A Question for CW

[goldenlid]

Right now ND needs to show heart and have good old coach Holtz come in and give a pep talk.

 

[Master Guns]

I think our O-line struggle is simply from youth and inexperience.

I watched some of the other games and you see the O-line for other teams. OSU for instance they're replacing most of there O-lineman but they're replacing them with redshirt juniors, seniors and 5th year guys. They've developed the depth at those positions. Outside of QB and CB I think making the jump from HS to college as a lineman is extremely difficult. Most aren't as strong as the seniors when they come in.

That being said these guys need to show some pride. From what I've seen this team isn't as bad as it's except for the O-line. If we can't protect and if we can't run it doesn't matter if Bill Walsh and Joe Montana are out there. It wouldn't make a difference.

Someone has to get in these kids face. They're better than this and they know it!

That someone should be coach Latina but he has already lost these guys. Time to send him packing.

 

[NDOM]

ladies and gentlemen.....please listen to a person who knows what charlie weiss is capable of. not much. he was hired because the powers to be thought he would be another bill belichik. not quite. to give him (or anybody) a contract that long is absolutely insane. charlie knows offense. that's it. i predict he will be bought out by the end of next season. look for tuition to go up 5k next year to pay for it. not to worry. new england is looking for another videographer.

Cute I guess but it's Weis not Weiss. he he he

 

[elkona]

Weis Extension

Weis Extension

I totally agree with tprjohn. To grant a multi-year extension to a coach seven games into his first season, playing with another coach's recruits, is completely silly. ND deserves whatever it gets for making that decision. I won't say that Weis won't eventually win, but to treat him better than UND treated Lou Holtz was inscrutable.
The Weis extension was an over-reaction by a paranoid athletic dept. leadership to the George O'Leary debacle ... Kevin White didn't want to go through a coaching search again for a long time. I have come to believe the decision was made for convenience's sake, more than anything.
So now we're stuck with a guy who is supposed to be an offensive genius but can't seem to prepare his team for the season. Who can recruit and develop pro-style QBs but doesn't know the value of offensive linemen. Who hasn't recruited a single game-changing WR or RB in the mold of Rocket Ismail or Timmy Brown or Jerome Bettis.
This could get worse...

 

[goldenlid]

Allen and Tate are suppose to be game changers, but when there is no time to get them the ball and no room to run the game will stay the same.

 

[johnnd05]

So now we're stuck with a guy who is supposed to be an offensive genius but can't seem to prepare his team for the season. Who can recruit and develop pro-style QBs but doesn't know the value of offensive linemen. Who hasn't recruited a single game-changing WR or RB in the mold of Rocket Ismail or Timmy Brown or Jerome Bettis.

I'm not going to get deep into this argument, but what the heck is this supposed to mean? It wasn't Weis who recruited two offensive linemen in three years - actually it seems to me that he's recruited more like ten of them. You gotta play with the hand you're dealt, which is exactly what CW is doing along the o-line.

The last point seems like silliness, too. In the first place, guys like Ishmail, Brown, and Bettis come along about once in a generation. But secondly, how are you supposed to know on the basis of what we've seen that none of Allen, Aldridge, West, and Kamara are going to be gamebreakers? They're TEENAGERS, for Pete's sake!

 

[johnnd05]

The last point seems like silliness, too. In the first place, guys like Ishmail, Brown, and Bettis come along about once in a generation. But secondly, how are you supposed to know on the basis of what we've seen that none of Allen, Aldridge, West, and Kamara are going to be gamebreakers? They're TEENAGERS, for Pete's sake!

I forgot to include Golden Tate in this list, of course. Plus we're apparently the leaders for both Michael Floyd and Carlton Thomas this year, both of whom are clearly potential "gamebreaker"-type players.

 

[The Polish Irishman]

CW average loss as ND head coach is over 22 points....OUCH!...Bring back Lou, I bet his still has the fire..or maybe his son

 

[johnnd05]

CW average loss as ND head coach is over 22 points....OUCH!...Bring back Lou, I bet his still has the fire..or maybe his son

I have to say I find it pretty funny that at the same time people are saying that (1) we didn't give Ty enough of a chance by firing him after two .500 seasons and dreadful recruiting, and (2) we should fire Weis after he won 19 games in his first two years and then started 0-3, with the #1 recruiting class in the nation at present. I don't mean you, plove, just some people (here and in the media).

Double standard, much?

 

[kjones]

To the original post, what do the Irish do in practices, I bet they do pretty much what EVERY other team does in practice. I really don't think there's that much difference in the way practices are handled among different regimes if you will. Pretty much everyone watches film on Sunday, rests on Monday, practices harder on Tues/Wed and takes Thurs lighter and Friday just walk-throughs things. As for telling the players what to do right, I don't think after 2 years of teaching guys how to do great on offense the coaches suddenly forgot what to say.
The coaches may take the responsibility, as well they should, but ultimately, the question I think is what else CAN they do? They only get so much time to practice and go through training camp. I guess we could have skipped game planning like we are doing now, and just did fundamentals of offense, but that conveys non-confidence in the players right off the bat. I mean, how many times has Sully snapped a shot-gun? Think of whole halves in shot-gun with Quinn and no bad snaps. Suddenly we get one to start, and another a few plays later. Is this coaching? Is it lack of concentration? Is it freakish? I don't know, but the answer is definitely not so simple as "the coaching sucks." Ultimately the blame rests on them, duh, we all ,know that, but what specifically could/should they have done? Spent 19 of our 20 practice hours a week on snapping? You can only do so much, and our guys are so inexperienced that they just couldn't get it in the amount of time we needed them to get it in. The coaches believed that they could, and that we'd be able to not only get fundamentals down in training camp, but also some specific game-planning. That is, as far as i can see, the error that they made, but if they had erred on teh side of not trusting the players to handle it, I'm not sure things would be much better.

 

[ocNDd]

you can only do so much. this team isn't capable of scoring 35 points in a game, no matter how much game planning you do.

I don't think that anyone is asking for 35 pts/game at this stage. But perhaps a touchdown at some point would be helpful, yes?

I think it's certainly a fair question to ask about what's going on in practice. I know the team is young, but I think this lack of performance goes well beyond the lack of a few more upper classmen.

 

[goldenlid]

The question to CW should be are the guys with heart out there?

 

[GoIrish41]

Last year, when ND had uber-experienced players up front, the O-line seriously underperformed. I say get rid of Latina right now, and start looking for a new OL coach. Let CW coach the OL, and see if he is the coach we all thought he was. No doubt in my mind, Latina has got to go. He's not teaching these guys anything. In fact, I think they are getting worse every game.

 

[JeremyND07]

I Agree!!! Harris is a perfect example of a talented O-lineman that was under-coached. We always get a few high OL recruits but Faine is the last one that was a GREAT O-lineman! We have a good group of young OL right now and I say we get LAtina out now before he ruins them too!!!!

 

[goldandblue]

I would really like to know what Wies' thoughts are on the problem with the line. If it is coaching or inexperience.