It is apparently clear now that the majority of poster all over the web are calling for CW to get canned. I am not there yet and I will list some of the reasons. Before I get to them I remember what Coach Pagna said during an interview one time after an ND lose, "The other team has scholarship players". So we have not lost a game to a Div II or III or whatever they are calling them these days. Now for my reasons.
1. CW has really become the HC this year. The past 3 years he was the offensive coordinator who happened to get information about the other units on the team. Maybe he will see what is wrong with the teams intensity, line play, and mentality and make the needed correction. I look at this year as year 1 of his tenure. He needs to evaluate everything this off season and hopefully he can do that better having observed the players and coaches everyday from practice to conditioning to game day and make the necessary adjustments.
2. The big problem this team has is that it relies heavily on the underclassmen for everything from leadership to making plays. If you look at the elite programs, they get plays from the underclassmen, but the Jr and Sr classes are the leaders on and off the field. The upperclassmen at winning programs set the tone in conditioning, practice, and attitude, it was based down to them from previous classes. Hopefully our current underclassmen will take the bad taste of losing and use it to motivate future classes not to become complacent at any part of the process. So in terms of how I look at this team, they appear to be on par with the 1986 team, which lost some games they should have won because as Lou said they did not know how to win. Hopefully next year will be like the 1987 team and the only games they will lose will be the ones that they actually should have lost. From there i expect a good run at NC every year. If the team some how falls flat again next year, baring major injuries, then maybe CW is not the guy.
3. CW needs to become more of a college guy. Run the wild cat, or option plays. Remember at this level it really should still be fun. I think taking the NFL and its all business approach has hurt the team. If you look at the guys that have succeeded at the college level after returning from the pros, they have let the game become fun to them. I hate to say it but look what Carroll and Saban have done.
Finally for all of us ND fans, Lou was right not only do we want and expect to win every game we don't want them to be close. This is not the 70's or late 80's. The landscape has changed, that is not an excuse for the losing just reality. Look what has happened this year to the elite program, looks like most of them have 1 lose and some of those have lost to unranked teams that on paper they out man them. Carroll, Saban, Meyer, Paterno, Bowden, and Stoops have lost games and have had bad seasons.
If you thought CW was great or a perfect fit in '05 and '06 when he had players and a decent number of players, give him a chance to coach that type of team again. Last year we had the lowest number of scholarship players of any Div I team. That does not fix itself in one year. If we start firing coaches every 3 -5 year we not only become like everyone else, we give the credence to you can't win there anymore campaign. For the two teams we just lost to, Pitt stated it was one of the greatest victories in their programs history and BC was pretty proud of themselves. Funny how beating an average 5 - 4 team can mean so much to people. Had we won both of these games I doubt anyone on any web site or associated with the university would have put that much meaning into these games.
1. CW has really become the HC this year. The past 3 years he was the offensive coordinator who happened to get information about the other units on the team. Maybe he will see what is wrong with the teams intensity, line play, and mentality and make the needed correction. I look at this year as year 1 of his tenure. He needs to evaluate everything this off season and hopefully he can do that better having observed the players and coaches everyday from practice to conditioning to game day and make the necessary adjustments.
2. The big problem this team has is that it relies heavily on the underclassmen for everything from leadership to making plays. If you look at the elite programs, they get plays from the underclassmen, but the Jr and Sr classes are the leaders on and off the field. The upperclassmen at winning programs set the tone in conditioning, practice, and attitude, it was based down to them from previous classes. Hopefully our current underclassmen will take the bad taste of losing and use it to motivate future classes not to become complacent at any part of the process. So in terms of how I look at this team, they appear to be on par with the 1986 team, which lost some games they should have won because as Lou said they did not know how to win. Hopefully next year will be like the 1987 team and the only games they will lose will be the ones that they actually should have lost. From there i expect a good run at NC every year. If the team some how falls flat again next year, baring major injuries, then maybe CW is not the guy.
3. CW needs to become more of a college guy. Run the wild cat, or option plays. Remember at this level it really should still be fun. I think taking the NFL and its all business approach has hurt the team. If you look at the guys that have succeeded at the college level after returning from the pros, they have let the game become fun to them. I hate to say it but look what Carroll and Saban have done.
Finally for all of us ND fans, Lou was right not only do we want and expect to win every game we don't want them to be close. This is not the 70's or late 80's. The landscape has changed, that is not an excuse for the losing just reality. Look what has happened this year to the elite program, looks like most of them have 1 lose and some of those have lost to unranked teams that on paper they out man them. Carroll, Saban, Meyer, Paterno, Bowden, and Stoops have lost games and have had bad seasons.
If you thought CW was great or a perfect fit in '05 and '06 when he had players and a decent number of players, give him a chance to coach that type of team again. Last year we had the lowest number of scholarship players of any Div I team. That does not fix itself in one year. If we start firing coaches every 3 -5 year we not only become like everyone else, we give the credence to you can't win there anymore campaign. For the two teams we just lost to, Pitt stated it was one of the greatest victories in their programs history and BC was pretty proud of themselves. Funny how beating an average 5 - 4 team can mean so much to people. Had we won both of these games I doubt anyone on any web site or associated with the university would have put that much meaning into these games.
