General team info

[Irish8248]

I liked Weis. IMO he was the guy we needed at the time to stop the downfall. Just like BK was perfect to build a foundation. Just like MFMF is the guy to bring greatness. We needed each one to get to where we are today. Only downfall is it took us that long to get here.

That being said, CW fucked up his last year and half but redeemed salvaged his legacy by winning our first bowl game in about a decade

 

[ulukinatme]

I liked Weis. IMO he was the guy we needed at the time to stop the downfall. Just like BK was perfect to build a foundation. Just like MFMF is the guy to bring greatness. We needed each one to get to where we are today. Only downfall is it took us that long to get here.

That being said, CW fucked up his last year and half but redeemed salvaged his legacy by winning our first bowl game in about a decade

Agreed. 2007 wasn't entirely on Weis as mentioned, those seeds were sown while Willingham was busy golfing instead of recruiting. 2009 was all on Weis though, there were no Ty guys left by that point. We were competitive in the two losses to Michigan and USC to start the year, and then we had a complete meltdown in November with 4 straight losses including the Connecticut game with Frazier getting revenge at QB. We had too much offensive talent to drop 6 games that year.

There was only one game we didn't break 20 points on offense, which was BC. We were averaging 30+ a game. I think the 2 DC experiment went horribly. While it was the Hawaii bowl I remember it was nice getting that monkey off our back, I was tired of hearing opposing fanbases jab us about our losing bowl streak. As nice as that was, winning the playoffs and three big bowls this last season was even better though.

 

[GowerND11]

Agreed. 2007 wasn't entirely on Weis as mentioned, those seeds were sown while Willingham was busy golfing instead of recruiting. 2009 was all on Weis though, there were no Ty guys left by that point. We were competitive in the two losses to Michigan and USC to start the year, and then we had a complete meltdown in November with 4 straight losses including the Connecticut game with Frazier getting revenge at QB. We had too much offensive talent to drop 6 games that year.

There was only one game we didn't break 20 points on offense, which was BC. We were averaging 30+ a game. I think the 2 DC experiment went horribly. While it was the Hawaii bowl I remember it was nice getting that monkey off our back, I was tired of hearing opposing fanbases jab us about our losing bowl streak. As nice as that was, winning the playoffs and three big bowls this last season was even better though.

The last two years of Weis the team looked gassed at the end of the year.

But yeah, that 2009 offense was electric, unfortunately he couldn’t put together an even top 40 defense. That loss to Pitt where Golden did everything to not lose that game…

 

[Irish#1]

Ahhhh - The analysis of the after the fact In-Home experts. Weiss butt fumbles, Weiss fucked up so much.

Harsh AF words for a guy that did not do well but clearly knew much more about football than you and cared liked crazy about ND.

What are you talking about? Open any thread. We have hundreds of experts on this site!

 

[Some Irish Bloke]

Ahhhh - The analysis of the after the fact In-Home experts. Weiss butt fumbles, Weiss fucked up so much.

Harsh AF words for a guy that did not do well but clearly knew much more about football than you and cared liked crazy about ND.

Weis had a "smartest guy in the room" smugness and arrogance about him. He had some fun moments the first two years but got destroyed against most any team with a pulse except for scUM in '05. I don't care how much a coach cares about ND. Every keyboard warrior on this site cares about ND. He was a terrible head coach.

Many have said it and I agree, he probably would've been an incredible OC, but he clearly wasn't cut out to run a program and it showed.

 

[jprue24]

....making me think about Leinart fumbling out of bounds to stop the clock and set up the push....on a Monday too.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

Ahhhh - The analysis of the after the fact In-Home experts. Weiss butt fumbles, Weiss fucked up so much.

Harsh AF words for a guy that did not do well but clearly knew much more about football than you and cared liked crazy about ND.

Charlie Weis typically didn't care about much other than Charlie Weis.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

2007 was a perfect storm. There were so many moving parts that all collided together in that moment it would have been difficult to succeed that year. Maybe someone with HC experience would have seen it coming and would have done more in 05 and 06 to prepare long term, but there were quite a few major variables that were working against him and that staff that were not of their making.

The overall lack of defensive identity ended up costing him and there were strength and conditioning aspects of the program that could have been better.

Weis had a lot of personality faults. I would not put all of 2007 on him, but 2008 and 2009 most definitely were under his ownership.

 

[Domina Nostra]

Charlie Weis typically didn't care about much other than Charlie Weis.

Huh? Weis was a great OC that was a classic example of being promoted one too many times. And in college football, where it is always "what did you do for me lately," all his accomplishments were tarnished by his ultimate failure as ND's head coach.

He brought the swagger/arrogance that he learned from the Patriots with him to ND, because that is what he thought worked. In the end, he was not well-suited to the college game (in part, I think, because he never played serious football).

But he certainly conveyed a lot of love for the university, and in his private time seemed to be highly devoted to family, including his daughter who had very serious disabilities.

 

[Free Manera]

There were coaches mentioning to ISD after the playoff run that Shuler was playing better than Watts. Dude is gonna be a problem for teams this fall

The entire two deep secondary is going to be a problem. I miss the days when soccer players had to be enlisted to play safety.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

Huh? Weis was a great OC that was a classic example of being promoted one too many times. And in college football, where it is always "what did you do for me lately," all his accomplishments were tarnished by his ultimate failure as ND's head coach.

He brought the swagger/arrogance that he learned from the Patriots with him to ND, because that is what he thought worked. In the end, he was not well-suited to the college game (in part, I think, because he never played serious football).

But he certainly conveyed a lot of love for the university, and in his private time seemed to be highly devoted to family, including his daughter who had very serious disabilities.

Ask Bill Parcells.

I have no doubt Charlie loves his family, and all these years later maybe he's changed from the guy he was back then. At that time, however, he was cut from the cut throat cloth of the NFL and displayed those traits far more often than not.

 

[GowerND11]

Ask Bill Parcells.

I have no doubt Charlie loves his family, and all these years later maybe he's changed from the guy he was back then. At that time, however, he was cut from the cut throat cloth of the NFL and displayed those traits far more often than not.

Yeah I tend to agree with this, mostly. No doubt as an alumnus that he loved(s) the university. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t arrogant during his time coaching ND. His OC experience showed by how well he/the staff recruited that side of the ball. But he just didn’t have that charismatic defensive recruiter that he desperately needed to offset his lack of defensive coaching acumen.

 

[stlnd01]

Huh? Weis was a great OC that was a classic example of being promoted one too many times. And in college football, where it is always "what did you do for me lately," all his accomplishments were tarnished by his ultimate failure as ND's head coach.

He brought the swagger/arrogance that he learned from the Patriots with him to ND, because that is what he thought worked. In the end, he was not well-suited to the college game (in part, I think, because he never played serious football).

But he certainly conveyed a lot of love for the university, and in his private time seemed to be highly devoted to family, including his daughter who had very serious disabilities.

I mean, Weis had never played or coached college football. He was used to dealing with adult professionals. I don't think it's an accident that things our program struggled with under him, especially as time went on - like strength & conditioning, long-term player development, and to some extent culture - are things that tend to be less important in the NFL than they are to managing a college football program full of 19 and 20 year olds.

Every coach has their strengths and weaknesses, of course. Weis could have hired people who were strong in areas he was not (as Freeman largely has). That wasn't his way. Doesn't make him a bad human being, but it does speak to a certain arrogance that contributed to his downfall.

 

[Katzenboyer]

Weis had a "smartest guy in the room" smugness and arrogance about him. He had some fun moments the first two years but got destroyed against most any team with a pulse except for scUM in '05.

That Michigan team (#3 when ND played them) finished 7-5.

Michigan and Navy (8-4) were the only teams above .500 ND beat that season.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

Yeah I tend to agree with this, mostly. No doubt as an alumnus that he loved(s) the university. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t arrogant during his time coaching ND. His OC experience showed by how well he/the staff recruited that side of the ball. But he just didn’t have that charismatic defensive recruiter that he desperately needed to offset his lack of defensive coaching acumen.

I would not assume this, be it Weis or anyone else. He didn't speak about ND the way Lou did and Freeman does. I never got the impression, then or now, he was madly in love with Notre Dame. He was an alum and his career took off as OC with Belichick and Brady in the NFL. He wasn't at the top of anyone's list at the time because it was Urban Meyer Utah Love In Fest 2004-05.

Notre Dame was an opportunity for him and he took it. I don't know if it was anything more than that. Belichick was happy to have him, but he burned a big bridge with Parcells and Parcells gave Charlie the biggest break of his career prior to him getting the ND job. His career fell off hard after ND and was basically over after Kansas. Nobody in the NFL wanted anything to do with him.

 

[Irish#1]

Regardless of where you thought Charlie's faults were, I think we can all agree that overall, the Weis years were a failure.

 

[NDPhilly]

Regardless of where you thought Charlie's faults were, I think we can all agree that overall, the Weis years were a failure.

Its wild in retrospect that in his "great" '05 and '06 seasons we ended the year ranked #9 and #17 in the AP poll.

 

[Fbolt]

Yeah I tend to agree with this, mostly. No doubt as an alumnus that he loved(s) the university. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t arrogant during his time coaching ND. His OC experience showed by how well he/the staff recruited that side of the ball. But he just didn’t have that charismatic defensive recruiter that he desperately needed to offset his lack of defensive coaching acumen.

Much better!

 

[stlnd01]

Its wild in retrospect that in his "great" '05 and '06 seasons we ended the year ranked #9 and #17 in the AP poll.

That's what happens when you get smoked by the only actually good teams you play; people think you're a fraud.
In 2006 we were #6 going into the USC game, got blown out by them and then LSU in the bowl. Our biggest win that season was beating a Penn State team that finished 24th.

 

[texbender]

Looks like tickets are now available from Ticket Office, at least for season ticket holders.

 

[IrishLion]

I would not assume this, be it Weis or anyone else. He didn't speak about ND the way Lou did and Freeman does. I never got the impression, then or now, he was madly in love with Notre Dame. He was an alum and his career took off as OC with Belichick and Brady in the NFL. He wasn't at the top of anyone's list at the time because it was Urban Meyer Utah Love In Fest 2004-05.

Notre Dame was an opportunity for him and he took it. I don't know if it was anything more than that. Belichick was happy to have him, but he burned a big bridge with Parcells and Parcells gave Charlie the biggest break of his career prior to him getting the ND job. His career fell off hard after ND and was basically over after Kansas. Nobody in the NFL wanted anything to do with him.

I did an overnight camp at ND back in 2005 or 2006 for high school players. Weis’ only appearance during the whole thing was the photo op on day one, where each camper got an individual phot with him, which was also the only chance to interact with him.

His ONLY concern with each camper was making sure his Super Bowl ring was visible. He might have thought it was a cool/funny thing… but that’s literally all he said to everyone. Not “hi” or “thanks for coming” or “Go Irish,” it was “gotta make sure that ring is visible on your shoulder for the picture.”


Took my son to a day camp for grade school kids this year. MFMF asked every kid how they were doing, thanked them for coming, and signed an autograph… then he walked around to every station and interacted with as many kids as possible during the actual camp.

I guess this doesn’t necessarily mean MFMF loves ND more than Weis does in a vacuum… but it gives you a pretty good idea

 

[ulukinatme]

I have a hard time calling Weis a terrible coach because I was around for Boob Davie and Willingham. Willingham was the absolute worst on the field and in recruiting, we got absolutely embarrassed every year by Southern Cal, our biggest rival, not to mention others. 30+ point losses EVERY year he coached! With Weis we were at least competitive in some of the games, and we should have won the '05 game if not for the PAC-12 officiating. Weis provided some magical moments despite not ever figuring it out on defense. The 2009 late season collapse was unacceptable though.

Weis was bad, but he didn't leave the cupboard bare, and I wouldn't go so far to call him terrible. Ty was terrible. Ty was blown out 30+ points each year against USC, 0-2 against Purdue including a 26 point blowout, got blown out by Syracuse, he missed being bowl eligible in '03 and shouldn't have gotten us to a bowl in '04, got shut out by Michigan, embarrassed and shut out by Florida State, 0-3 against BC, and his recruiting classes set us back big time. His tenure was worse in hindsight than we could have ever guessed.

 

[GowerND11]

I did an overnight camp at ND back in 2005 or 2006 for high school players. Weis’ only appearance during the whole thing was the photo op on day one, where each camper got an individual phot with him, which was also the only chance to interact with him.

His ONLY concern with each camper was making sure his Super Bowl ring was visible. He might have thought it was a cool/funny thing… but that’s literally all he said to everyone. Not “hi” or “thanks for coming” or “Go Irish,” it was “gotta make sure that ring is visible on your shoulder for the picture.”


Took my son to a day camp for grade school kids this year. MFMF asked every kid how they were doing, thanked them for coming, and signed an autograph… then he walked around to every station and interacted with as many kids as possible during the actual camp.

I guess this doesn’t necessarily mean MFMF loves ND more than Weis does in a vacuum… but it gives you a pretty good idea

Hey I was there in '06 and got the same impression while there.

Wore my Berwick football shirt one day since I'm 45 minutes from there and Ron Powlus was on the staff. Had a great convo with him while warming up with the rest of the QBs there. My "Irish Ball" teammates included Johnny Goodman, a guy who went to William and Mary for QB (ended up playing TE there), and another player that played for Nevada.

 

[ulukinatme]

I did an overnight camp at ND back in 2005 or 2006 for high school players. Weis’ only appearance during the whole thing was the photo op on day one, where each camper got an individual phot with him, which was also the only chance to interact with him.

His ONLY concern with each camper was making sure his Super Bowl ring was visible. He might have thought it was a cool/funny thing… but that’s literally all he said to everyone. Not “hi” or “thanks for coming” or “Go Irish,” it was “gotta make sure that ring is visible on your shoulder for the picture.”


Took my son to a day camp for grade school kids this year. MFMF asked every kid how they were doing, thanked them for coming, and signed an autograph… then he walked around to every station and interacted with as many kids as possible during the actual camp.

I guess this doesn’t necessarily mean MFMF loves ND more than Weis does in a vacuum… but it gives you a pretty good idea

I can tell you that Boob Davie was the exact same way. He only came out to do a scheduled picture with the campers, I didn't remember seeing him at any of the football camp practices that week. I did see Urban (Obviously a nobody at that time), who was WR coach, and Charlie Strong was my DL coach (Intense dude!). I would guess most of the ND coaches over the years probably aren't there for the high school and younger kid camps, they probably all just showed up for a photo op similar to Weis and Davie. Freeman is a different animal though, that's why he's awesome.

 

[IrishLion]

Hey I was there in '06 and got the same impression while there.

Wore my Berwick football shirt one day since I'm 45 minutes from there and Ron Powlus was on the staff. Had a great convo with him while warming up with the rest of the QBs there. My "Irish Ball" teammates included Johnny Goodman, a guy who went to William and Mary for QB (ended up playing TE there), and another player that played for Nevada.

I got along really well with Jappy Oliver during DL drills lol, but as a slow white dude, that was about it for me. My group's 'coach' was a dude from Richmond that was cool as hell. I guess he was coaching under Dave Clawson... had no idea until I just googled their staff two mins ago to try and find his name.

I actually got some props from John Latina during the OL portion of the camp on pass-pro, too... but he immediately got distracted by the one kid in our group that was over 6'4, he proceeded to work that kid really hard individually for a a couple hours, probably seeing if it could be a surprise offer.

 

[stlnd01]

I can tell you that Boob Davie was the exact same way. He only came out to do a scheduled picture with the campers, I didn't remember seeing him at any of the football camp practices that week. I did see Urban (Obviously a nobody at that time), who was WR coach, and Charlie Strong was my DL coach (Intense dude!). I would guess most of the ND coaches over the years probably aren't there for the high school and younger kid camps, they probably all just showed up for a photo op similar to Weis and Davie. Freeman is a different animal though, that's why he's awesome.

View attachment 3059376

Maybe it's the way the light is hitting the picture but I had to look closer to make sure that was in fact Bob Davie and not a cardboard cut-out of Bob Davie. He was such a stiff, and - as a student at the time - he gave the distinct impression of giving zero shits about Notre Dame itself. He'd have just as soon had been at A&M or any other big-time program. Willingham was similar. He was probably happier at Stanford where no one noticed him or cared much. Weis cared about Notre Dame but really he cared about Charlie Weis.

Yeah, all three of them were so bad, each in their own way. It's so much better now. Let's stop talking about them, and never go back to that place.

 

[Punky]

I have a hard time calling Weis a terrible coach because I was around for Boob Davie and Willingham. Willingham was the absolute worst on the field and in recruiting, we got absolutely embarrassed every year by Southern Cal, our biggest rival, not to mention others. 30+ point losses EVERY year he coached! With Weis we were at least competitive in some of the games, and we should have won the '05 game if not for the PAC-12 officiating. Weis provided some magical moments despite not ever figuring it out on defense. The 2009 late season collapse was unacceptable though.

Weis was bad, but he didn't leave the cupboard bare, and I wouldn't go so far to call him terrible. Ty was terrible. Ty was blown out 30+ points each year against USC, 0-2 against Purdue including a 26 point blowout, got blown out by Syracuse, he missed being bowl eligible in '03 and shouldn't have gotten us to a bowl in '04, got shut out by Michigan, embarrassed and shut out by Florida State, 0-3 against BC, and his recruiting classes set us back big time. His tenure was worse in hindsight than we could have ever guessed.

Talk about pain, you guys are too young to remember the Faust years. Coaches used to speak in the dorms before the season. Devine was kind of a zero, guy had no personality, but he knew what he was doing. Those teams were competitive. Faust was exact opposite. Nicest guy in the world, nobody was more caring, staunch Catholic, loved the University intensely, but in the end, he just could not coach college football.

1981–85 Gerry Faust 30–26–1 .535
1997–2001 Bob Davie 35–25 .583
2002–2004 Tyrone Willingham 21–15 .583
2005–2009 Charlie Weis 35–27 .565

 

[irishjim]

I think Weis just came at the wrong time in history. Notre Dame was very slow to adapt to the changes in college football occurring into the 2000’s. Had Weis taken the Notre Dame job today after BK (who we can all agree help modernize Notre Dame) then it might have been a different story because the strength and conditioning is so much more evolved at Notre Dame today and it’s even more evident Notre Dame would help him get a top 5 highest paid DC to balance his weakness. I think 2005 Notre Dame was still too much of the Monk era.

 

[pumpdog20]

We had two coaches, back to back, who one would later go 0-12 for one team and the other would go 1-11

 

[IrishBoognish]

I honestly thought, until right now, that Cal Raleigh's catcher in the HR derby was Riley Leonard

It wasnt until he completely removed his helmet that I realized it wasnt him

(I started to doubt myself because he wasn't smiling nearly enough)