Lucky to have CW - A mini report from York

[NDgettysburg]

Just got home from the benefit dinner featuring Charlie Weis as guest speaker. A couple things he said really stuck out...

1 - No player is bigger than the team
2 - If he's in a recruits house and the kid shows any disrespect to his parents, he excuses himself and leaves. He will only take quality kids and won't take great players who aren't good people.

All in all CW gave a nice talk...it was like he was talking friend to friend and not as some sort of authority figure. It had very little to do with football other than saying that football is far down the ladder of life's importances. He used Gale Sayers "I am third" philsophy to illustrate...which worked out well for me as it was one book my parents really insisted I read when I was a kid.

After the talk there was a Q&A session which probably lasted 30-40 minutes. Alot of standard questions, some barely coherent ramblings from senior citizens and some "aw ain't that cute" questions from young kids. Also a few hard luck stories used to garner an autpgraph. One kid got his football signed for spelling Samardzija.

It was a great time shared with friends in our ND Alumni club.....my wife really couldn't have given me a better Christmas present.

(I'll post a few pics once I get em off the camera)

 

[scooper]

Thanks, great report.

 

[Domer95]

To follow on what Jim summerized above:

Some of the things he talked about, he spoke for about 30 minutes then took questions from the audience (about 1100 people in attendance):

He talked a lot about how you should be devoted to faith, family, and yourself (in that order).

When asked on how he would define himself as a success, he said “If I get to retire from ND in 10 to 15 years without being fired, I’m a success.”

He said when he’s recruiting, he first examines the kids character. If the kid is disrespecting his parents or a big ego, he’ll thank the family for their time, and quickly leave. He wants good kids foremost.

Said he spends about 100 hours a week on football, doesn’t golf, hang out with the guys, go fishing, etc. He stressed the golf part.

Made reference to when working with the Giants, he’d work 4:30am till 11:00pm, and when leaving for the night, Coach Parcells would say, “leaving early again Charlie?”

Asked about Hannah’s charity, said its doing about 4x more donations since he joined Notre Dame.

Any questions about defense he said he would only blame himself.

Said last year was not a success.

He was asked if he could give reassurance that’d we would beat PSU this year, he paused for a while and very slowly said, “Sept 2nd GT.”

Expressed regret that the Montana story got to the press when asked about it.

Said he doesn’t want to do many speaking engagements because when he’s not focusing on football during the week he wants to spend it with his family.

Was asked if he could spell Samardzija, he replied with “J-E-F-F”

Charlie left at about 9:00 and said he had a team meeting planned for tomorrow at 6am, so he needed to catch a flight immediately.

HUM.......10 to now 15 years??? that's interesting.....

 

[NDgettysburg]

Said he spends about 100 hours a week on football, doesn’t golf, hang out with the guys, go fishing, etc. He stressed the golf part.

That was great though I don't know how many people caught the significance of it.

Asked about Hannah’s charity, said its doing about 4x more donations since he joined Notre Dame.

That was our girl Diane Kelley from the Gettysburg club. Boy did we score on the tickets. Directly in front of the podium, first table in the "cheap seats" (cheap being $1000 per table vs the corp sponsor tables which were all of 10 feet in front of us at $5000 per).

Great job on the recap Domer....mentioned alot of things I now remember but didn't have the energy to type out last night. You forgot to mention the girl who asked if BQ had a girlfirend and the guy who needed 2 for Penn State

 

[NDgettysburg]

Here are a few pics...not the best quality due to attachment restrictions. All are pretty much self explanatory. The one with the redhead is Diane Kelley asking the first question of the night (she asked about Hannah and the charity).

Attachments bite...here are the pictures linked:

 

[NDgettysburg]

One more:

 

[scooper]

Nice. Did they auction off the giant autographed ND? Wouldn't that be nice for the basement rec room.

 

[jiggafini19]

If he's in a recruits house and the kid shows any disrespect to his parents, he excuses himself and leaves. He will only take quality kids and won't take great players who aren't good people.

"MOM!!! MEATLOAF!!! WE WANT IT....NOW!!"

Everyone had a friend or knew someone as a kid that yelled at their parents and talked back. I used to feel uncomfortable in a house like that....almost like the inmates running the asylum. How could I feel safe around adults that couldn't control their kids?

The Notre Dame Football culture is really going to be something in a few years once this staff gets their roots dug in deeper.

 

[NDgettysburg]

Nice. Did they auction off the giant autographed ND? Wouldn't that be nice for the basement rec room.

Nope....I'm sure it'll hang at York Catholic (also the fighting Irish) somewhere.

Was shocked that there was no TV news coverage especially since the MC was Channel 8 (NBC) sports dude, Pat Principe. I know he's a big PSU fan and all but I would have thought they'd have done some coverage. Unless it was in the first 5 minutes of the news (which I missed because my wife was watching some dopey movie), there was no mention. Saw the sports broadcast shortly before 11:30, no mention.

Might have to look at the York newspaper online...there was a guy snapping alot of pics up close but he may have been from the school.

 

[NDgettysburg]

"MOM!!! MEATLOAF!!! WE WANT IT....NOW!!"

Don't blaspheme, Jigga....you know you love that about Cdub!

 

[nayers]

love the philosophy of respecting the parents...if the kid can't respect mom and dad, aint no way he is going to respect some coach...i wonder if it has ever happened

 

[jiggafini19]

love the philosophy of respecting the parents...if the kid can't respect mom and dad, aint no way he is going to respect some coach...i wonder if it has ever happened

Yeah, it makes you wonder why some guys fell off the radar last year in recruiting.

The more I read and hear about Weis, the more I can't help but like the guy tremendously.

 

[scooper]

I hate to bring his name up, but Gerry Faust used to do this. He was very big in respecting the parents. He walked out on kids.

 

[Domer95]

I hate to bring his name up, but Gerry Faust used to do this. He was very big in respecting the parents. He walked out on kids.

True, but at least CW has the coaching bona fides at a level HIGHER than college, rather than lower, like Faust.

 

[scooper]

I wasn't taking anything away from Weis. I love that that is his attitude. I was simply drawing the correlation. For all of his coaching issues, Faust was/is a good, classy man.

 

[NDgettysburg]

For all of his coaching issues, Faust was/is a good, classy man.

That was never an issue with Faust though, correct?

 

[Domer95]

I wasn't taking anything away from Weis. I love that that is his attitude. I was simply drawing the correlation. For all of his coaching issues, Faust was/is a good, classy man.

Scoop, didn't think you were, nor did I mean to imply it. Sorry if you took it that way. I agree 100% with what you said, both about CDub and Faust. Faust still loves ND to this day, even though he was fired.

I'd much rather have CW/Faust walk out on a 'stud' recruit who's a jerk, than have them cowtow and verbal fellatio them like some ethically challenged scumbags, like Steve Superior, Fulmer, the Black Pope, Huggins and Papa Bowden.