It looks like Charlie will remain the head coach, so I'm going to exert my best efforts to prevent this board from becoming a wailing wall for ND football similar to NDNation which is in the process of imploding. IMO the best way to do that is to have a conversation about ways the team can improve other than firing the coach. Here is some food for thought from a writer on Blueandgold.com who is a graduate of Ft. Wayne Bishop Dwenger. The theme of his article was that there must be competition between Crist and Clausen at the QB position because Clausen has become complacent and has regressed. The writer cited comments from Bob Davie on a radio show re: how the coaches might consider moving toward more of a spread offense, which they tinkered with at times during the season. I saw Goodman play QB in HS and I believe it can't hurt to give it a try in the spring. The way I see it, we can't get any worse at the position than what showed in the USC game.
Sid, Its not my intent to wail about this. The decision has been made. The key to Weis' success, in addition to the above, is a complete overhaul of his coaching staff and a O-Coordinator that will design an offense to fit the talent. If he does this he will succeed. In my opinion Bob Davie has been right on the money with his comments and has not been overly critical. If you look at our schedule next year we have five wins automatically so and 8-9 win season should be extremely reachable.
ND <t>Sid,<br/> <br/> I don't know about going to a spread type offense but that one back shotgun set ND uses was very effective for them at times. <br/> <br/> As far as I'm concerned THE main problem is the OFFENSIVE LINE and it has been for some time. We saw a small improvement over last season BUT that has to be addressed first. Get the O-Line play up AND get the RUNNING game going and it will fix a multitude of the problems. Clausen is never going to play better if he doesn't have confidence that he won't get sacked every time he drops back and we are never going to have much success on the play action if the threat of a running game is non-existent. I think that is a big part of his poor decision making. <br/> <br/> Opening up the QB competition is fine also, I think that is going to happen regardless. <br/> <br/> If CW is staying I don't think he has any choice but to find a new O-Line coach.</t>
He's got to fix the OL. Coach D over on Irish Eyes wrote a critque of the OL as part of an overall eval of the program. He's an actual football coach, he said he's never heard anything bad about John Latina, that Latina works very hard as an OL coach and also works very hard recruiting. But that the schemes that Charlie wants to use are not in Latinas wheel house as a coach. So inspite of all his good characteristics Charlie needs to part ways with Latina and find a coach who he can work with better. He suggests that the OL coach at Oklahoma State would be a perfect fit for Charlie. Wheter or not all that is true I don't know of course. But the OL is where Charlie needs to start. Also clearly he needs to part ways with Haywood, again Haywood might be a great guy, hard working, he is a Notre Dame grad and former player. But there really isn't a spot on the staff for him next year. Next year should be Charlies redemption, the schedule isn't one of the tougher ones we've had and he will have a veteran footballl team with depth and talent. He should be able to win 9 or more games. We'll see.
ND <r>CW will be back but you don't have to read to far between the lines of this Swarbrick quote to figure out that there will be some major changes in the 2009 coaching staff.<br/> <br/> <QUOTE><s> </e></QUOTE></r>
Like most ND fans I'm as perplexed as the next guy about our O Line. Sam the Sham and the Zeros are just not getting it done. Sadly, I don't see underclassmen who are able to take the job away from the pylons. I have a lot of respect for Coach D and have exchanged emails with him. If what he says is true there's a serious problem. What we have is a coach running a scheme that doesn't work and apparently never will work with the talent or coach. So either the scheme or the O line coach HAS to change. In fact, that should have been recognized and steps taken last year. I know this isn't a popular belief but our special teams did show big improvement this season. First of all, our FG kicker had a very good second half of the season. Second, our kickoff coverage team led the nation in yards allowed. No one likes the blocked punts but we had at least as many as we allowed. I sure miss Tommy Z running back punts. I don't want a "successful" season built on an easy schedule. I want it built on damn good football.
I have held my tongue on this one for a long time. We Tennessee fans suffered through two of his brothers. They were good enough to not be replaced but not good enough to lead us to a higher level of success. When Jimmy went to ND, it wasn't sour grapes that made me breathe a sigh of relief. Even though he was supposed to be head and shoulders above his brothers I did not want him. I hope that CW does open this job to competition. My number 1 complaint with Fulmer was his blind loyalty to the players. The Titanic had to be on the bottom before he would admit it was taking on water. Hopefully, Charlie will see the light from this wake up call and make changes that Fulmer would not make.
I agree Tom, at this point Jimmy has to compete, he should expect to compete. I don't care what Charlie promised him in recruiting. We have 2 other QB's there should be open competition and if Jimmy wins fine, but he should also be held accountable during the game and Charlie shouldn't hesitate to pull him if he isn't performing. Jimmy won't be the first nor the last HS QB who doesn't live up to the hype, I remember Chris Simms, I remember Ron Powlus, I remember Shea Morenz (bet nobody else does!!), there are more of them than the opposite ...those that live up to their hype like Peyton Manning. Terry
Sid Coach D is a regular poster there who is a real live football coach and unlike 99% of the posters there, actually knows what he's talking about. One of the very interesting features on the board is his breakdown of the previous game. He reviews every play and discusses what went right and why a play broke down. One of the things that he sees that we seldom notice is how well or poorly the receivers block downfield. That is a big area of concern. He also seems to know of the reputation of the various coaches in the profession. He is very tactful on the board but somewhat candid in private emails.
Thanks, Gip. I did not realize he is a poster like us regular folks. I thought he was a known former coach who had a column. Something I normally don't do is reminisce out loud about Brian's experiences as a walk-on. You touched on something that makes me want to comment. Although he was a step slower than some - not all - of the scholarship guys, Brian was strong on fundamentals, especially downfield blocking. Skip Holtz was his WR coach and used Brian's techniques as an example to the others of how to block downfield. I know this because Skip himself told me, not Brian. Brian said that the normal WR mindset does not lend itself to recognizing the importance of downfield blocking. It's something that has to be drilled into them. He felt that the best downfield blocker on ND's team during those years was Lake Dawson.
gip would be the man who knows about WR's, every AA WR in the last 10 years has played for the Lions. He's seen the best!! :roll:
Terry right now we're having an office poll on the best screw up MSU receiver. The candidates are Andre Rison Charles Rogers Plaxico Burres Tough choice
Hire Franchione! He can solve all your problems with WR blocking. Of course... they won't understand what to do if the ball is thrown to them!
Plaxico should be up for the criminal darwin award. If you are unfamiliar, the criminal darwin award is given to the one person who does his best to clean up the human gene pool through incarceration.
Part of the problem this year is that we can't open the QB competition up. We really needed to red-shirt Crist and had a serviceable backup in Sharpley. I see some of what Charlie is doing and it appears to be geared towards building the program, not just the season. He redshirted DLs this year that we could have plugged in. Next year, Crist can compete for the starting job and I think he could give Jimmy a lot of trouble. He is both bigger and much faster than Jimmy. Clausen will have 3 years in the offense and lots of game experience so he should be the guy... but I expect him to get pushed. I think that sometimes when people rip Weis, they are too blinded by the micro to see that macro.