ESPN Just Makes Things Up

Someone at Notre Dame should probably actually sue ESPN at this point.

From ESPN’s Team Preview of Notre Dame (done in conjunction with Blue Ribbon College Football Yearbook):

Not only, however, was there a thought, there was an entire thought process, which Weis described in detail on Feb. 8, nine days after hiring Jon Tenuta as an assistant head coach in charge of the defense, a move that demoted former assistant head coach Bill Smith to the athletics community relations staff.

To summarize, Weis said he knew something had to be done to his defense, and once he decided it had to come at the expense of Smith, he wanted to hire another veteran coach to replace Smith and work with defensive coordinator Corwin Brown. Once he settled on Tenuta, it was a matter of making sure Brown was comfortable with his decision.

“The No. 1 thing I wanted to do was make sure that we had an idea guy,” Weis said of his conversations with Brown. “I told Corwin, ‘As long as you’re the defensive coordinator, you’re always running the defense, you’re always calling the defense.’ ”

Although it didn’t go down in the smoothest way possible for Weis, which has been a theme of his tenure with the Fighting Irish, he appears to have landed a good coach in Tenuta, whose last job was as Georgia Tech’s defensive coordinator.

What. The. Hell?

Demotion of Bill Smith? Who the hell is Bill Smith? Tenuta was hired as assistant head coach, defense, after former assistant Bill Lews had double-hip-replacement surgery. Maybe that’s how ESPN avoids a libel suit from Bill Lewis; they call him Bill Smith.