Micro. Macro. Here's how I view it. I haven't seen the Irish win a bowl game in 15 years and I'm 55 years old. That's how I roll. :wink:
The Irish have been terrible to average for more than half my life cumulatively. I remember as a little boy, it was earth shattering when Devine lost 4 games in a season... Oh for those glory days.. Yet I still have to endure ND fans or alums who went there during the 70s who refer to guys my age as 'young, bandwagon fans.' I don't mind passionate responses that are simply misguided frustration. What bothers me are the nasty personal attacks. I laugh openly about the 'ego' knocks against Chuckles. Have any of these people really played this game? The ego is part of it, how you handle that ego is another matter..but being good on a level like that requires a belief in self that most people can't wrap their head around...but make no mistake about it...from the biggest sports a-hole you've ever met to the nicest, glad handed coach or athlete, the difference in their ego and self-confidence is very very small. I think some people portray themselves in more subdued manners than others, especially in today's media... but it's hard.. today's coach/athlete is always under the microscope...especially in college. They are scrutinized by non-alpha men who have never once held that true inner drive that one needs to succeed in the world of sports. I think Weis can do this. I think he's made mistakes (this comes from not having HC experience... and it is dishonest or idiotic to think he wouldn't make big mistakes as a first time HC). I can see what appears to be his plan for building and growing the program... He's just cutting it real close... He has lost the goodwill of the fans and administration.. He can no longer afford to worry about the macro first and must start with the micro ASAP. I am looking for an article they discussed on Mike and Mike today.. About Charlie's 2 BCS trips are actually the anomaly...and mediocrity is the norm at ND in the past 15 years.. if someone finds it, send it please I gotta go
I have some thoughts. First, I read Jack Swarbrick's public comments and I'm OK with his rationale. He comes to ND with an outstanding resume consisting of solid decision-making and success at the highest levels of the sports world in terms of accomplishing his goals. One of his most outstanding traits IMO is that he is a consensus builder. He knows how to communicate openly and honestly (This is from very reliable folks in Indy who have known him for a long time). Yes, the ultimate decision-making authority rests with Fr. Jenkins, as is the case in most college athletic programs, but JS is the type of guy I want running my school's athletic department and communicating with me about what's going on. Second, our football program has been mediocre at best since the outstanding 1993 season. That's 15 years! We've tried to hire what the past administration thought were the right people to resurrect the program. The decisions in retrospect were bad ones for a variety of reasons. Maybe the decision to hire CW was a bad one. While some people would answer assertively "YES", in my mind the jury is still out despite the past couple of seasons and the wrenching disappointments of the past several weeks. My attitude is, what do we have to lose by going one more season? There are clear signs that he is doing something right.....countered, of course, by clear signs that something is terribly wrong. It's not like TW, where it was obvious after 3 years that the tank (recruiting) was empty and the future was dismal. In the current situation, a reasonable person could conclude that we made some progress this year, albeit not what the more vocal fans wanted. Further, a reasonable person could conclude that this year's result is not a definitive sign that we are slipping backward. Let me explain the last sentence in the above paragraph. Young teams in any sport who have not established a refuse-to-lose mentality can run out of gas late in the season. George mentioned earlier that there are other young teams out there who are winning. Those programs already have established a solid winning trend over the past several seasons and the young guys coming up have been indoctrinated by the upperclassmen in the refuse-to-lose mentality. On ND's team, there has not been anyone available to convey that mentality to the current underclassmen, so they hare having to develop it on their own. Without a winning precedent or indoctrination from the upperclassmen, the young guys are going to make mistakes - big ones. The question is, how much of the dropoff late in the season (Navy, Syracuse & USC) is due to the painful maturing process and how much is due to poor coaching? Most vocal fans already have made up their minds. I haven't. That's why I'm OK with the JS/Fr.J decision to give CW one more year. Like I said earlier, what do we have to lose? Will we have a 16th straight season of mediocrity? Will we take advantage of the schedule and rack up a bunch of wins with performances that show we clearly have turned the corner? I am OK trading the temporarily instant gratification and excitement and hope of a new coach for the possibility that we might rise from the ashes with the current coach. If we don't, then........................
I look at it this way, right now Charlie has another good recruiting class lined up. It took a while for me to appreciate how he operates recruiting. It is not a one year process, it's a two year campaign. The first contact is with promising juniors who get almost 2 yrs. to learn about the school and make a decision. It takes a lot of work but it pays off. It explains why it wasn't until last year that he had a real top ranked class. If a change is made now, I'd expect that we'd lose some of this years class and possible some already on the team especially those with 4 yrs. of elligibility. If a change is made after next season (and it certainly wouldn't be a surprise) the program should be stocked. Whoever comes in even if it interupts next years class, would have 3 solid classes to work with. I can't put my finger on it but there is something missing from the ND football team. I sensed it during the Pitt game. You just knew that they were not going to win that game. They just don't make big plays. They stop an opponent but then take a stupid penalty prolonging the possession. Or they force a punt and then muff it. They can't run for a yd. on 4th down. They can't make a defensive stop when it's late in the game and they have a lead. They piss away so many opportunities that they have to win games. Like most unsuccessful teams, this past ND team was one play away from winning 3 games this past season. How a team goes from the attitude "here we go, we're going to lose again" to "it's time to step up and grab this game" I'm not sure. It could be internal ie. senior leadership, or external ie. coaching. Whatever it is, it wasn't there this year. This team began to deflate on the first play of the second half vs. NC. Clausen threw a pick-six and the season for some reason turned completely around. It wasn't that long ago that all the players on the ND team played like Mike Anello. When that was happening, ND was a national power.
ND <r>Sid,<br/> <br/> I agree with you that we don't really have much to lose giving CW 1 more year and I think Swarbrick made the best move he could under the circumstances. <br/> <br/> While a majority of ND fans who frequent the boards like Irish Eyes and ND Nation think it would be easy to get a coach like oh......Gruden, Meyer, Leach, Kelly, etc., etc, etc,.......I didn't want to go through a search which would drag ND and us through the mud again when the first choice says no followed by the 2nd and so on......it happens everywhere and the media just loves it, just ask Mich, or Neb, or Alabama, or anyway you get the picture. <br/> <br/> I guess I just try to stay positive but to me one more year with Charlie does ND more good than harm. If he flops again this coming season it looks like Swarbrick will cut him loose. At that time the next coach will inherit 4 very descent classes recruited by CW. It will be a nice hand to start with. <br/> <br/> Every time I get mad and think CW should pack his bags I think of those first 2 seasons that we had with CW. I ask myself, is there any reason that can't be repeated? I think it can. <E></E></r>
I'm OK with Weis for another year as well. I don't think we have much to lose. If he can get the team to play well in the bowl game and get a win, then the year gets off to a positive start. He'll have to work hard to hold on to all of the guys he has, but he's shown that hard work in this regard is not a problem for him. I do think that the AD was in sort of a no win situation. When he took the job back in the summer I doubt that replacing Weis was at the top of his list and getting off to a decent start before the bye week probably made him feel comfortable with Weis. That most likely continued through the Navy game, you could say a play here or there and we have a much better record but the Syracuse game probably caught him by suprise and that was the first realization that he might have a problem. So given that it's not likely that a coach like Stoops or Meyer or Tressel or Pete Carroll would leave jobs where they are making tons of money and have things set up for a long run of excellence would drop it and move to another college job, he probably did the right thing. But he is on notice that he needs to spend the time to develope a list of coaches who might be interested and available so that if Weis flops next year that he's ready to make his move. It always amazes me how many people post supposed candid conversations with supposed insiders. You've all seen them. I saw one where a guy who claimed very good sources that said the AD was ready to fire Weis but that Jenkins wouldn't let him. Said it wouldn't look good in these tough economic times to spend the money to buyout a football coach. It was also interesting to see how many people really thought that it was logical that Meyer would leave UF for ND. Not just ND people but we had articles posted here from Fla based outlets who wrote that Meyer was eventually headed to ND. In reading Sids comments about Sr leadership I take some solace, because he's right there are very few Srs on this team in leadership positions, this is a team dominated by Fr and Sophs. His point that other young teams at established programs like what Tressel has at Ohio State have a much different situation with regards to Sr. Leadership. But next year the Class that Weis recruited and was ranked in the top 10 Feb 2006, his first full class will be Sr's. His guys from the combined class of Feb 2005 (Willinghams last guys + plus what he was able to add himself, which wasn't a lot ) will be 5th year Sr's. The Clausen class which was also top 10 will be Jrs. So there will be ample Sr. leadership. Next will be staff changes, you have to get from reading Swarbricks press conference notes that there will be staff changes. We all knew there had to be staff changes. So what will those be and when will they be made. I assume that most will be done after the bowl game. I'm really hoping that we end up in Houston for the Texas Bowl. Rice was announced as the other participant. Rice had a great year, and after the Syracuse and So. Cal games I am not confident that we can beat anybody. But we have more talent, by a large amount, than Rice. Terry
Unfortunately, Gip, it was 15 years ago and longer. Things slipped in Lou's last couple of years and never recovered. I know you would agree with me that it's been much too long. Re: Mike Anello. Give me 22 Mike Anellos and I'll challenge for the NC every year. That kid is a winner. Tim, those are my thoughts also.
Well as much as I like Mike Anello, if you had a team full of Mike Anellos you'd have an 0-12 team. He's got a role, gunner on the punt and kick coverage teams and he shows a ton of heart, proving that there is a place on a team for guys like him in Div1. I'm guessing there are a lot of Mike Anellos out there in college football. But I don't think he's a good QB, RB, WR, DT, etc!! :wink: :wink: I read Tim O'Neils book, he was a walkon RB under Davie and Willingham. He wasn't even a big guy, 5'7" if I remember. But I can tell you that what walkons go through just to be able to suit up on game day much less actually get into a game gives me great respect for those guys. I'm sure Sid knows exactly what I'm talking about. I've heard from many sources that guys like Ricky Watters and Tony Brooks were assholes and prima donna's while they were at ND. But you need guys with their talent, and it'd be nice if they had Mike Anellos attitude as well, but they frequently don't. What you hope is that the staff can handle the personalities of some of these high profile kids and keep them focused on team oriented goals and seeing how accomplishing team goals helps accomplish their goals as well. Who was that Walkon QB who threw that pass to beat MSU (to Stovall) in the last seconds? Pat Dillingham? He was another hero, well he was a hero till he fumbled away the game vs BC later in the year, then nobody talked about his heart, he went from hero to zero. Fame is fleeting isn't it!!
Lest those of your out there think that Burres has the inside track of the most idiotic MSU receiver of all time, check this out http://www.freep.com/article/20081204/SPORTS01/81204107/1048/SPORTS This clown was the third pick in the NFL draft 5 yrs ago.
What a pathetic loser. Too bad he was also an incredibly gifted WR, he was a man among boys when he played for MSU.
A bit of humor: I read in an online Sporting News publication (in .pdf format, can't be copied/pasted) about Mike Brey's plans to attend his son's FB game in Detroit tonight. His son is the TE for Buffalo in the MAC championship game. The article talked about how ND's players encouraged him to go and that they have become Buffalo fans. The final sentence of the article said....."It does not hurt to have a successful team to follow." Painful but funny (to me).