What a ridiculous assumption. Anyone with a basic knowledge of football knows that different teams have different strengths and weaknesses. During CW's tenure at ND, we did not have the personnel on the OL or in the backfield to achieve a significant rushing attack. Re: New England, I don't recall NE ever having a decent rushing game before, during, or after CW's time there. They've never had the kind of RBs who can produce consistent yardage. Now, KC is a different story. They've had good RBs the past few years. Once again, a writer insults the intelligence of his readers by ignoring the facts in order to create an impression. Typical pot-stirring. Regardless, Florida will benefit from CW's offensive game planning. That's a fact.
Wow Sid, you and I have much the same opinion of way to many of our so called journalists. Great minds seem to think alike.
I need a nodding emoticon to use here, because I agree with Sid so often. Remember that at Notre Dame Charlie followed Ty Willingham who was fired for his total inability to recruit. The Irish had entire classes with no linemen and other classes with no quarterbacks. Some classes had no players that anyone had heard of at any position. When he got to UDub, he recruited one class with 22 junior college transfers; all but one of whom dropped out of school without ever helping the program as he lost every game. You can't make chicken salad out of chickensh*t, but Charlie did wonders with a bare cupboard. He's walking into a much different situation at Florida.
Of course I am the voice of dissent here 8) Charlie was not so hot a recruiter himself as the ensuing NFL drafts bore out and will bear out. And his play calling in big spots was questionable to say the least. I will agree that he is walking into a much better situation than he walked into previously. He's gotta prove it to me. I didn't see what you fellas saw at ND.
I think Charlie is a great OCoord, look what he did with the 2005/2006 teams. All he had at RB is Darius Walker, and Darius was a good not great college back. He was left a huge deficit in the OL and also made a mistake in hiring his OL coach to boot. As far as never having a running game in the Pro's, again when he had a back like Curtis Martin he had a running game. I remember that AFC championship game when the Pats had to go to Pittsburgh (what year was that Joel) and not only did the Pats stuff the vaunted Pittsburgh running game they dominated the game themselves with a running game. I'll argue with anybody who says Charlie can't recruit, what Charlie can't do (or wasn't able to do at ND) is put together a great staff who can develop players or coach defense. This is where Kelly so far is way ahead of Charlie, he's put together a staff built for developing college players, and coaching college players. Good god look what they did with Harrision Smith last year, he was on his way to getting Cliff Jefferson out of Krebs cellar as a player, now he's a candidate for post season awards and a sure NFL draft choice. Nope, Charlie is the perfect OCoord for the Gators if they want to run the Pro Style offense. I expect him to have a lot of success. Heck if Charlie had Will Muschamp as his DCoord at ND in 2008 and 2009 he'd have won 9-10 games both years our offense was certainly good enough....but the Brown/Tenuta hybrid defense sucked.
Wow.....did you know that ND paid Charlie 6.6 Million Dollars to fire him and will owe him more money annually through 2015? He may or may not be a great OCoord but he knows how to hire an agent and work with them to wring a lot of money out of ND. Read more: http://www.upi.com/Sports_News/2011/05/20/Fired-Notre-Dame-coach-paid-66-million/UPI-10221305889116/#ixzz1Mtyfz3QX
I will stand corrected on one point.... he was not as bad a recruiter as I claimed at ND but was horrible at developing talent. He hired a string of lousy assistants. Why was he a good recruiter at ND? Because he flashed those SB rings and told the kids he knew how to get them to the NFL. That has been pretty well debunked at this point. And Brian Kelly has blown a huge hole through most of Weis' excuses in one year. At UF he can sell the success of the program. And I still think ir remains to be seen if he can be content as a backup singer after being a headliner.
I thought that Charlie recruited some outstanding college football players. These include Clausen, Tate, Rudolph, Floyd and Teo. I agree with Terry that from the beginning Charlie's biggest problem was his staff. Never being a HC before (above HS) he had no crew to bring with him. Being hired late in the game and having to finish the NFL playoff season also set him back on staffing from the beginning. Charlie could rescue someone from the scrap heap like the Shark and make an All American out of him but top recruits like Sam Young never developed under the OL coaches at ND. Minter and Tenuta were disasters. Compare Tenuta who just doesn't recruit to Diacco and the Williams early morning recruiting meeting. Charlie just didn't have the experience of contacts to hit the ground running at ND. You can't fault his effort. Perhaps he shouldn't have been hired in the first place but I didn't see 5 star coaches lined up to take the job back then.
Gip's point is well taken and part of what influenced my earlier post. In hindsight, he did not have the "it" that is required to be a successful head coach. For whatever reasons.....staff shortcomings, quality of recruits, lack of effective OL play, etc..........we never developed a sound, effective running game during his tenure. As I said earlier, New England never has been known for having a strong ground game. That's a personnel issue and not Weiss' fault. He did a pretty good job there with the tools they handed him. The job he did as OC at KC should be proof enough that with the right personnel, he can develop a solid running game. Florida has the ability to recruit the personnel necessary to fill his toolbox. He'll get the job done there.
Thank you Sid. Frankly I always thought he might do better at ND than he wopund up doing. I think your analysis is accurate in that he wasn't cut out to be the head coach but he appears to be a hellva OC. There are indeed some major weapons at UF but I would like a to see a stud WR or two to help Chollie out.
I was going to post that article about Weis and his severance pay. Not only the 6.6 million but smaller payments though 2015. As to the running game, he sure had one at KC this year with players who did not perform all that well in previous years. Seems all the Notre Dame people here but George have a reasonably good impression of Charlie. All I can say is that I am ecstatic that he is a Gator and I guess I also appreciate Notre Dame paying him enough that he can afford to be a coordinator for the Gators at a measly 900 k per year. Seriously I am really looking forward to this season and we plan to make 5 games.