Change is Afoot

Charlie Weis had a press conference this morning. Here are the highlights:

• Weis will turn over the primary responsibility for Offensive scheming to Mike Haywood, who is, in fact, already titled "Offensive Coordinator."
• Corwin Brown will take over the defensive backs coaching duties in addition to his Defensive Coordinator duties. The DBs were previously coached by Bill Lewis, who, as you know, has taken an administrative job at ND.
• John Tenuta will take over the linebacker duties along with his Assistant Head Coach, Defense duties. Linebackers were previously coached by Brian Polian with assitance by Corwin Brown.
• Brian Polian will become the full-time special teams coach and will be assisted by Weis. Special Teams was "everyone's responsibility" last year and, well, you saw how that worked out.
• Weis isn't real impressed with Dana Jacobson
• Weis hopes Pat Kuntz and Will Yeatman will be back for the fall.

Details and commentary after the jump...

Mike Haydood, Offensive Coordinator, Notre Dame
I think it's safe to say I speak for all of humanity when I say, "Wow." And after that, congratulations, Coach Haywood. This is a remarkable announcement. Weis is widely regarded as an excellent play-caller, and Weis is also known to consider himself as such. This decision shows that Weis has put himself through quite a lot of introspection since the 2007 season. That much is obvious. And we also know the reasons for this decision, at least as far as Weis explained this morning.

I'm going to give them an opportunity to see if we can't be more expansive on our ideas, and I think that sometimes when you have a number of good coaches, sometimes they get stymied or stifled a little bit when you have a very domineering presence when the head coach is also involved in the offense. They know that I reserve the right to change some things, they know that I can interject things, but at the same time I want to give them an opportunity to do it, so that's what I'm going to do.
I'm actually going to spend more time doing two things; A, spending more time with the players, which I feel that's one thing I haven't done since I've been here. Since I've been here I think I've been spending so much time with the offense, I haven't spent much time with the offensive players to tell you the truth, more with the offensive coaches, and have spent very little time with the defensive players. And come 6:00 Monday morning I'm going to start changing that because although I give the staff off next week, when they go work out at 6:00 on Monday morning I'm going to be in there with them and see if I can't start being more -- I won't say more open, but more approachable with the players because I think that especially the young guys get so intimidated, they don't know that you can come in and talk about everything.
I think if we're going to play a bunch of young guys, which we did last year, I think the one thing I have to do is make sure I'm much more approachable and make sure I start working on that -- now that recruiting is over, start working on that on Monday.

As many internet-pundits, at least, have suggested during the 3-9 campaign, Weis needed to become "more of a head coach." And it would seem that Weis has identified that part of the problem with the team, right now, is that it's a bit of a captainless ship. It seems Weis is trying to remedy that here by becoming more of a "big picture" guy and allowing his lieutenants to worry over the details. It's good to see Weis identify a problem and take action to resolve that problem. Will this cure all that ailed ND in 2007? I have no idea, but it is nice to see him take some action. I also think it's a good idea for him to take more of a head-coaching role and less of a OC role. But the one thing I, personally, would have liked to have heard from Weis' press conference is that Weis will continue to call the offensive plays during a game. I'd rather he have Coach Haywood develop the overall scheme, decide which plays should be emphasized on that week's call sheet, and then turn over the actual sequencing of play-calls to Weis on Saturdays. And I've got to think Weis was tempted to do that. Perhaps the very fact that it was a temptation was why Weis chose to more completely separate himself from the offense, as that temptation could lead to other temptations, like taking the scheming duties back from Haywood at inopportune times.

And it's not as though Weis wont be involved with the offense. He'll continue to "interject" as he said, and given Weis' personality, that'll be some pretty heavy interjecting. I think he's just trying to create an environment where some reputedly excellent coaches can take ownership of their work and develop their tactics before presenting those tactics to the big man.

Coach Haywood has never been a full-fledged play-caller before, but the idea is intriguing. As he does at ND, he's coached running backs at Texas (including pre-Chicago Bears Cedric Benson) and LSU, so that may clue us into the direction he may steer the offense in 2008 now that the team has a genuine "stable" of talent at running back. But I wouldn't worry too much about an implementation of the power-I as the base offensive set. As I said before, Weis will still be there to "interject." What I would look for, as a result, is a relatively balanced attack combining Weis' creative use of the pass with a genuine appreciation for being able to run over a defense with an off-tackle play or two.

One really interesting implication is what this means for opposing defensive coordinators in 2008. Weis has always been known for picking just the right play at just the right time, but there's sure to be a "book" on Weis at this point. It's not as though defensive coordinators have been able to guess at Weis' play-calling, but at least early on in 2008, defensive coordinators wont have a clue about any tendencies Coach Haywood may possess.

If no other good comes from this move, I'm pretty darn sure that a play will not be called for the ND offense this year that the entire offensive staff doesn't feel can be executed well by the players. Haywood as the offensive executive, simply as a matter of title and hierarchy, will probably allow the other assistant coaches to offer more input into what will and what will not work and what should and should not be worked upon in practice.

Corwin Brown to coach DBs, Tenuta to coach LBs
This is excellent, excellent news. I think it may have already been stated by Weis in another statement, but I couldn't find the source, so I'll treat this as the first official word. Coach Brown, of course, was the DB coach for the NY Jets before joining the Irish, and he was very highly regarded for his ability to coach that position. In fact, he was considered a "coach on the field," for that position when he was a player in the NFL. I think this move will fit more naturally with Coach Brown's talents. I also really like the guy calling the plays for the defense being responsible for secondary alignments at the same time. It cuts down on a level of communication need, and that's always good in my book. Meanwhile, Tenuta taking over Linebackers means our linebackers may be the most drastically improved unit, year-to-year, that a Charlie Weis Notre Dame team has seen since the QB/Receiver leap of 2005. With these two coaching assignments, if you're a QB playing against ND in 2008, and you're expected to execute a pass play, well, God help you, sir.

Brian Polian, ST Coach
This one probably causes a lot of people to grit their teeth. I have to admit, I'm not really thrilled to see that Coach Polian will continue to be a part of the Notre Dame staff. His work with the linebackers last year was pretty abysmal based on the results. And his previous work as "Head Special Teams Coach" has left a metric ton to be desired. This is, however, an interesting move in that Coach Polian is now entirely free to work on Special Teams development and nothing else at all, as he no longer holds any other primary position coaching duties. Hopefully, the chance to focus on Special Teams and nothing else will allow Polian to improve the product of his work. And Weis will be his "aide." Read: Weis will be there making sure nobody screws around and everyone takes this all very seriously and if they don't he's going to kick their butts. Also, Weis will be visiting with Frank Beamer, the best special teams head coach in the country, to help figure out how to improve on the special teams debacle of 2007. I think this is an excellent idea. I don't think there's a lot of schematic trickery to Beamer's approach. He just makes it very clear to his players that if you want to play, you must take special teams seriously and you must give it your best effort. Hopefully Weis learns how to convey those same ideals to the Irish.

Dana Jacobson's invitation to dinner at the Weis' has been lost. Permanently.
I don't really have much to say here. I just thought this was great.

Q. And lastly, I believe you were a participant in the roast for Mike & Mike, and there was a situation involving one of the ESPN employees. If you could offer your take on that situation, what transpired that night.
COACH WEIS: Are you referring to Dana?

Q. Dana Jacobson, yes.
COACH WEIS: Well, I'll just say three things, okay. I was both personally and professionally offended by her comments. And if the situation were reversed, and that were me saying them, two things would have happened. I would have been the lead story on SportsCenter, and I would have been fired. But other than that, the University has issued an official response, and I think it's best to leave it at that.

There remains hope for Yeatman and Kuntz
Weis didn't have a lot to say, apparently because he really can't say much, about these two, but the fact that he said he hopes to have them back in the fall is far more encouraging than, say, Weis saying he had no such hopes. How do you like that insight?