The state of Notre Dame football.

[Bigdaddydvo]

[ QUOTE ]

As other's have noted, Charlie's skills literally have nothing to do with Xs and Os, schemes, or anything tangible on the football field. Despite the fact he's literally accomplished nothing (except for taking overrated teams full of some other's guy's recruits to BCS bowls/beating a 7-5 Michigan team/winning the Commander-and-Chief trophy/losing a close game to USC), Charlie's real skill pretty much centers brainwashing ND nation into completely contradicting themselves time and again (sometimes in less than a couple of hour hours) while prompting absolutely no self doubt or reflection about how wrong all of their predictions about Weis's skills proved to be.

[/ QUOTE ]


You're quick to point out that Weis "hasn't done anything." His most important contribution during his tenure is that Notre Dame is finally beating the teams it should beat Gone are the Davie/Willingham-esque losses to the likes of BYU and Syracuse that would drive all of us Irish fans bonkers. Not sure how, in fairness to your hindsight, you point out that the Irish defeated a 7-5 UM squad in '05, (ranked #3 at the time) but gloss over UM's big win in '06 by failing to mention how they absolutely steamrolled the Big Ten that year and were 3 points away from playing for a National Championship.

Thesis: Generally speaking, Notre Dame is either hyped up to be significantly better or significantly worse than they actually are.

Examples: Before the '05 season, Mark May and Lee Corso made bold predictions of an 0-6 start for the Irish. The first six games were actually 4-2 w/close losses to USC and Michigan State.

In 2006, the Irish began the season ranked #2 behind OSU. I (along with most other sober, realistic fan types) knew that was a stretch. 3 bad losses to UM, USC, and LSU confirmed what Irish fans knew deep in their hearts but were quick to hide, that we were greatly overrated that year.

The problem is, Notre Dame enflames such strong passions of undying love or vehement hate, that it becomes nearly impossible for most folks to conduct an objective assessment of the team.

As for this season, yes, at least to this point, we are as bad advertised. This season exposed a huge flaw in Weis's coaching armor that wasn't apparent before this year, namely the importance of developing football fundamentals in his young players. Fortunately, Weis is smart enough to say "yes, I [censored] up. I'm responsible for this mess. Here's how I'm going to fix it." It's his willingness admit mistakes to make adjustments, all while working his ass off, that make me want to see this thing through with him. Compared to the blank stare of Ty Willingham that said "I got nothin'" while mumbling something about how his team didn't execute, and I can't help but feel optimistic.

Is CW the right man for the job? At this point I still believe he is. You'll know I've lost faith when my Avatar turns into Knute Rockne...but I'm still a long way off. What I am certain is that Ty Willingham was absolutely NOT the right man to win at ND...if CW fails here I know he'll go down swinging something other than his golf club.