That is true on Verducci as I have just read this morning. WM says that he wants an OL coach and OC to have had experience with each other and be on the same page and that is what he has with Verducci and Weis apparently.
Weis <t>well for what it's worth I always liked Charlie. He just didn't turn out to be a good DIV 1 Head football coach. I wish him the best of luck at Florida. The media always made Charlie out to be something other than what he really is. He's a great guy in my eyes. I wish he could have done better at ND than he did but I'm sure he will make a great OC at Florida.</t>
To me there are many questions left unanswered about Weis as a college coach. At ND he did a good job of working with QB's and WR's/TE's, had a Blietnikoff winner last year in Tate and I think if Clausen hadn't gotten injured in the MSU game last year he'd have had a great year, as it was he was still pretty darn good on one leg and to me showed a lot of toughness. But Charlie never developed a RB and never developed a tough OL. I also wonder what UF has in place for Charlie to work with next year. I assume that Brantley will stay, and that Driskel will be the backup. Bruton and Reed will have to find new positions. But do the Gators have any RB's that fit a "Pro Style" offense? Do they have any good WR's and TE's? What's the returning OL like?
We have two backs who might fit the bill. A junior, Gillissee (not sure if spelled right) and Mack Brown who will be a redshirt freshman. We also have a commitment from a running back this year. QB, I agree with the way you wrote them up except for Reed, I think there is a good chance he can compete.
Reed would make one helluva fullback. I think he could be a Qb as well but Addazio and Meyer just strangle Burton and Reed in a big game like the Outback and you don't get to see what they might do. I am really glad we have an offensive mind in Weis coming in who has the ability to judge who can do what at Qb. I do think there is enough talent on hand that if you sort it out correctly you will really have something. Sorta like Spurrier did in 1990 when he came in and analyzed all that talent that Galen Hall had accumulated and made a star out of 4th string Qb Shane Matthews.
Interesting takes by College Footbal News media types: http://cfn.scout.com/2/1036289.html I think the consensus is that Muschamp hit a home run.
:idea: I agree with Tim and Sid. Charlie Weis is one of the great OC's of this era and he always seemed to be a nice guy too. He will immediately help any program that hires him. I can't imagine that he would ever want to be a college head coach again, as he appeared so unsuited for that job at Notre Dame. The job of head coach is very different from that of assistant and some guys just can't handle it. Every Indian warrior doesn't make a good chief. I gave up on Charlie as a head coach when he appointed TWO defensive coordinators at the same time that he was running the offense by himself, while his OC had nothing to do. If he really knew how to manage anything...even a Little League snack bar...he would never have done that. He's a genius at X's and O's, but the head coach has to handle real people; all kinds of people; even people he doesn't like, and Charlie just isn't good at that. As long as he's just doing the X's and O's the Gators should score a lot of points...
I know there is the anti-Charlie camp at ND Quite often, these are the same people who believe the kids can do no wrong. In my opinion, we've had more than our share of candy asses playing at ND. Not all mind you, but too many. We're getting tougher, but we've been soft. Charlie's downfall is his ego and self-confidence. Sometimes, you don't have all the answers and you need to sit down sometimes to listen to other people. The answer is always out there, always. It's just a matter of you a) recognizing it and b) being willing to do whatever it is to attain it. One thing I really missed about Charlie's offense this year was that there is a TD on more than 90% of the plays from the LOS. It may not seem like it, but there is. He's looking for a mismatch on every single play. If his guys do what they are suppose to do, and the other team's guys do what they are suppose to do... 4 yard gain. If someone on the defense makes a mistake, then it's a lotto scratch off... 10, 20, 60 yards or TD. Nick Saban's job just got a lot harder. Not that he's not up to the challenge, but the meeting of Saban's defensive scheme and Charlie's offensive scheme is a football nerds wet dream. There's nothing in the east that even remotely compares to what Weis will bring to the table offensively and he'll be doing it with Florida's athletes. A lot of people seem to forget that Florida (specifically Urban) was a pain in Charlie's side in recruiting. Hell, they changed the recruiting rules to keep Saban and Charlie from out working people. That seems to get lost in translation. While Charlie decided to just get in line and follow the rules, friggin Saban set up 'NickTV' so he could video conference with the recruits. I love that guy.. Charlie isn't the most liked guy in the world.. neither are Al Borges or Norm Chow.. and if you were a new HC trying to get your program on track, you're an idiot if you'd pass over any of those 3. 2 of them no longer want to be HCs... I think Charlie may come to that place as well. If not, let's not lose sight of the fact that Charlie is a very smart guy. He was learning. ND just isn't the place to learn on the job.
In Texas they would say he's all hat - no cattle. Here in his home state they would say his mouth writes checks his ass can't cover.
I don't know how he's all hat no cattle. The Chiefs are in the playoffs AND they score points. I'm pretty sure half of us could suit up offensively for the Chiefs. Who is their QB? Brody Croyle? He'll have all everything QBs ala Clausen lining up at his door to come in and throw the ball all over the yard in a state chalk full of future NFL WRs. I don't know if you guys caught this but Ohio State used a Charlie Weis play on several occasions last night when throwing to that white kid. They fake the counter and/or the bubble screen then hit the kid on a fly pattern. It's wide open. You can't cover everything. Weis at Florida is a scary proposition.
Chiefs QB is Matt Cassell, who had a good year with the Pats when Brady was injured. Charlie is a very hard worker at recruiting, and UF sitting in the mddle of a ton of talent and he won't have to worry about explaining away the weather or the social life or stuff like that and while I know that this will rankle Bill a little, the easier academics (compared to ND) for football players at UF will also widen his pool. Initially Charlie should do well in recruiting, and if he has early success with the offense then it should build and he could really do well. Charlie always had good offenses (except 2007) at ND, he never got a running game going like ND fans would have liked. Some of that was due to misses at recruiting, James Alderdrige injured his knee as a HS SR and was never the same back, Armando Allen had a bad ankle injury as well and really took several years to recover and truly was never a durable back, had flashes but always seemed to be nicked up. His OL's never seemed to be dominant, partly because of the hole that Willingham left for him and partly because he made a mistake with his first OL coach and never really recovered from that. Sam Young was a 4 year starter, but he was always soft. Some of it was Charlies Strength and Conditioning coach. I see he hired Frank Verducci who he worked with his last year, maybe Frank is the guy. Also since he won't be in charge of Strength, I'm sure Muschamp will make sure that is done properly. We are finding out that our program was below standard for strength. I think the upside for Charlie is very good at UF. He just has to play nice with the other guys. Something he didn't do at ND, many tales about his arrogance and poor treatment of people.
UF has been plenty physical under Meyer and Muschamp did retain the Strength and Conditioning coach. I am not here to debate the ND-UF football player academics because I don't know the facts. I do remember some players like Tony Rice and I am sure others who are are not all world academically. It's a big debate and as I say.....I don't care to debate it so whatever you say.
Actually Tony Rice and Chris Zorich are the last two kids who ND allowed in who were just NCAA qualified. That is not to say that ND football players are all 1200 SAT and Top 10% of their class type of HS students. But we do have a standard that is higher than the NCAA min, and really the difference is that once they get to ND they have no where to hide with regards to easy majors, and ND demands that they go to class and they have to live on campus in dorms for at least 3 years (I believe). The net result is we do graduate a high number of players, but that there are kids (like Aaron Lynch) who decide that they don't want that type of academic atmosphere. That's the real difference between Schools like ND, Northwestern, Duke, Stanford, etc and good schools like UF and Texas where people talk a good job about academics, but are unwilling to do what is necessary to get their grad rates up to ND, Duke, Stanford, Northwestern.
Corey, I meant at the college level, not professional. I should have made myself clear on that. Weis will do well at UF if he can keep his ego in check.
Crap!! That kid Driskel looks incredible tonight in the UnderArmour Game. Weis has really got something to work with in this kid. on the other hand Marcus Clowney the Alabama DL looks incredible and no doubt willing to smack Mr. Driskel down in the future!