I'm sure this has been mentioned a million times but I think it's worth repeating to keep things in perspective.
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I'm old enough to remember the late 80s and early 90s... our program was great!!! Today, I want it back where it belongs... at the top of college football. Unfortunately, wanting or wishing for something doesn't necessarily make it happen.
We are ND... but we hadn't been getting ND caliber classes for quite some time. According to Rivals, our 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 classes were respectively ranked 24th, 12th, 32nd and 40th. No wonder the media (lead by ESPN/ABC) didn't want Ty to leave South Bend. He was helping make us obsolete. We may not want to admit it and we may believe that we should be a top 10 team but unfortunately, we haven't had top 10 talent for quite some time. To be honest, we didn't even have top 20 talent most years. Hell, there was a stretch when our upperclassmen talent wasn't even top 35!!! The reason we haven't been beating top teams for the last couple of years is rather simple. The talent gap between us and them was huge.
Our judgement of CW is greatly influenced by the 2007 and 2008 seasons. On the surface, his numbers are not acceptable and I'm the first to admit that. But if you look a bit deeper you quickly realise that the team's abismal performance was mostly due to the lack of football talent at ND prior to 2006. You may or may not like CW and his personality but you cannot blame him for the incredible lack of upperclassmen talent during those two seasons. We lost some games we probably should have won but the coaching staff made the decision to play the younger players who were significantly more talented. They made numerous mistakes but that wasn't one of them. In my opinion, their biggest mistake was mismanaging their fanbase's expections by not admitting 2007 and 2008 were rebuilding years. But that's a hard thing to do. Anyone who would have taken the time to look at the facts instead of remembering past glory and hoping the same would magically occur could have reasonably expected the losses and the brutal performance of the team over that two year stretch. We have great expectations for ND but we also owe it to our team to have realistic expectations. How can a team that didn't have top 20 talent be expected to compete with a USC. It's worst class form 2003 to 2007 was ranked #3!!!
For ND, things started to change in 2006 and 2007 with two consecutive classes ranked at #8 followed by a #2 class in 2008. The foundation for continued success in now finally in place. We can finally realistically start believing that we can contend. USC still has significantly more talent than us and even Michigan, with all their problems still have more paper talent than we do. But with a top 10 class in 2010 we finally become a team with overall top 10 talent. Weis has done an incredible job recruiting over the last couple of years. No wonder the media want him out of South Bend asap!!!
Do we have great Head Coach? The media may want him out but even after 5 years it is be too early for me to make a decision either way. After looking looking at the numbers and digging into the facts, I can't put much weight on what happened during the 2007 and 2008 seasons. Most if not all the coaches now being talked about to replace him would most likely have also been destroyed over that stretch. That's the reason no one wanted the job!!! Personally, I will not let ESPN/ABC force me into making a bad decision that could potentially be disastrous for the program. I hope the AD does the same. CW should be back in 2010 unless the team totally melts down in the next three game. Not because I think that he deserves it but because that is the best decision for the program.
__________________________________________________
I'm old enough to remember the late 80s and early 90s... our program was great!!! Today, I want it back where it belongs... at the top of college football. Unfortunately, wanting or wishing for something doesn't necessarily make it happen.
We are ND... but we hadn't been getting ND caliber classes for quite some time. According to Rivals, our 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 classes were respectively ranked 24th, 12th, 32nd and 40th. No wonder the media (lead by ESPN/ABC) didn't want Ty to leave South Bend. He was helping make us obsolete. We may not want to admit it and we may believe that we should be a top 10 team but unfortunately, we haven't had top 10 talent for quite some time. To be honest, we didn't even have top 20 talent most years. Hell, there was a stretch when our upperclassmen talent wasn't even top 35!!! The reason we haven't been beating top teams for the last couple of years is rather simple. The talent gap between us and them was huge.
Our judgement of CW is greatly influenced by the 2007 and 2008 seasons. On the surface, his numbers are not acceptable and I'm the first to admit that. But if you look a bit deeper you quickly realise that the team's abismal performance was mostly due to the lack of football talent at ND prior to 2006. You may or may not like CW and his personality but you cannot blame him for the incredible lack of upperclassmen talent during those two seasons. We lost some games we probably should have won but the coaching staff made the decision to play the younger players who were significantly more talented. They made numerous mistakes but that wasn't one of them. In my opinion, their biggest mistake was mismanaging their fanbase's expections by not admitting 2007 and 2008 were rebuilding years. But that's a hard thing to do. Anyone who would have taken the time to look at the facts instead of remembering past glory and hoping the same would magically occur could have reasonably expected the losses and the brutal performance of the team over that two year stretch. We have great expectations for ND but we also owe it to our team to have realistic expectations. How can a team that didn't have top 20 talent be expected to compete with a USC. It's worst class form 2003 to 2007 was ranked #3!!!
For ND, things started to change in 2006 and 2007 with two consecutive classes ranked at #8 followed by a #2 class in 2008. The foundation for continued success in now finally in place. We can finally realistically start believing that we can contend. USC still has significantly more talent than us and even Michigan, with all their problems still have more paper talent than we do. But with a top 10 class in 2010 we finally become a team with overall top 10 talent. Weis has done an incredible job recruiting over the last couple of years. No wonder the media want him out of South Bend asap!!!
Do we have great Head Coach? The media may want him out but even after 5 years it is be too early for me to make a decision either way. After looking looking at the numbers and digging into the facts, I can't put much weight on what happened during the 2007 and 2008 seasons. Most if not all the coaches now being talked about to replace him would most likely have also been destroyed over that stretch. That's the reason no one wanted the job!!! Personally, I will not let ESPN/ABC force me into making a bad decision that could potentially be disastrous for the program. I hope the AD does the same. CW should be back in 2010 unless the team totally melts down in the next three game. Not because I think that he deserves it but because that is the best decision for the program.
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