As much as I dislike Charlie Weis for all of his arrogance and pride, I can’t sit back and watch everyone blame him for the fall of the Notre Dame Football program.
It’s not his fault that the program is where it is today. Nor was it the fault of Tyrone Willingham, Bob Davie or Lou Holtz. Notre Dame, it’s all your fault!
They can search all over the country for his successor or even raise Knute Rockne from the dead and it won’t make a difference until Notre Dame takes a long hard look at themselves and make a change.
I believe the administration is 100 percent to blame for the fall of such a great program. Over time the world has changed as well as the landscape of college football. In order to continue to be successful, you have to change with the times.
Notre Dame, however, has chosen not to look at itself and make the necessary changes that will allow it to become a great football program once again.
What am I talking about? Let’s examine the issues facing this historic program that has allowed it to fall apart right before our eyes.
Notre Dame wants to compete for a national title every year but their greed won’t allow them to make good decisions and put in a position to compete for that championship. Either you want to have the NBC contract and keep all of the money or you want to play in a BCS bowl and possibly the title game. You can’t have both.
By continuing to be an independent and playing the current schedule, the team is constantly at a disadvantage because they are trying to play the top programs each week. The schedule has been brutal for years. Also, by remaining single, you put your players at a huge disadvantage relative to schools that play in a conference. If by chance they lose just one game (and God forbid it’s an early loss), they have absolutely nothing to play for because they aren’t in a conference. There is no championship to win.
Join the Big East like the rest of your team sports – and you’ll have a great shot at getting to a BCS bowl.
Notre Dame also tries to be an academic powerhouse and a football powerhouse. You can’t be both unless you decide to move into the Ivy League.
They can’t get the players that the state schools have access too. When you look at the top 100 recruits in the country, you can only recruit about 30 of them because of the academic requirements. Other schools like Florida State and the University of Texas can talk to all of them.
Now what happens when Notre Dame shows up to play USC and they’ve got 60 of the best and you’ve got 15? They’re down 21 points before they even get off of the bus.
I know what you’re saying, “Well, Duke is able to do it in basketball.” You’re absolutely right. But they only have to recruit three players a year. Notre Dame has to find 25 guys every year. That’s a much harder task.
Notre Dame, keep in mind success breads success and you’ve have none here lately. I hear them screaming right now, “We’ve won 11 national titles, have seven Heisman Trophy winners and have 95 All-Americans.”
I know that, but the kid that you’re recruiting doesn’t know that. A player coming out of high school who is 17 or 18 years old wasn’t even born when you won your last title in 1988.
Additionally, Notre Dame’s got to be able to recruit the elite Black athlete. They thought that Paul Hornung was some crazy old man a few years ago when he told them the same thing. The Irish dismissed it, but it’s still staring them in the face.
Notre Dame’s been able to get a few good ones like Golden Tate and Michael Floyd but they need a roster full of them like everyone else in the country.
While we’re on the subject of the Black student athlete, let’s talk about the lack of diversity on Notre Dame’s campus. For the most part, the only Black students on campus are the athletes. There are very few Black non-athletes on campus primarily because it costs more than $45,000 per year to attend. Not very many Black families can afford that price tag and those who can, don’t necessarily want to go Notre Dame.
Many Black folks with that type of money would rather send their children to the prestigious, historically Black Colleges and Universities like Morehouse, Spellman, Hampton or Howard – not Notre Dame.
Because there aren’t many Blacks on campus and there isn’t a culture outside of sports for them to bond with, players will continue to be reluctant to go to South Bend.
Add the fact that as an Irish Catholic school, Notre Dame has chosen not to have a Greek system – unlike other private schools who’ve changed their tune, Notre Dame can’t compete from a recruiting aspect.
Lastly, in order to win, you’ve got to go where the best players are, the South or to California. That’s a problem for Notre Dame being up north.
It’s cold in South Bend and it snows in the winter (plus the girls look better in Florida and have on bikinis. In South Bend they have on overcoats and snow boots). Don’t get mad at me, we’re talking about 18 year old boys here. Let’s say this 18 year-old recruit still wants to go north. He’ll more likely stop in Columbus or Ann Arbor before he goes to South Bend.
Is that’s Charlie’s fault? No. Notre Dame’s got to take a long hard look in the mirror.
Simply firing your head coach won’t fix the mess that you’ve created.
