IHateMarkMay
IHateDavidPollackToo
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Personally, I think Charlie Weis needs to stay one more year. If things crumble to the ground again next year and we have anything short of a 9 win season (yes including the bowl) we might need to think about this again. I know we are Notre Dame and we all expect the football team to bleed excellence, and we all believe this, but sometimes you have to accept improvement and not just a complete turnaround. This is the same team who won 3 games last year. Just 3 games. Historic losses to Navy and Air Force, blowouts to USC, UM, and unranked at the time Georgia Tech. Fast forward a year and we are looking at a 6 win season, perhaps a bowl bid. We lost any thought of a bowl on October 20th of last year with that USC loss. This year we can still go to a bowl if we are 6-6, might not be the best bowl, but a bowl. The bowls want us because we are Notre Dame, we are a high profile team that will put butts in the seats.
As for this year, our play as of recent has been dispicible. We are beating teams that we should walk all over by forty and we are getting beat by teams that we should probably beat. A loss to Syracuse is never excusable, but the heart those kids from Syracuse played with should be a lesson to our players that it's not always about talent, but about a passion to play the game. Our kids have the talent, but the passion lacks. I think that loss to UNC really put a dent in our kid's passion to play, then after the overtime loss to Pittsburgh was the icing on the passion cake. Including the UNC game, we have gone 2-4, losing to (arguably) teams we could have and should have beat. All four of them. However, just because you are supposed to beat someone doesn't mean its going to happen. Anything can happen at any game.
Charlie Weis's first two years here were anything what we expected. Anytime a new coach comes into a system expectations are always lower. We went 6-5 during the regular season in 2004. We lost a bowl game which made us 6-6. The next year we got Charlie Weis. Expectations had to be, at best, an 8 win season. However he gave us 9-2 regular season with another bowl loss to make it 9-3. He produed a three game turnaround with a team who had a different coach the year before. The year after that he went 10-2 in the regular season and 10-3 overall. I've preached this before and i stand by my point that, in most cases, teams go through a growing pain period between coaches. Charlie didn't give us that period when he first came here. If you switch the first two years he was here with the last two, it doesn't look as bad with 3 wins, then 6, then 9, then 10. That seems to be normal for a team on the right track. These past two years have been a Notre Dame team growing up. Everybody knows you aren't born one day and are all of a sudden an adult the next. Last year we were an infant in college football, this year we are hitting the teen years which suck for just about everybody.
As for what I believe Charlie needs to do about the problems we have with putting points up and keeping our foot on the gas pedals is to have him continue his coaching duties, however, change is needed. Keep the defense the same, they have shown drastic improvement this year from last year. I would love to see Tenuta and Brown blitz more and confuse the opposing offenses more with different packages and blitzes though. As for the offense. I feel Charlie has to give up play calling duties and we need to hire in a true, college coach who can fill an offensive coordinator spot. Look towards the mid-majors and find a guy who knows how to put points up on the board and not look back until that clock shows four zeros. A guy from a school like Western Michigan, Central Michigan, Ball State, TCU, or Utah.
I was born a Notre Dame fan and I bleed the blue and gold. I drink the kool-aid at the beginning of each year. Hind-sight is 20/20 though. I think all of us need to, have our own opinions, but respect and support whatever happens with our team. The same with our government... do some people want there to be a war against terrorism? Some do not, however, everybody should support the troops regardless if you think we should be over there or not. I will continue to love this team regardless of how the record looks. Everybody should, we are Notre Dame.
As for this year, our play as of recent has been dispicible. We are beating teams that we should walk all over by forty and we are getting beat by teams that we should probably beat. A loss to Syracuse is never excusable, but the heart those kids from Syracuse played with should be a lesson to our players that it's not always about talent, but about a passion to play the game. Our kids have the talent, but the passion lacks. I think that loss to UNC really put a dent in our kid's passion to play, then after the overtime loss to Pittsburgh was the icing on the passion cake. Including the UNC game, we have gone 2-4, losing to (arguably) teams we could have and should have beat. All four of them. However, just because you are supposed to beat someone doesn't mean its going to happen. Anything can happen at any game.
Charlie Weis's first two years here were anything what we expected. Anytime a new coach comes into a system expectations are always lower. We went 6-5 during the regular season in 2004. We lost a bowl game which made us 6-6. The next year we got Charlie Weis. Expectations had to be, at best, an 8 win season. However he gave us 9-2 regular season with another bowl loss to make it 9-3. He produed a three game turnaround with a team who had a different coach the year before. The year after that he went 10-2 in the regular season and 10-3 overall. I've preached this before and i stand by my point that, in most cases, teams go through a growing pain period between coaches. Charlie didn't give us that period when he first came here. If you switch the first two years he was here with the last two, it doesn't look as bad with 3 wins, then 6, then 9, then 10. That seems to be normal for a team on the right track. These past two years have been a Notre Dame team growing up. Everybody knows you aren't born one day and are all of a sudden an adult the next. Last year we were an infant in college football, this year we are hitting the teen years which suck for just about everybody.
As for what I believe Charlie needs to do about the problems we have with putting points up and keeping our foot on the gas pedals is to have him continue his coaching duties, however, change is needed. Keep the defense the same, they have shown drastic improvement this year from last year. I would love to see Tenuta and Brown blitz more and confuse the opposing offenses more with different packages and blitzes though. As for the offense. I feel Charlie has to give up play calling duties and we need to hire in a true, college coach who can fill an offensive coordinator spot. Look towards the mid-majors and find a guy who knows how to put points up on the board and not look back until that clock shows four zeros. A guy from a school like Western Michigan, Central Michigan, Ball State, TCU, or Utah.
I was born a Notre Dame fan and I bleed the blue and gold. I drink the kool-aid at the beginning of each year. Hind-sight is 20/20 though. I think all of us need to, have our own opinions, but respect and support whatever happens with our team. The same with our government... do some people want there to be a war against terrorism? Some do not, however, everybody should support the troops regardless if you think we should be over there or not. I will continue to love this team regardless of how the record looks. Everybody should, we are Notre Dame.
