Bowden out... Weis, too

The annual coaching carousel hit overdrive today, as two of college football's biggest names are on their way out. Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis received his walking papers today, a fully expected decision after Weis lost the final four games this season with the Irish.

But the day's biggest news is still young. Various media outlets are reporting tonight that Florida State head coach Bobby Bowden will announce his retirement tomorrow, following a meeting with university officials today. The official statement was that Bowden was going to decide overnight, with an announcement coming tomorrow. We can expect an announcement tomorrow that Bowden, No. 2 all time in coaching victories, will depart the program that he molded into one of the greatest powerhouses in college football history. It's an unfortunate ending for the Hall of Fame coach, but what seems to be a necessary one.

I'll have more on this story as it develops throughout the week.

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Why Notre Dame fans need to stay grounded

I like Notre Dame. In fact, it was Notre Dame that made me want to get into a big, rah-rah school. But I'm a realist before anything else. The Fighting Irish are already gaining a strong head of over-confident steam, and it's only the middle of May. I won't go so far as to say Notre Dame won't make a bowl game (I believe they will), but I get a silly feeling the Irish faithful are setting the bar way too high for 2008. 7-5? Sure. Anything more? Hold your horses.
The way Notre Dame fans are talking, you would think this team was coming off a growing pains-type season. It sounds like the offensive line just needed some tweaking. It sounds like there were only one or two turnovers that could have made the difference in the final record. It sounds like this team wasn't bad enough to cause even the most casual college football fans to wretch in pain every time Notre Dame ran out of the tunnel. Ok, that's a bit harsh, but so was Notre Dame in 2007.

Why can't Notre Dame win a lot more games in 2008?

Team maturity: I’m not saying that the Irish didn’t grow up after suffering through 2007. The defense was much improved by November, but then again, any defense would look good against Duke, Air Force and Stanford. However, Notre Dame wasn’t just the victim of bad luck. Twenty-six fumbles (16 lost), 11 interceptions and a 74 percent success rate inside the red-zone; I’d be surprised if any team reached .500 with those kinds of numbers. Getting a year under their belts will always improve the mistakes, but remember, most of the guys coming back have had plenty of playing experience prior to 2007. And even more of them were very highly rated coming out of high school. Fine-tuning is always required for younger players with lots of talent. It’s almost expected, but when you have a complete meltdown like Notre Dame did in 2007, there are much deeper issues, not easily resolved in time for the following season.

The offensive line: Fifty-eight sacks were allowed by Notre Dame’s offensive line in 2007—58! That’s an average of almost five per game. I actually find this the most curious of the three major problems most likely to carry over into 2008. One has to ask, how is it that a line with All-American center John Sullivan, and very highly regarded recruits Sam Young (13 st 2006), Dan Wegner (#3 C in 2006), Michael Turkovich (10 st 2006), Eric Olsen (8 st 2006), Paul Duncan (12 gm 2006), could be so bad? Only one of the 2007 starters came into the season with no significant playing time. I think the real answer to this question is with the next and final point.

Coaching: This is a double-edged sword for Notre Dame in 2008. First, Charlie Weis can’t seem to coach a team that doesn’t have all the tools and talent in place and ready to roll. We all saw that last season. He’s a poor motivator—other than flashing his Super Bowl rings—and has trouble dealing with adversity. However, there’s the spark named John Tenuta. I really think he can turn things around on that side of the ball, but it will take time. 2008 won’t show the results the Irish faithful are expecting.

The 2008 Irish will have some success. As I said earlier, they won’t flop nearly as bad as 2007. But people have to keep in mind that, after a complete collapse, it takes time to rebuild. It won’t take as long as Penn State did to get back on track after the Nittany Lions’ 2000 meltdown. I fully expect Notre Dame to become a BCS contender by 2009, not 2008 though. San Diego State, Stanford, North Carolina, and Syracuse are the only good chances for Irish wins. We’ll see.

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Domers react to "PSU vs. ND 2003"

First, before I get into this, I'd like to thank those over in the land of Rocknefor reading ZN. I personally love when outsiders venture into enemy territory. But when they dedicate a whole thread to it on a Notre Dame message board, I'm more thrilled than a pig in poop. Let me just run down what the Irish fans had to say:

Original Thread by "Frankie V"...

"Pretty laughable read from a PSU blog about how their 3-9 season in '03 was way better than ours....

Here's my favorite part...

"More than any other factor leading to the demise of these two teams, was the presence, or lack of leadership from the top down. The 2007 Irish had virtually no guidance from its head coach, with players defecting and speaking out against their former coaches--mainly against Weis. In its biggest game of 2007--hosting USC--Notre Dame was shutout, in what could barely be described as a college football game. Penn State, however, met defending national champs, No. 6 Ohio State at home in 2003. The Lions played the Buckeyes down to the wire, looking more like two BCS-caliber squads sparring toe-to-toe, rather than Goliath pounding David. Penn State lost by one point, after Ohio State scored a touchdown with just more than a minute left."

Yeah, Penn State was 3-9 in 2003, but it was a good 3-9 ya know?"

Then, amazingly enough, McSweeney chimed it with this nugget. I was actually caught off guard by his honesty and rationality...

"What's laughable is the fact PSU averaged a 5-7 record from 2000 through 2004

These guys are trying to make a case that not all 3-9 records are created equal. Well, technically, they're correct. ND's 3-9 came after two back-to-back BCS bowls. PSU's 3-9 record came during a stretch in which they failed to break .500 four times in five seasons.

In fact, PSU's amazing 2005 run was amazing more for the fact PSU has been anywhere from mediocre to awful for going on a decade now. Consider Weis lost three games in each of his first two seasons at ND, while 2005 is the only season since 1999 that JoePa has lost less than four games."

And there's my point. I originally wanted to add that to the original post, but never got around to it. Fortunately, Irish fans just couldn't leave this one alone, and in turn made my point for me. Notre Dame had NO excuse for going 3-9 in 2007. Charlie Weis had a pretty damn good recruiting class in 2005 (even if he only had a few months to work at it) and an awesome one in 2006. Follow that up by getting guys like Jimmy Clausen and Anthony Aldridge in 2007, and you should at least break .500. In 2003, Penn State didn't absolutely implode the way Notre Dame did in 2007. Penn State was on a steady decline since going 5-7 in 2000. The Irish played in two consecutive BCS bowls in 2005 and 2006. Penn State's decline was like setting off a stick of dynamite every day over a few years. Notre Dame's collapse was more along the lines of dropping a hydrogen bomb.

But before I end this, here's what poster "IanY77" said to Frankie V's thread...

"Does the "Zombie" in "Zombienationpsu" refer to Paterno?

I know, I know, I'm being lazy and going for the easy joke. But if they put that out there, they're just asking for the joke to be made. They opened the door, I just walked through it."

Yes, Ian, I'm sure that if you asked a random person what they thought of when they saw the name of this blog, they'd think of that. Or, it could be that you sat there for 10 minutes trying to think of something clever to say on the forum. And that brings me to my final thought on this. Isn't it interesting that the only place Notre Dame fans were willing to discuss and argue against my postwas in the friendly confines of an Irish message board? I'm now extending an official invitation to fans of all teams to visit ZN and leave their comments whenever they please. I welcome criticism, as long as it's (figuratively) to my face. Man up, Domers.

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Special Feature: College Football Requires Coaching, Not Just Playcalling

I got the idea for this from the radio last week. I usually listen to Mike and Mike on ESPN Radio. If you’re like me, you know that show has about 20 minutes per hour of actual talking, the rest being filled by seemingly endless commercial breaks. It’s not that bad though, as it gives me plenty of time to tune in to other sports radio shows. In fact, if it wasn’t for commercial break No. 386 on Mike and Mike last week, I never would have gotten the idea for this post. Thank you, Steve Czaban of The First Team on Fox, FSR XM 142.

Czaban argued with his co-hosts that the NFL is a horse’s league, meaning the players run the show and everything depends on them. Their points were made very clear and solid. Names like Mike Martz, Charlie Weis and Mike Nolan were thrown around, nearly proving the fact that NFL coordinators are way over-hyped. I couldn’t agree more.

But in college, coaching is everything. How many times have we seen big time coaches take a horrible program and get it on track within a few seasons? Bill Snyder at Kansas State? Frank Beamer at Virginia Tech? Some will say that the biggest difference between college and pro ball is parity. Others will say that college ball is coming along, and 2007 was a great example of the growing parity. I think 2007 was a fluke, and parity is a long way off, if you’re going to compare it to the parity that thrives in the NFL.

What if Drew Bledsoe never got hurt in 2001? Tom Brady would have remained the backup—yes, backup. Where would the Patriots be right now, if Brady never got the nod? I can’t say exactly, but I would bet a pretty penny that Brady, Vrabel and Belichick wouldn’t have a handful of Super Bowl Rings. What if Terrell Owens didn’t go to the Cowboys? You’re going to tell me that Terry Glenn and Patrick Crayton would pick up that sort of slack? It’s all about who’s on the NFL rosters.

I find it hard to believe that Charlie Weis will ever win a national championship at Notre Dame. I don’t mind the Irish. I actually rooted for them when Ty Willingham was there. Now, it’s a different story. The elite in South Bend, with no real evidence that Weis could coach at the collegiate level, showered the man with a contract like none other—at least, that early in a coach’s tenure.

What did Weis do at New England? He won with the best team. And don’t give me “They beat the Rams.” The Rams were all offense, and the Patriots only scored 24 points. After that first Super Bowl win, the Patriots were on auto-pilot. I think Weis was given a little bit too much credit for “his” offense. If Weis was the wheel that turned the engine, then why didn’t that Patriot offense go into the tank after he left, or at least slow down a bit.

Fast forward to 2005. When Weis landed in South Bend, he inherited a plug-and-play team. He had a Heisman contender in Brady Quinn, and two huge receivers that gained more than 1,000 yards each that season. It was perfect for a “Charlie Weis Offense.” It’s easy to make up all sorts of crazy, complicated plays when you’re working with NFL-calibers players, as Weis did at Notre Dame in 2005 and 2006. Keep in mind, Weis had two full seasons to lean on those players—Willingham’s recruits—while he built up the kind of depth that would suit his offensive preferences.

Fast forward again, to 2007. Weis has had two full seasons of top-10 recruiting classes, with the best talent coming in, outside of Southern California. One could argue, Notre Dame has brought in more talent in two classes than most schools recruit in a decade. I’m talking about four and five-star guys across the board.

Super-recruits like 2006’s James Aldridge, Sam Young, Demetrius Jones, Matt Carufel, Raeshon McNeil, Eric Olsen, and 2007’s Jimmy Claussen, Armando Allen, Duval Kamara, Matt Romine, Andrew Nuss and others. Oh yeah, and about half of those players mentioned were offensive linemen and all of them were offensive players. Notre Dame finished dead last in offense in 2007. But don’t even consider yet the kind of class that Weis is bringing in for 2008. It’s not even signing day and he’s got three five-stars, and fifteen—yes, fifteen—four-stars.

Any half decent college coach would have been able to win eight or nine games in 2007. But with or without the hundreds of excuses given by the Notre Dame fanbase, it was still horrible coaching that doomed the Irish in 2007. Sure, the defense was okay over the last half of the season, but not enough to overcome the epic struggles of the offense. Charlie Weis never realized that college isn’t nearly the NFL. I think he started to take the hint when his Irish team lost to Navy for the first time since Roger Staubach’s time under center. But watch, Weis will stockpile enough talent to mask his coaching deficiencies. He'll win 10 or 11 games consistently, but he'll never make it over that hump. Winning championships requires a good coach, not just good players.

Switch gears now and think of someone like George O’Leary, Mark Mangino, or even Jim Grobe. Where have they taken UCF, Kansas and Wake Forest? Two BCS bowls and fielded the nation’s leading rusher. Five years ago, those teams were laughing stocks. But it was the coaching that got them to the level they’re at now. I know, recruiting is everything in college football. That’s true, but how then do you explain Notre Dame’s 3-9 record? It’s not like they just missed at 6-6 or 5-7.

Go back to even 1989, when Steve Spurrier was only known for his Heisman Trophy. That was before he stepped into Gainesville, where a Gator program had been established for years, and the recruits would give anything to play in sunny Florida. He took a pathetic Duke program and turned it into a regular winner. It wasn’t exactly Miami or Florida State, but the Blue Devils won the ACC that year. The Blue Devils have had one winning season since Spurrier left. Their overall record from 1990 to 2007 is 43-160-1. Oh yeah, they lost that 1994 All-American Bowl.

You can’t just expect your players to do their jobs in college the way they do in the NFL. And it’s because of that one word that separates the two sports—job. It’s Tom Brady’s job to win the Super Bowl. It’s Randy Moss’s job to catch a gazzilion passes. For guys like Jimmy Claussen and Sam Young, it’s still just a game. Certain coaches who think going from the NFL to college is easy are usually given a rude awakening, probably once they realize just how good you have to be at coaching, not just calling the plays.

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Some respect for JoePa

In his Cavalcade of Whimsy this week, CollegeFootballNews.com writer Pete Fiutak wrote about media and fans piling on Charlie Weis. Fiutak somewhat defended Weis' decision to negotiate for a huge contract extension, which eventually (as we all know) worked. But in his argument, saying how pretty much anyone would do what Weis did, he there in this quote:

"With the possible exception of Joe Paterno, there's not a coach in the history of the planet who wouldn't take advantage of the situation that Weis was in to get more money. That's not questionable character; that's good business."

That's actually the first time in, well, forever that I've heard an unnecessary complement about Joe Paterno by the Media. Thanks CFN.

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Wake up the echoes

OK, I'm ready to hear the boos. I'm actually a Notre Dame fan. Scary, I know. The biggest difference is that I am a fan of Notre Dame football, NOT NOT NOT Chuckie Weis.

So you think that ND and Weis are one and the same. Wrong. Weis was brought in by the ND administration because they were impatient with Ty Willingham's progress. Well, I truly believe ND would have won 9-10 games in 2005 regardless of who was head coach. No one seems to believe me on that one.

Don't get me wrong. I hope Penn State crushes ND tomorrow night. I hope the margin of victory is wider than against FIU. But I still like the Golden Dome, the Four Horsemen and all that jazz. I just like PSU better. That's all.

In fact, when I was in high school, I watched Rudy every so often. My favorite part of the whole movie - next to the crowd when the team runs out of the tunnel - was when Rudy's dad walks into the stadium and the band plays, not a ND fight song, but The Nittany Lion! I didn't even know it at the time, but I still liked that song best.

No Kiddin'.

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Weis Has No Clue

Charlie Weis just drove the final nail into Notre Dame's Catholic coffin. "I don't think it'll be much worse than what we saw yesterday," Weis said on Notre Dame's weekly FCS Central show.


Oh really, Chuckie? You have no freaking clue. Now, I'm pretty pissed off that only the very rich and the dumb ass students who decided to jump on the band wagon get to go to the ND game Saturday. However, I hope PSU beats the Irish worse than they beat FIU. That's right, WORSE!

PSU fans should start getting on the message boards about this and get the word out that Weis doesn't think Beaver Stadium in a night game is the worst place to play in the WORLD.

Just thought I'd put in my two cents. After all, that's my job.

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