In Defense of Charlie Weis

So, I've finally gotten around to writing this article. Actually I almost called up one of the local talk shows on Friday about this because they were talking about ND and how they thought ND should let Charlie go and that he wasn't doing that great of a job. An Irish fan called up and said that he didn't like when they signed him to begin with and I almost called up and called the guy a moron and then I was going to go into my reasons to defend him. Now, this season and last season didn't go too well but there were signs that the team would struggle, which I'll go over in a minute, but I'd also like to say that ND needs to win next year and that's it. I'm giving Charlie one more year to bring this team back to where it was when he first came in. If next year turns out to be another 6-6 team believe me I won't be writing the same article, I'll be writing to have him fired. I think next season is the season where the team must grow and turn into winners. So, here we go. Hope you enjoy:

#1. Memory
I'm not like most sports fans when it comes to the Irish. Well, I guess this Irish team. I have patiences. I understand that there will be growing pains and that this team and last years team were going to struggle. I accepted it because of what happened in the past. I think people who want Charlie Weis gone have a memory of the Irish that started last year, when they were bad, really bad. They don't seem to remember his first two years where the team was awesome. They were just plain fun to watch and they won a whole bunch of games and each Saturday I just wondered what they would do? I also remember the years under Tyrone Willingham and how bad the teams were. Not only his last two years but his first season when he won his first 8 games. What I didn't like about those teams were how bad the offense was. They just really didn't seem to be able to do anything offensively. They couldn't really move the ball and it was frustrating and boring to watch them. It really was. I also remember the teams under Bob Davie and it was just about the same type of team. What I also remember was the fact that Tyrone couldn't recruit. He just plain couldn't. He did find some good players every once in a while but he didn't really do anything with them. This I'll actually save for later. But what I also remember is what happened to lead the Irish to hire Charlie. See, Willingham was fired at the end of the season after and the Irish went after Urban Meyer who ultimately turned them down to sign with Florida, which has been a good thing for him, but what it also did was it screwed the Irish over. See, they didn't have a head coach. There was no one there to help develop these kids and also, too recruit. See, that's one of the biggest responsibilities of a coach is to go out and find the next players to come play for your school and there was no one there to do this that season. And that killed the team. They basically threw away a year of recruiting, cutting out the legs from beneath the team. Charlie wasn't able to sign to coach ND under after the pro football season was over, and if people can remember, the Patriots were in the Super Bowl that year so Charlie couldn't become the head coach until after that. Which gave him about a month to recruit players or at least keep the players that were going to go to ND. And that recruiting class was bad. It was. I think he was lucky to get 14 guys to commit to ND, which is just a horrible recruiting class. You can't keep a team going by doing that and it hurt ND. That's probably the biggest reason why we had the season we had last year. There were no leaders for that team. In fact, the Irish only lost 4 players at the end of the season. Now, the next recruiting class was just okay. Charlie recruited a lot of players, but nothing like the recruiting classes he's had the past two seasons or as he will have this year. I'm not saying that he didn't bring in any good players, just not like the dynamic ones he's brought in the past two seasons, which would also help cause the season the Irish had this year.

Now, there are also two reasons why I'm also patient with this team. The first reason comes from my high school days and from the hockey team. When I was a freshman the hockey team wasn't any good. In fact, they were horrible. I believe they won something like 3 or 4 games. They had a new coach that year and we figured to not play that well. Well my sophmore year the team got a lot better. In fact, they ended up making the playoffs but I believe they lost in the first or second round. Well, my junior year the team kept on getting better and they lost in the quarterfinals. As you can guess, my senior year we lost in the Semifinals. And the year after I graduated we won the whole things.

The second reason comes from college and the soccer team. Now the Messiah team was actually pretty decent before I got there. We'd made the playoffs every year for the past few years but couldn't really do much in it. So, once again my freshman year we made the playoffs but lost in the second round. Well, something happened my sophmore year and we grew a lot and lost in the quarterfinals. My junior year I expected us to lose in the Semifinals but we actually won the tournament. My senior year, unfortunately the team lost in the Semifinals, a little backwards but the team was in the right place, and they've also won 5 out of the past 6 national championships. And I can see the growth with this team, but they need to make a huge stride next year.

#2. Recruiting
I touched on this already but I'll go over it again. His first two official recruiting classes weren't that special. The first one was bad because he only had a month to get some recruits in and the second one because, I believe, he was still finding out how the system goes. Well, these past two years he's done a lot better job. Plus, Willingham was a bad recruiter and this is really what helped cost him his job. The athletic director realized that he wasn't bringing in the players that we needed and it just helped cause the situation we're in now. But, I do believe the team will be a lot better next year and the years after.

#3. Losses
This year the Irish have gone 6-6 with a bowl game left to play. Now, out of those 6 losses I believe the Irish could have won 5 of those games and I'll go through each loss and show you why. The first loss was at Michigan State 23-7. There were five plays that changed this game, the first two were turnovers in the red zone by the Irish, one interception and one fumble. The Irish also missed two field goals. The last was an interception inside their own red zone that lead to a Michigan State TD. If good things had happened on those plays instead of bad one you have a different game. The second loss was at UNC, which the Irish lead at half time and blew the lead. They also had a chance to win the game but there was a fumble on UNC's 7 yard line with 3 seconds left to play. They should have won that game. Next was a loss in 4 ot's at home against Pitt. Once again the Irish were up at half time only to blow the game in the second half. The d played pretty well but the offense just couldn't get it done in the second half. This game, I believe killed the team for the rest of the season. You could tell it in the way they played. They just weren't there. The next loss was at BC 17-0. Once again, 3 plays changed the game. Two interceptions in the red zone again and also a third int that was returned for a td. The d only gave up 10 points and if the Irish had scored on the two red zone possessions it would have been a better game. The last was a loss at home 24-23 to Syracuse. There was no excuse to lose this game. They should have killed the Orangemen but lost instead. I believe if the Irish had won these games instead it would have been a different game at USC.

#4. Young Starters
If you look at the ND starters most of them are either Freshman or Sophmores. In fact the Irish are only losing 2 starters from this years team. Of the main positions(QB, RB, WR, TE) on offense they're all freshman and sophmores. Of their 4 starting LB's 3 are freshman or sophmores. Of the starting CB's one is a freshman the other a senior. There are just sooo many young guys starting that it's hard to win with a team like that. In fact I believe that many of the problems that occured with the team were because of that. I think if this team were a year older they would have won the games that they ended up losing. That's why I have such high hopes for this team next year. I think the trials and tribulations of this season will help prepare them for next year.

#5. Not Losing Players
ND is only losing something like 4 players off of this years team. And only two are starters. That means that a lot of players gained a lot of experience this season that'll help them for next year. That shows you two things, first that the team can be really great next season but also that the team wasn't bringing in the players that it needed to those couple years where Tyrone was fired and when Charlie was first hired. If Willingham had done his job well then ND wouldn't have had bad seasons this year and last year. They would have just kept on rolling like Charlie's first two season.

#6. Developing Players
I heard this just briefly last Friday on the talk show, but I guess they were saying that Charlie Weis couldn't develop talent. That's what got me fired up and I almost called in. It's sad but true. Unfortunately I didn't hear the whole conversation, but I really wish I had. I'm sorry but without Charlie Weis no one would know who Brady Quinn is, who Jeff Samardzija is(in fact I wouldn't know how to spell his last name) or Maurice Stovall or Rhema McKnight, or Darius Walker or Tom Zbikowski or Trevor Laws. All of these players would have been no ones or duds. In fact, Samardzija was going to quit football and just concentrate on baseball. Without Charlie Weis there's no one I would have gotten a ND 83 jersey or a 10 jersey or a 7 jersey. There's no chance of that. In fact he's done a pretty good job with the players he's recruited. Jimmy Clausen's done a lot better this season than last. Golden Tate, I think, will be the best wide receiver ever at ND. And Michael Floyd will probably be #2. These guys are insane. Plus Armando Allen had a much better year this season. Without Charlie Weis we don't have any of that. In fact, if you look at the two best ND players in the NFL, that would be Justin Tuck and Ryan Grant, the ND coaches didn't do that good of a job with them. Tuck was drafted in the 4th round and Grant was either late in the draft or went undrafted(both started their careers with the Giants, I might add). If these other coaches were that good then I don't think they would have gone that low.

So, here are my reasons why I want Charlie around for at least one more year. I think he'll do a great job next year and I can see the team getting a BCS bid. Or at least that's what I'm hoping. Ha ha.