ERIC HANSEN Tribune Staff Writer Charlie Weis this weekend welcomes the largest group of football freshmen to enroll at Notre Dame since the NCAA capped scholarships more than three decades ago. The emphasis is on welcomes, since he can't watch. NCAA regulations keep the Notre Dame second-year head football coach from getting a first peek at the 25 members of the 28-man class who enrolled in January and are going through informal summer workouts. He is not prevented from projecting, dreaming and maybe even salivating, however. As summer school kicks off Tuesday, Weis shared a full plate of offseason thoughts with the Tribune recently: What are your thoughts on the new instant-replay rule? "Well, I instigated it with (American Football Coaches Association executive director) Grant Teaff down at the head coaches meetings. When the subject of replay came up, I asked for the microphone and I said I thought the replay system was a joke. "Now that doesn't mean I disagreed with the replay system that we used. I just felt (there was an) inconsistency with the replay system -- these people have challenges, these people don't have challenges. We can make all the excuses we want about the USC game. My only gripe about that is that we didn't use the replay system, even though the Pac-10 had a replay system, but it was the visiting team's choice. "I cited all the different things. One game, we're playing a team from the Mountain West, and I'm getting ready for challenges and they have Mountain West officials, but they end up using Big Ten rules, and so there's no challenges. "I said that there has to be some consistency, so I'm very happy. I didn't care what the system was. I just wanted the system to be the same." Any of the other new rules jump out at you? "Nothing that was glaring. I think that was the biggest positive that came out, creating some consistency in the actual game itself, because everyone is playing by the same rules. Now, it still won't be perfect, because it's not like you have 100 cameras at every game now. "In the NFL, you have so many different angles to look at, usually you can get a call right. You won't have nearly the number of angles to look at in the college game, although at our home games, NBC has a whole bunch of cameras, so it'll usually be a pretty good deal at our place." Some may say that it appears offensive players are tripping over themselves to come here due to Notre Dame's offensive success last year and your track record in the pros on offense. What do you pitch to elite defensive players to get them interested? "An opportunity to play. That's something they want to hear. The really good players are looking for an opportunity to play. We have very good defensive coaches. It's not like we don't have defensive coaches. The thing is all these kids want to play. "You never make any promises that they're going to play. A lot of other schools say, 'Well, you're going to come in here and start.' I never say that -- ever. I just say, 'Here's what it is. If you don't think you're good enough to play in front of those guys, then don't come here.' But you know what you're doing by saying that. They already think they're good enough. So it's like a rhetorical statement/question when you say that to him." As you start to accumulate talent and depth at the quarterback position, how do you keep them all happy? "The first thing you do is to plan (in the 2007-08 recruiting cycle) not to take one. That's the first thing. That has to be part of your plan. We brought in one last year, brought in two this year, we're bringing in one next year. That's four in three years. "Not everyone can play. Only one guy can play. One thing, they all know who's playing this year. I think what ends up happening is you have to realize that I'd like to take one every year, but by taking two this coming year, you're overloaded by one, so I'll make that up by not taking one next year unless there's an offer-I-can't-refuse type of situation. "And then you let it play out (in 2007), because I have no preconceived notion of who's going to be first, second, third. It isn't like coming in and saying, 'This is the way it's going to be.' The competition for No. 2 this year is going to be exciting, because the two freshmen are going to be in the mix." What are your impressions of Tom Zbikowski's pro boxing debut? "As soon as they named the opponent, the first thing I tried to figure out is 'Who is this guy?' From the research I had done, the guy was relatively inexperienced, fought four times, lost twice. Combine that with it being a four-round fight. I was feeling pretty good about our chances. "And no one was happier than me that it ended quickly." The boxing thing could take off for Zbikowski and Jeff Samardzija seems serious about playing both baseball and football as a pro. As a former NFL coach, how realistic is it for somebody to play two pro sports and perform in the NFL at the highest level? "Let's talk about Tommy first. I think Tommy's boxing career is going to be dictated by which (NFL) organization he ends up going with. "For example, it he got drafted by New England, he would not be boxing. That would be in the contract, 'You're not boxing -- until you're not with New England anymore.' When you have guaranteed money versus an 'if', I think he'd be more than happy (to take guaranteed money not to box versus the unguaranteed contracts most players have) if that were the case. "There are organizations out there that might think it was kind of fun to go let him do that. Let's say the Oakland Raiders. I don't know what (Raiders owner) Al Davis is thinking, but Al Davis might be one who says in the offseason, 'Go ahead and fight.' I don't know him personally or how he is. I just know the places that I've been he would not be fighting. But I can't speak for all 32 teams, because there are teams out there where it might not be an issue." In Jeff's case, a lot of it will come down to two things -- contracts and once again organizations. And I don't think he has to make the call on that yet. He was getting squeezed by the major league teams to make a baseball-only commitment. And he staved them off and stood by his guns and said, 'I'm coming back and playing football and let the chips fall where they may.' "Now because he did that, he initially cost himself a lot of money, because he probably would have gone in the first two rounds in baseball. This was the deal that he and his dad and me and (Irish baseball) coach (Paul) Mainieri had. "This was a plan that was put in last summer. He'll go play football and get drafted in the NFL and see what happens. I can't rule out the possibility of him playing just baseball. As a matter of fact, the night before the draft, we had some extensive conversations about playing him baseball only after football. I said if they're willing to pay you enough, you always have to be willing to listen. "I knew he was coming back for us, so that was not an issue. Every team knew he was going to come back and play for us. So the issue wasn't, 'Well if he gets hurt playing football at Notre Dame...' The issue was getting drafted in the first round of next year's NFL Draft. "Everyone had already accepted the fact that he was going to finish out his last season playing football for us, so now it's an issue of who's contract is going to be one that makes the most sense, whether it's the Cubs or one of the 32 teams in the NFL that end up taking him." Do you expect Weis-to-the-NFL rumors to surface, even though you signed the contract extension last fall and even though you've said a million times, 'I'm not going anywhere?' "No. When people understand the reworking of the contract wasn't about how much money they gave me, it was about the verbiage in the contract (a buyout clause). It would be too prohibitive for somebody to come and get me. That's really it. "It's not about paying me a zillion dollars. A lot of the numbers are very inflated. It's a good contract, now don't get me wrong. But the difference isn't the magnitude of the dollars, it's how they're paid. "Five years from now, when that nut is smaller, could somebody come and ask you? Yeah, but why would you want to leave then? If you were going to leave, this past year would have been the year to leave if you really wanted to leave. You were never going to be any hotter than at that time. There were 10 openings (in the NFL). If there ever was a time, it just came and went." But if the rumors do come up in the media, do you address them? "It doesn't make a difference, because everyone in the NFL knows. Every team knows. Now does that mean they won't call and inquire? But they're going to call (agent Bob) LaMonte and find out what the deal is, and that's pretty much going to end the inquiry." How are you a better coach now than you were at this time last year? "There were a lot of things that I knew how to do, but there are a lot of things that I experienced for the first time. You know you learn by your mistakes. You learn how to get better prepared. Like this year, coaches' vacations. "It's important for me that these coaches get vacation time. It's important to me that they refuel their gas tanks, because when we work, we work hard. I always like to think that we could work harder than everybody else. And I always believed that means that I have to work even harder than the assistant coaches do, because how can you ask somebody to work harder than you're working yourself? "There's a number of things that are important, whether it's that or me making a big deal out of a home game being a distraction in the Michigan State game or whether it's how to handle the layoff between Nov. 26 and the bowl game. There were a number of things that I've learned that I would do differently the second time around. "And also things are a lotmore settled on the depth chart this year than at this time last year. Now there's some things that are going to be drastic changes from where they were in the spring, but not many of them. It's not like I'm going to be changing five starting positions around. That's not happening. I've spent the whole offseason trying to solve a bunch of issues. I think we've finally come up with what the answers to the test are. That's what you do in the offseason." What's the best advice or best thing learned this offseason? "I think the best thing that's happened besides the progress we've made in recruiting was to go spend some time with a non-competitor where there was a free exchange of information. "Everyone knows we went down and spent time with the Carolina Panthers. I think that helped us on offense. It helped us on defense. It helped us on special teams, because some of the issues that we felt we were deficient at, we went and shared information with them, and we think it gave us some insight at handling some things that might be a better way than what we were doing. "I'm going to try to do that each year with a different team, with a different NFL team. I think I have 11 years in me. I think I have 11 years' worth of places to go." Why Carolina this first year? "Why? Because there's some things that we wanted to do on defense that (Carolina coach) John (Fox) is really good with. There are some things that we wanted to do on defense that they already do and also Mike Trgovac and Rick (Minter) already worked together, so there was already a rapport there between the two defensive coordinators, so that made a lot of sense. Conversely, Dan Henning and I worked together. Dan Henning was my quarterback coach with the Jets for two years." Is there anything in the pros that's parallel with dealing with the Heisman hype? "The Heisman is big at the end of the year. People are making it big at the beginning of the year, but we're trying to put that to bed now. In other words, we're trying to put those distractions out of the way. "With the Patriots, as much as we rooted for people to make the Pro Bowl, when they didn't make the Pro Bowl, we just felt it was a show of disrespect for our organization. In reality, though, all we cared about was winning the Super Bowl. "I can tell you right now if we won the national championship and Brady Quinn did not win the Heisman, he would not care. Would he like to win it personally? That's something you worry about after the season's over. Obviously the goal is to win the national championship. That's the goal every year." What is your best Father's Day gift or memory? "I'd say when (daughter) Hannah was diagnosed with a fatal disease in 1995 in utero at 6 1/2 months pregnant. She was born April 7, 1995. On June 7, she got operated on. "She had a right kidney taken out and her left ureter implanted in the bladder. And she came home the day before Father's Day, so I'd have to say of all my Father's Days, a gift I can't remember, but a memory, yes -- just the fact I was bringing home my 2-month-old baby girl who everyone told me was going to die, I think nothing was better than that." If your late father could see you now, what do you think he would say to you or think about what's going on in your life? "I saw a guy last weekend I hadn't seen -- he was a little older than me, a kid by the name of Mike Liscovitz, from Middlesex, N.J. He was at the (charity) golf tournament in South Carolina. "He walks in and he's playing on my brother Pat's foursome, I think. And I look at him and he says, 'You don't know who I am.' And I said, 'Yeah I do, Mike. How's it going?' He was shocked that I remembered who he was. "Well my dad was a Little League manager for a lot of years and for every one of our four boys. He also coached Mike. And Mike came up to me later in the night. He said that your dad would just be in tears to watch how things have happened in your life. He'd have tears of joy."
SHOWTIME! There are two truths in the world. The first is you're either pitching or catching in life. The second is that it's much better to be throwing the heat than have in incoming fastball bounce off the plate and clock you under your chin guard. Just like Charlie believes in dictating the the flow on the field, he's been doing it on the recruiting trail and in the media by keeping a constant slate of stories in the pipeline that make recruits notice Notre Dame. Peruse the message boards of other teams and they're daily complaining about the press Weis gets, that their QB recruit didn't end up on ESPN or that Notre Dame players like Shark, Quinn and Zibby are receiving national publicity that other schools players wouldn't. You know what? They're right. Name four players at other schools combined that have received as much pub as Clausen, Quinn, Zibby and Shark. I can't either. That's because no other school generates such national interest. Okay, maybe Bush, Jarrett, Wright and Sanchez, but they're in the news for completely different reasons. But part of the reason you come to Notre Dame is to play in the spotlight. Just as important though Charlie's been making the rounds, squeezing hands and kissing babies. Consider at the Big 33 game (matching Ohio's best vs. Pennsylvania's best) Charlie was the only big time head coach to show up and give interviews. That's taking it to the competition in their backyard. This is from the PennLive site: Weis steals the show -ND coach adds glitter to Big 33 event Saturday, June 17, 2006 BY ROXANNE B. MOSES With Pennsylvania's big-time college football coaches absent from yesterday's Big 33 press conference, Charlie Weis became the featured attraction. Weis stole the Pennsylvania spotlight, big glittery Super Bowl ring and all. Or consider the head coach at Hoboken High School on Weis, Notre Dame and New Jersey: "It was frustrating because we sent a lot of kids to colleges all over the country, and Notre Dame was rarely around," said Taglieri, now entering his second season as head coach at Hoboken High School. "We were saying to ourselves, 'What are we doing wrong? Why aren't our kids getting there?' It seemed like they were elite and we couldn't get our kids there. "It's changed. He comes in and he's basically taken over New Jersey." As we all learned it's impossible to take over New Jersey or any other state from the bunker the previous staff recruited from. But it's more than just being out there and working hard, though that's an enourmous advantage. It's making the tough decisions. Watching the pace of the early offers it's clear that many top teams taking the lead from Notre Dame and not the other way around. For most of Notre Dame's top targets, ND was in the door as early as academically transcribably possible and USC, Florida and State U. were soon to follow with offers. That means doing your homework, indentifying the prospects and making the tough decision on where the offers should go. While Willingham fiddled with his sand wedge, other schools were raking in top recruits. Not any more. ND coaches are omnipresent across the country and the staff churns out texts, letters and phone calls like an 80's boiler room. And the opposition is being forced to respond. Carroll is making offers to the same recruits Notre Dame does after ND offers. Sure they're going to win the local battles, but Charlie's got them reacting. Charlie and Notre Dame are the first things out of his mouth when Carroll speaks in public. He's got Charlie on the brain. Consider the Urban myth in Florida who screwed up one of the most talented offenses in the country.... dropping UF all the way down to 61st. He can''t make the NCAA basketball tournament from that position. Meyer's never run a high level offense before and never had success against top level defensive teams, despite his Utah numbers. Note what Meyer did to fix his urban blight: halfway through the year he changed his rinky dink offense to look like Notre Dame's, he also met with Belichick for a few hours after the season (and then touted it to the papers,) instituted a Florida student salute (which he stole from Notre Dame) and offered Notre Dame commitment Kerry Neal (after claiming it was unethical to do so.) Meyer's acting like a Charlie mini-me without the ring. "sometimes I dream, he is me... can't you see that's how I dream to be..." No Urban, a few hours with Belichick is not equal to three Superbowls and a decade of experience under the best coaches in the NFL. Of course he can 'try' to sell that to recruits like Florida sells the fact that it pays for more National Merit Scholars than other schools (comparing themselves to Harvard - no joke,) but recruits aren't that dumb. Any school can pay for National Merit Scholars (Oklahoma once had the most,) but real schools choose to build their academic reputations rather than try to buy them. In both cases Charlie's dictating the action. But understand what else Notre Dame is doing: Making it fun to play at Notre Dame again, and, cue Austin... ssssexy, yeah baby. We've got one player pocketing 25-grand for 49 seconds of heavyweight work, another signing a seven figure baseball contract while becoming a two man sport sensation, a recruit making the weak fret because he showed up in a Hummer and amade an announcement at the Hall of Fame and of course the Heisman frontrunner in Brady Quinn And you know what that looks like to recruits? Fun. Cool. Hip. Relevant. See Weis knows what most sport dorks don't and get in a huff over: that "the show" has always been a part of Notre Dame. In fact, Notre Dame wouldn't exist as we know it without the fantastic showmanship and PR sense of Knute Rockne. From starting the first intersectional rivalry to "win one for the Gipper" to The Four Horsemen, Notre Dame's lofty reputation was built on excellence, but also on the ability to get people to want to be a part of that excellence. Weis gets that in a big way. Now understand this is not show just for show's sake. Clausen's announcement, though not how some wanted it, sent an unmistakable message: that the best want to be at Notre Dame. Note what Clausen's announcement didn't have: no stupid hat trick, no dissing of other teams, no talk of Heismans. Note what it did it did have: great respect for the program he turned down, the goal of a championship, high praise for all, a commitment to excellence. I read criticism of Clausen from Notre Dame fans and I want to punch a wall. This kid has grades, he displays respect and deference and he wants to win and get to the highest level. With all the crappy, underhanded usery acts, paid for cars and female escorts in college football recruiting, I can't believe anyone's upset about a Hummer limo. It doesn't represent some evil influence, it was fun. A limo's fun. A limo Hummer's even more fun, especially to a High School kid. The Hall of Fame is a dream place to announce for a school. Was it too much? Who the @#$@#$ cares? Here's a kid who talked about championships, not Heismans. Clausen's announcement was an enormous boost for Notre Dame and the way he did it garnered Notre Dame unparralleled press (and a few recruits.) Michigan is now trying desperately to generate an nth of that press for its quarterback recruit. Not happening because no one cares and they don't develop their quarterbacks anyway. Of course, they don't graduate their minority recruits either receiving a disqualification rating from the Boston Globe for minority graduation, but that's a different story. Here's how idiotic some fans are in judging recruits and actions: Four years ago several Notre Dame fans decided they didn't want the likes of Brady Quinn and Tommy Zbikowski because of the way the acted during recruiting. Inferences about their characters were made from quotes and the idea that they were somehow jerking ND around. Today, they're captains. Last year there were some fans who didn't want Demetrius Jones because he talked about his posse, as if this somehow were a sign of bad character. He's now one of the most loved recruits on the board. Show can be a huge positive and Notre Dame is finally using its stage to generate positive messages. From pass right, to the USC game, to the Navy salute, to Zbikowski, to Clausen, to Samardjia, to Quinn's Heisman chances, Notre Dame has been the story of the college football. That doesn't happen by accident. Creating positive media opportunities and "filling the void" is essential to keep negative publicity at bay. It's also essential in sending a message that Notre Dame isn't just going to be good, but it's the place become known. And that matters. Becoming known doesn't mean you don't care about anyone else, but it does mean you'll have the opportunity to affect people in a way that most will never be able to. No school has the ability to generate interest like Notre Dame. There are maybe five teams in all of sport around the world that have Notre Dame's notoriety... maybe five, but the problem is that if you don't continually create stories, negative stories will be created against you. Weis is more than a student of the game, he's a student of history and is the first coach since Lou to utilize Notre Dame's superior platform as it should be used. Remember this PR axiom: "if they're not for us they're agin' us." The last ten years have shown us this all too well: If you sit back, you get hammered. (Note: I predicted all of this positive coverage back when whiners were wetting themselves about the Willingham fallout.) Show doesn't mean Notre Dame has to compromise its standards or that individual players are above the team. Notre Dame is a far more unified a team now than in was under Willingham who fostered petty divisiveness. Its team cumulative GPA was the highest in team history. Notre Dame ranks at the very top in every academic graduation category. Its kids are not in constant trouble. We're winning and, oh yeah, having some fun too. Fun, show and ideals are not mutually exclusive. They, in fact, work better together. Is the show going to be to everyone's taste all the time? No. But then I've seen how many of you dress at football games... y'all are hardly barometers of good taste.