Pigskin Punditry No. 14: A Golden Domed Problem

I remember the day Charlie Weis got hired.

During that press conference, I remember that he talked about, with all things being equal, that Notre Dame would have a schematic advantage over their opponents, presumably because of Weis’ superior knowledge of offensive design.

Almost four years into this venture, and the schematic advantage doesn’t seem to be there, because against teams with winning records (not all of them superior), Weis is 27-19 so far in his run as Irish head coach.

Oh, and did I mention that there are seven years left on the contract extension that former Notre Dame athletic director Kevin White gave to Weis after the infamous “Bush Push” loss in 2005?

There is no question that last season was an abysmal one for Notre Dame football. They have played very little championship-level football.

But Weis has had four recruiting classes brought in at this point. Three of those classes were highly ranked, according to various recruiting services (if you trust those sorts of things).

The talent is there. However, I wonder if the player development piece of the puzzle is there. Do we really know if Charlie Weis is a great coach when he has to take the raw material and build it himself?

Or is he better as a molder; someone who can take something pretty good and make it great.

Charlie is in a difficult situation. It’s hard to go home and work for the alma mater, especially when expectations are high and you are under-performing those expectations (see Fulmer, Philip for evidence of that).

Considering that Charlie has a large contract, a buyout in this economy doesn’t seem feasible.

But if there are more 6-6 type seasons in the future, then perhaps Mr. Weis will be looking for work as well.

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