In a story on ESPN today, Charlie once again takes all the blame for this season.  Class act, all the way.  But, we know already that.  We also knew that we were young (see Dead Horse Post below), that Charlie wants to win NOW, and that he’s recruiting over the next few weeks.

The most interesting part of the article to me is the last portion:

Weis also said too much was made of the fact he said two weeks ago he plans to meet with his former colleagues on the New England Patriots coaching staff to analyze Notre Dame’s offense and defense.

“Who better to sit there and look at things and say, ‘I wouldn’t have done that’, or ‘What were you doing here, than guys that are friends of yours,” he said.

Some critics have said Weis has taken too much of an NFL approach to practices, focusing more on technique rather than hitting and other basics, and seeking advice from the pros may not be the answer. But Weis said he and his staff also will be talking with other college coaches to try to improve.

After Charlie mentioned talking to the Pats, message boards lit up, and ‘experts’ (e.g. bloggers with too much self-importance and/or anti-Charlie venom) said he was off making the same mistakes again and that he wasn’t willing to learn.  “He’s all NFL!” was the chant.  “These are kids, not NFL players!” posters pointed out.  And I agree with the thought – Charlie made severe mis-steps along these lines this year.  But that doesn’t mean that talking to the Pats is a bad thing.

The reaction among fans/posters/bloggers/media reveals the danger inherent in taking Press Conference quotes and running with them like it means you know the inner-workings of a coach’s (that’s any coach) mind or program.  Per the above, Charlie and his staff are clearly willing to, and are planning to, work with other college staffs to exchange some thoughts/methods/processes/plans.  Note:  And we already knew this from last year.  While it was an ill-conceived/failed experiment in the spread offense, Charlie DID go to WVU last year to LEARN.  Yep, he showed he was interested in learning from other college coaches, and now he’s willing to again.

In the future though, I think it might behoove (behoove, I am on a roll with my M-freaking BA DomerMQ) all of us to not read into Charlie’s statements too too much.  If he says he’s going to the Pats to talk over the season and get feedback, this does NOT mean that he’s not going to talk to other college coaches.   He just didn’t mention it.  Just like if he says he’s going to run the ball next week, it doesn’t mean that he won’t pass.

Just like if I say Michigan (sucks!) sucks, it doesn’t mean I think OSU doesn’t.

See what I mean people?  They ALL can suck, even if I don’t mention any team other than the skunk-bears.

So give the man a little credit, and maybe assume that he doesn’t necessarily tell us EVERY SINGLE one of his thoughts/ideas/plans in his PC’s.   I agree he deserves scrutiny after this year, but we sit back and attack things from every angle from our comfortable little couches, while he’s on a road to Minnesota to lock up another recruit to help turn this program around.   I believe he’ll study this year feverishly, and he’ll ask top Pro coaches to do the same, and he’ll swap information, formation and trickeration with other college coaches.  And he’ll come out a better coach for it.

UPDATE:

Good Charlie quote from Irish Eyes:

“I’m definitely going to use college resources, but I think you guys greatly overrate the pro system when it comes to Xs and Os,“ Weis said. “All you’re doing when it comes to that, an analysis of your system, is the X and O part. That’s one small part of the grand scheme of things. When I say that I’m going to utilize the Patriots as a resource, why wouldn’t I? They’re the people that have the most familiarity with the Xs and Os part of the system.”

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