conference. Has one of the great all time upsets. Knows about playing in the midwest.

Weis' situation reminds me of the story Weis told when he was hired at ND. As a ND student he went into Father Hesburgh's office to tell him how dissatisfied he was with the ND coaching situation (I think it was Devine at the time) and that he had recommendations on how the football program could be improved. I don't recall Hesburgh's retort but he diplomatically put Weis back in his place.

An ironic fate twenty so years later.

John Gruden watch has begun…

Most of us have given Charlie too much slack for much too long. Reading so many contradictory posts reinforces my conclusion that despite every break, at the end of the year Charlie will have failed to reestablish ND as a top program.

Example #1: Discounting 2007 because of the "awful" Ty recruits, but ignoring the fact that Charlie did win substantially more in 2005 and 2006, also with "awful" Ty recruits. He can't have it both ways. He failed to get the players ready to play in 2007. End of story. He's the head coach.

Example #2: Calling Charlie a "great" recruiter, but then questioning whether ND or Navy possesses superior talent. Huh? I saw the game: the Navy team gave up serious weight and athletic ability across the field. Because Charlie's recruits fail so often to live up to their lofty rankings, I can draw only two conclusions: (a) Charlie is a bad judge of talent, or (b) Charlie fails to develop the talent when it arrives.

Example #3: Giving Charlie tons of credit for developing BQ, JC & GT, but not assigning blame for the countless four and five star recruits who fail, or have failed, to live up to their God-given talent. Don't they come to ND to develop as athletes, scholars and young men? Because they attend a world-class university, I'm certain they develop finely in the last two categories, but what is Charlie teaching them?

When you add it all up like this, it looks horrible. Not very good resume material!

You forgot to mention: most yards gained against ND in a single game (one of the USC games).

As a USC alumnus and fan who experienced similar football program lows in the 1980s and 1990s, I want to throw out a few ideas about the current problems of ND football…this is not ND bashing, just observations:

1. I think that many of the systems that rank recruiting classes over-rate the incoming talent of many major college programs based on simply "who they are." It happened to USC a lot in the mid-80s (with that talent going 6-5), and I think that is part (maybe 25%) of the problem for ND recently.

2. On the flip-side, some years ND hauls in a LOT of talented recruits, yet the fans watch in frustration as the COACHING fails to correctly utilize the playing talent (such as USC throughout the 1990s). The program will send lots of talent to the NFL, and you wonder why they couldn't put it together while at the school. This is clearly 75% of the problem at ND right now.

3. Weis has an ego from me to you. It is actually sad to watch this guy operate as if he is bigger than the Irish football program (no pun intended), and that harms the entire atmosphere of ND football.

4. The "Weis Fact Sheet" speaks for itself. He is not at all a good coach. He should be let go.

In closing: take heart, Irish fans. USC went through many down years and some poor coaches before we struck gold with Pete Carroll, as did Oklahoma with Bob Stoops. Perhaps the next ND coach will put it all together and wake up the echoes, provided that the powers-that-be make the right selection this time.

Weis is clearly not a good or even average head coach and should not continue at ND. In addition to his inept performance, I don't think he is a good representative of ND. Based on his recruitment of Terrelle Pryor, he is considered to be very arrogant here in Western PA. As an example, according to those at Jeannette High School, Weis showed up and was flashing his super bowl ring and asking if anyone wanted to touch it and/or have an autograph. He is way too full of himself.

not verified myself but the combined records of the teams cholly has beaten the last 3 seasons is something like 50-100. or teams that only win about 1/3 of their games

don't overlook the fact that Weis has no AP All-Americans to his credit. All-American Jeff Samardzija goes on Ty Willingham's resume not Weis'. Notre Dame has a glorious history for producing All-Americans, but not on Weis' watch.