Weis Analysis

[elkona]

I don't normally pump the South Bend Tribune, but Jeff Carroll's column today contains some excellent analysis of how Weis has mismanaged the season (and pre-season) thus far. Here's a portion of it (with emphasis added) ... thoughts?

COLUMN: Weis sabotaged this season when he installed that gimmick offense for the opener. What that did, beyond chasing unloved Demetrius Jones to DeKalb, Ill., was rob valuable learning time from new starters who should have been absorbing the fundamentals of running Notre Dame's real offense.

He essentially flushed preseason practices down the drain, never to be recovered. Since then, the inexperienced offense has been scrambling to get up to speed, and it may never, at least not this season. But, again, that's a symptom, not the underlying problem. The main malady is that Weis thinks that because he can process complex schemes, his players can do the same in 20 hours a week.

"Three games in, the team is headed in the wrong direction," Weis said Saturday. "And when the team's headed in the wrong direction, the only way I know is to come out swinging. Obviously I'm embarrassed by that performance out there. ... I need to start finding a way to fix the problem rather than trying to (use) Xs and Os, technique and trying to do something different each week."

 

[johnnd05]

I don't entirely disagree. But I think Weis was placed in a really difficult situation: if Jones didn't have the skill set necessary to run the regular offense but Weis also didn't think Sharpley had what it took to win the game, he didn't just want to throw this one to the wolves. I certainly think the second part of this conditional - that Sharpley was incapable - doesn't seem to have been true, but I'm just saying I could see where the decision came from.

To exactly this extent, Jones was NOT - to use Carroll's words - "unloved": not only was he given the chance to start, but the offense was redesigned to suit what he brought to the field. Anybody who thinks the decision to run those spread sets (which only accounted for about half of the plays, btw, and did involve opportunities for DJ to throw the ball) wasn't based on what Weis saw of Jones's talents and limitations is just crazy, IMO.

 

[piyachi]

As usual Caroll (that's a girls name!) takes what is probably a salient point and makes it into something that's more of an opportunity to bash. He isn't always ill-informed, but he is almost always.....just nasty. He makes me think of (sorry for nerding out here) Snape from the Harry Potter books/movies. Just so bitter and angry.

As for his analysis.... there is some merit to what he says because Weis does often seem to put faith in his team doing some tough stuff (ie processing schemes rapidly or running the 3-4 with almost no d-line depth), and plenty of times it doesn't work out. I wouldn't call it a 'malady' - I'd say a malady is something like a lack of any work ethic in recruiting. So yea....Weis gets too cute with playcalling and ND pays sometimes. Better than the alternative.

 

[Sir John]

I'm not to sure guys. When we startyed Clausin was doubtful with the elbow. What Weis could only do is scheme to DJ's "SUPPOSED" strengths. He failed miserably and was looking crushed after a grand bouyant, bouncing entrance onto the field. Now he just fled proving to me what I always felt he is a ME ME ME guy and stiff you and the team.

 

[johnnd05]

I'm not to sure guys. When we startyed Clausin was doubtful with the elbow. What Weis could only do is scheme to DJ's "SUPPOSED" strengths. He failed miserably and was looking crushed after a grand bouyant, bouncing entrance onto the field. Now he just fled proving to me what I always felt he is a ME ME ME guy and stiff you and the team.

Right - that's pretty much what I think. IMO the only really questionable decision was starting DJ instead of Sharpley in the first place.

 

[elkona]

Overall, I liked Carroll's column today. He can be wordy, but at least he pulls no punches. As for the criticism that he's negative -- the season has been entirely negative so far. Do you expect a newspaper columnist to put a good spin on that? If so, pick up the ND sports-information department's internal rag. I'm sure you can get some good cheerleading there.

 

[johnnd05]

Overall, I liked Carroll's column today. He can be wordy, but at least he pulls no punches. As for the criticism that he's negative -- the season has been entirely negative so far. Do you expect a newspaper columnist to put a good spin on that? If so, pick up the ND sports-information department's internal rag. I'm sure you can get some good cheerleading there.

The grip against Carroll isn't that he's negative, it's that he's got an agenda, as evidenced by his "reporting" on Clausen's recruiting and his "analysis" of the alcohol incident. The way he handled those situations was definitely pretty ridiculous, and he deserves the criticism he's gotten for it.

 

[GoshenGipper]

As usual Caroll (that's a girls name!) takes what is probably a salient point and makes it into something that's more of an opportunity to bash. He isn't always ill-informed, but he is almost always.....just nasty. He makes me think of (sorry for nerding out here) Snape from the Harry Potter books/movies. Just so bitter and angry.

I have to agree there. He almost always seems to have an axe to grind. I could really care less if I read any of his work or not.

Weis sabotaged this season

I'm pretty sure Ty helped that one out quite a bit considering that ND has 3 total OL in the top three classes combined (5th yr Sr, Sr, and Jr). That should never happen, EVER!

 

[LOVEMYIRISH]

I agree on the complexity issue. However, right now they are keeping it so simple it's not a complexity issue.

The biggest problem right now is execution. When you have 3 guys on the OL blocking ONE GUY...that's not good.

 

[kjones]

But each quarterback had their own plays, even all through training camp. And the reps were still pretty even until about 2 weeks before the game. So I guess I only partly agree with this analysis.

 

[Fbolt]

I had a long post that was somewhat rambling. Essentially, it boiled down to this:

CW, get your sh!t together.