Hotmail
Weis better beat USC ... or else
"This gets me ready to go," Weis would tell Chironna.
Bowl season roundup
 |
Bowl recaps and analysis:
-
EagleBank: Wake 29, Navy 19 | CFN
New Mexico: Colo. St. 40, Fresno St. 35
St. Petersburg: S. Florida 41, Memphis 14
Las Vegas: Arizona 31, BYU 21 | CFN
New Orleans: SMU 30, Troy 27 (OT) | CFN
Poinsettia: TCU 17, Boise St. 16 | CFN
Hawaii: Notre Dame 49, Hawaii 21 | CFN
Motor City: FAU 24, Cen. Mich. 21 | CFN
Meineke: W. Virginia 31, UNC 30 | CFN
Champs Sports: Fla. St. 42, Wis. 13 | CFN
Emerald: Cal 24, Miami 17 | CFN
Independence: La. Tech 17, NIU 10 | CFN
Papajohns.com: Rutgers 29, N.C. St. 23
Alamo: Mizzou 30, N'west. 23 (OT) | CFN
Humanitarian: Maryland 42, Nevada 35
Texas: Rice 38, W. Michigan 14
Holiday: Oregon 42, Oklahoma St. 31 | CFN
Armed Forces: Houston 34, Air Force 28
Sun: Oregon St. 3, Pittsburgh 0 | CFN
Music City: Vandy 16, BC 14 | CFN
Insight: Kansas 42, Minnesota 21
Chick-fil-A: LSU 38, Georgia Tech 3
Outback: Iowa 31, South Carolina 10 | CFN
Capital One: Georgia 24, MSU 12 | CFN
Gator: Nebraska 26, Clemson 21
Rose: USC 38, Penn St. 24 | Analysis
Orange: Va. Tech 20, Cincinnati 7
Cotton: Ole Miss 47, Texas Tech 34
Liberty: Kentucky 25, East Carolina 19
Sugar: Utah 31, Alabama 17
International: UConn 38, Buffalo 20
Fiesta: Texas 24, Ohio St. 21 | Analysis
GMAC: Tulsa 45, Ball St. 13
BCS title: Florida 24, Oklahoma 14
Photo gallery:
Shopping:
Weis was always going places in sports, even if he couldn't play the game. He won as a high school basketball coach, even as a fencing coach, long before he worked for Bill Parcells, Bill Belichick, and then for his alma mater, Notre Dame.
But somewhere along the way, fairly early in the process, Weis decided he wouldn't be that charming zillion-to-one shot. He wanted to be a tough guy, and a tough-talking tough guy at that.
Weis didn't just want to beat you; he wanted to tell you he was going to beat you first.
Maybe that bravado is the reason Charlie Weis scored the Notre Dame job in 2005.
And maybe that bravado is the reason some observers are rooting for Pete Carroll to beat him by 40 points in 2008.
Weis is drowning in a bottomless pit of his own hubris, and that's a shame. It didn't have to be this way. Subtract Weis' arrogance from the equation, and the entire Fighting Irish community might be pulling for Weis to upset USC on Saturday night the way it pulled for Rudy Ruettiger to get that sack against Georgia Tech.
Weis wasn't a ballplayer. He wasn't anybody's all-American. He was an intramural wannabe as a Notre Dame student, a fat kid who caught the winning touchdown pass against Michigan in his wildest dreams.
Weis wanted to grow up to become a broadcaster, the voice of Notre Dame football, before coaching got in the way. He worked at three high schools and at the University of South Carolina before earning the trust of Parcells, and then of Belichick. He survived a near-fatal gastric bypass designed to make him a more appealing candidate for jobs that don't often go to men with Weis' appearance.
He should've been an embraceable Everyman. As a Morristown High assistant, Weis received an offer from an Atlanta company with an opening in marketing. The job would pay him four times what he was making at the school.
Chironna stepped to a blackboard and wrote down the positives of coaching and the positives of the marketing job, and asked his assistant to make a choice. Weis picked his heart over his bank account.
"And that was the beginning of Charlie Weis," Chironna told me once.
Now it looks like Saturday could be the end of Charlie Weis. If Notre Dame gets crushed by USC on muscle memory, falling to 6-6 after last year's 3-9, a Sun Bowl bid won't likely save its coach.
And you know what? This should be a win-or-go-home game for Weis, and the rookie AD, Jack Swarbrick, should have the guts to tell his coach just that.
Yeah, it's a lot to ask. USC is much better than Notre Dame. But then again, Notre Dame was much better than Syracuse.
If the Orangemen can beat the Irish in South Bend, why can't the Irish be asked to beat the Trojans in L.A.?
It would be a perfect full-circle experience, as Weis' greatest moment was his near-upset of the Reggie Bush/Matt Leinart juggernaut in his first year. On the game's final play, Bush illegally shoved Leinart into the end zone and USC had barely extended its winning streak to 28.
"They're going to be a real problem for everyone," Carroll predicted of the Irish.
Three years later, Charlie Weis is the problem. He can't beat any ranked or winning teams. He can't beat an eight-loss Syracuse team coached by a man who's already been fired.
Weis doesn't win enough at home. His offense stinks. His players get pelted by snowballs thrown by fellow students.
"I didn't feel any emotion on the sideline," Golden Tate told The Chicago Tribune after the absurd loss to Syracuse. "Even I was kind of just, 'eh.'"
No emotion on Notre Dame's Senior Day. How does Weis escape that damning quote?
By beating USC.
"You have to believe you're going to win," Weis said. "That's the No. 1 thing on my list, making sure that you have the players that believe they can win ...They know that this is a daunting task."
If his players don't bring their A games to the Los Angeles Coliseum, Weis said they will be "asking for a massacre." Carroll might just be the man to do it, too. For one, he could use a high-profile blowout for his BCS cause. For two, he couldn't have been thrilled with the trash-talking Weis did upon landing the Notre Dame job.
As New England's outgoing offensive coordinator, Weis used the days leading up to the Patriots' Super Bowl victory over the Eagles to warn the major college heavyweights that their time in the sun was up.
"Now let them try to stop a pro-style offense," Weis said. "Let's see how they're going to do. They've had their advantage, because I came into recruiting late. But now it's Xs and Os time. Let's see who has the advantage now."
Weis was in rare form that pre-Super Bowl day. Asked about game management issues under his predecessor, Ty Willingham, Weis said, "It won't be scrutinized any more at Notre Dame." Pressed on his own expectations for the Irish, Weis said, "Well, how have we done here?" He was talking about the Patriots' dynasty.
"I'm going to recruit like they've never recruited before," Weis said of his Notre Dame predecessors.
He has brought in talented recruits, no question there. He just hasn't developed them.
So now Notre Dame is left to ponder a seven-figure buyout of an eight-figure deal Weis shouldn't have been given in the first place.
Maybe the economic climate will save Weis. Maybe university officials don't want to embarrass themselves with another amateurish pursuit of another Urban Meyer. Maybe they'll stick with Weis simply because they didn't stick with Bob Davie, George O'Leary, and Ty Willingham.
Weis has already made his case for a fifth season. He believes his program is progressing from crummy (last year) to decent (this year) to good (next year). No, crummy to decent to good doesn't have the same ring to it as Tinker to Evers to Chance.
"I can't worry about my job status," Weis said. "I'm the head football coach. And that's what I intend to be."
He looked a lot smarter around Bill Belichick's brain and Tom Brady's arm. "No Excuses" is the title of Weis' autobiography, and there aren't any for his failure to elevate Notre Dame to a position of national relevance.
The blustery Jersey Guy act hasn't cut it in South Bend, and now Pete Carroll can unleash a dozen Anthony Davises on the Irish while holding over their coach -- all together now -- a "decided schematic advantage."
Carroll has a chance to play Jimmy Johnson to Weis' Gerry Faust, but that doesn't mean the Notre Dame coach has to let it happen. A guy who ruined his own chances of being a beloved underdog needs a Rudy finish against USC.
If Weis doesn't get one, he should be fired the following morning. Fired for promising greatness before he delivered something 99 yards short of that.
Add a comment
advertisement
