Ok Irish Fans you got your butt kicked last night! Big Deal, let's look at the other side of the coin which I think is the bigger picture in this case. Your team is 19 - 6 over the last two seasons and has been to two BCS Bowls You have one of the best coaches in the country Who by the way is getting good recruiting classes every year Ok, you are losing some games by lopsided margins, but you are not losing games that you did lose over the previous number of years You have the offense, Charlie will build the defense though recruiting Here's a link to Scout's recruiting rankins, if you look at the average star rating for the top teams Notre Dame is headed for a top 5 Scout Recriting Team Rankings Like I said in a post last night, the Notre Dame future is very bright. Your glass is not half empty, but half full and getting filled rapidly.
Thanks Bill, those were kind words. Right now Charlie has a lot of soul searching to do about the program. He has to make a huge decision about wheter or not he has the right DCoord, or was it strictly a talent issue that will work itself out as new kids are brought into the program. Plus he has to take a good look at himself as well as to wheter or not his NFL it's a business approach is the right approach at ND. Naturally he has to continue to recruit very well again thisyear. Next year will be very critical for him, it will be a rebuilding year and the team will be young. They are likely to start out ranked very low or unranked and the toughest part of the schedule will again be the first 8 games with the last 4 being the weaker part. He needs to overachieve and get a couple of big wins and not lose the games he's going to lose by big numbers. If he were to bomb next year it would kill his recruiting momentum and he might not get it back.
19-6 and bowl losses with the kind of schedule that ND has had vs. the schedule Ron Zook had at UF and Weiss and Zook are very similar in their performances. Both recruit well also. The difference is that Weiss beats the teams he should beat and Zook did not. Hence, I think Irish fans will have more patience for CW than UF fans did for RZ.
Patience will be sorely tried next season MCG. Weis needs for next years team to overachieve a little bit and win some games that they weren't supposed to win. That's what happened in his first year, when most predicted 0-6 start. Next seasons schedule is setup for him to get really hammered if he's not carefull. Road games at UM who will be a top 5 team to open the year, at Penn State who will be very good next year as well maybe top 10 to open the season, road game at Purdue who will have most of their talent back and be looking for revenge for the 2 beatings Weis has administered to them, road trip to UCLA who will have a lot of players back including most of their defense and they will have 2 experienced QB's back along with a lot of skill talent. Of course USC will be the preseason #1 probably next year. Michigan State, Ga. Tech and Boston College will be teams that are rebuilding to some what the same degree as ND. We have 4 games against teams we should beat (Navy, Air Force, Stanford and Duke). He has to find a way to win at least 8 games next year. Also our AD has to get the schedule turned around so that like the rest of the best teams our 4 weakest opponents are for the most part in the first 4-6 weeks of the schedule, not at the end. Terry
Good point on turning the schedule around. UF starts usually with two non-cons at home. This year USM and UCF provided decent competition to prepare for and give Meyer a chance to evaluate what he had but they didn't present a great chance for a damaging loss.
I think that you can make that 5 games that you should win...Purdue may have most of our "talent" coming back but cripes...you are talking about a team that did not beat anybody with a winning record this year.
One major difference that I see with Weis and Ron Zook is that Notre Dame has not lost to any team that they should have beaten as Zook did, Ole Miss, Miss State come to mind right away. And I give the Notre Dame schedule a lot more credit than some people do. Michigan, Penn State, Michigan State, UCLA and S. Cal are not chopped liver. I would also say that two years ago at this time if you told Notre Dame fans they would be coming off 9-3 nad 10-3 seasons and a BCS Bowl both years they would be happy. Life needs to be kept in perspective. The one thing I don't know is how well Notre Dame is recruiting defensive personnel but I do know that they are recruiting very good players.
Bill you are right it does need to be kept in perspective. Beating the teams that he should beat is the one thing that Weis turned around right away. Willingham was on the road to losing to Navy eventually. 19-6 for his first 2 years is good, and I hope that he can make the staff changes that may be necessary and finish strong with recruiting. Last nights game could be a blessing or a curse in recruiting. Certainly defensive recruits can be told that they will compete for playing time right away, something they all want to hear. But the question is will they see the ND defense as just needing them or do they say I don't want to play in that defense. Kind of like basketball players all wanting to play up tempo offenses. Terry Here's a sobering stat though. Since Lou Holtz left we have not beaten a team that finished in the top 10. 0-16 vs teams that finish in the top 10.
It may be a sobering thought Terry, but here's another thought, under Weis you have not lost to a team that you should beat, and you came within 6 inches of beating S. Cal last year who was ranked number 1 at the time. Weis is an obvious winner and if the fans give him a couple of more years Notre Dame will be more than competetive. And I think last night should be good as far as recruiting defensive players as they should see they can compete right away. Hey, but let me say this, it's ok with me if enough fans get dissatified with CW and drive him off, maybe the Gators will quit losing good recruits to Notre Dame. :twisted: :twisted: