Things That We Think And Do Not Say
domer.mq
Hey, remember when we all thought it was sort of cool when Tom Cruise, as Jerry Maguire, wore a Notre Dame shirt while writing his little come-to-Jesus essay?
Yeah. It’s pretty fuzzy to me too.
I’m writing this as the game is going on. ND just had a punt blocked. Admirably, the ND defense didn’t just fold up shop and let BC score. I think ND’s about to get the ball again. Way to go ND defense. Nobody would blame you if you held the ND offense down in their beds tonight and beat them with bars of soap in tube socks.
Seriously, nobody would blame you. Or convict you. Just remember that.
Tate just had a big punt return. No matter what, I’m still going to be angry, so let’s just continue. These are all things I’ve been thinking for a while, and I’m just gonna let them spill out all over the screen here. I’m just too sick of the miserable state of Notre Dame football to hold them back any longer.
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Charlie Weis is a geek. I like Charlie. I really do. And I’m not going to sit here and write about how he should be fired. But here’s the thing, everyone is convinced that he’s trying to make things too clever, and that’s the reason the Irish do a lot of things with mediocrity rather than a few things really well. But I think his biggest flaw is that he’s simply a geek.
See, when he came to ND, and he started to talk a lot, so many people took it as either arrogance or over-confidence, but I took it as awkwardness. Some people get nervous and awkward feeling, and they clam up. I think Weis just starts talking. A lot. And I do think he’s quite confident in his play-calling abilities, but that’s not really relevant here. The problem with him being a geek is that when the question is one not of Xs and Os, but of hearts and minds, Weis has no answer. Those answers live in the realm of people skills, and geeks don’t visit that land or feel comfortable there. I know. I’m a geek. I can spot my own in any crowd. And when Weis has no answer, he goes back to asking his mentors questions, but I have a feeling few of those questions have to do with inspiration.
I’ve given kudos to Weis for trying to get closer to his players in the off-season. That was a good thing, and I think his players like him, but I don’t get the sense that he has any idea how to inspire them. And no, I don’t mean he needs to personally inspire them with Lou-Holtz-like speeches. Part of building a team is putting players on your team who can do the job for you, and frankly, particularly on offense, the Irish haven’t had a guy like that since Quinn left.
Weis is one of us. He’s an alum, and he’s an alum who, when he was a student at ND, thought he could coach the program better than the current guy. He’s exactly like one of us. The only difference is Weis actually went out and made an attempt at doing just that while the rest of us just kept grumbling that even we could do better (and continue to do so today). I think that’s amazing, and it’s why I root for him. It’s why I have hoped that he would be a success. But this season has been a failure, and no matter if ND retains Weis after this season or not, this season will be looked upon as a failure. Should ND win out, this season is still a failure. He may stay at ND and win many games in the future, perhaps even a NC, but this season is a failure. - Not even the sum of their parts: There are just way, way too many names on the Irish roster this season for whom coaches across the country would bribe, maim, and kill for the Irish to play like this. And these names aren’t even performing at a level equal to the sum of their individual abilities. Good teams do that. Great teams play beyond that level. Great teams attain that synergy on the football field. Good teams make you wish they could attain greatness. Notre Dame isn’t even doing that, and there’s just no excuse for it. Tate, Floyd, Young, Wenger, Clausen, Aldridge, Hughes, Allen, Rudolph, Wenger… That’s just on offense, and if you saw those names on another team’s roster and you followed recruiting even a little bit, you’d think, “holy crap, what a monster that offense must be.” Instead we’re left to wondering why the offense, particularly in the running game, looks so monstrously bad so often.
- No excuses: There are going to be a lot of pieces written in the next 24 hours about how ND isn’t good enough to overcome so many turnovers. But this game doesn’t reflect that. This game, and the 4 (and probably more by the time I hit ‘publish’) turnovers, are simply symptoms of the poor state of Notre Dame football. There are no excuses for this play, just a reason, and that reason is they just aren’t a good football team.
- Don’t learn to win, learn to compete: I’ve been cringing a lot this week every time I read the quote from Weis about how ND will start winning on a more consistent basis once they start winning some close games. That one just killed me, and more than anything confirmed for me that Weis doesn’t understand what’s going on with these kids. These kids, with the names atop so many recruiting boards in the last couple of years, know plenty about winning. They won all through High School. Hell, Clausen had never lost in the state of California. But what so many of these kids never understood was how to compete. Too many of them were on teams that blew away the “competition” of lower quality programs in high school. Too many of them were able to “beat their man,” simply by virtue of having talent that might play on Sundays while “their man,” might, if he’s luckly, have talent enough to become a pretty good engineer or history teacher. Weis has been, I think, hoping they’ll learn how to win while they should have been learning about how to beat the man across from them.
- Learning on the job: The one thing I’ve always hated to be reminded of this season is the number of coaches who are learning on the job. Weis is a first-time HC. Corwin Brown is a first time DC. Powlus a first time QB coach. Polian a first time whatever he is. Tenuta a first-time vaguely labeled coach. John Latina, the offensive line coach, is the most experienced coach on the staff within his current job description. How’s the offensive line looking tonight?
- What’s HE doing on the field? Remember how I was talking about all those names on the ND roster for whom other coaches would kill? Well there sure seem to be a lot of players on the field for the Irish in starting positions who don’t fall under that umbrella despite playing ahead of guys who do. Which makes me ask, at least once a quarter, “why is he still on the field!?” How many times do the Irish need to see a 3rd and 10 get converted on a crossing route or a sweep left before they decide to bench a guy? How many missed tackles does a started get before he’s not a starter? Sometimes I wonder about these things, and then I realize that maybe I should thank Weis for assembling his roster like this because I’m absolutely sure I don’t want the dirty pictures of him to show up on the internet. So thanks, Coach Weis, for keeping these players happy so that they don’t start dirtypicsofweis.blogspot.com.
My wife, who is far too smart, handed my kid to me as soon as the game was over and went to bed. So I was left to smile and laugh with my kid for 2 hours last night rather than finish this off. Smart. I ended up going to bed exhausted and happy rather than full of adrenaline and angry. This morning I’m still happy, but I still feel the same way I did last night about the game too. So I’ll just throw one more bullet point in here and be done with it.
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A statue has never been erected for a critic: Notre Dame is supposed to stand for excellence in all facets of life, and as an alum, I find my being critical of the underperformance of the football program massively hypocritical. I left my small town in South Carolina more than a decade ago to attend the University of Notre Dame with great expectations for myself. Somehow, despite myself, I graduated. And now, almost 8 years later, I think it’s fair to say that anyone who knew me in high school would wonder what the hell went wrong. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve done fine. I just haven’t exceeded or even met my own expectations. Notre Dame football’s own spectacular and dumbfounding mediocrity in the last 10 years has been matched by my own, and it’s unfair of me to be critical of one representative of the university if I can’t say that I myself do Notre Dame proud. Essentially, I have stopped doing anything with excellence, so how can I expect excellence from others?
That ends today. And perhaps this resolution will be like so many others I’ve made on so many January firsts, but I’m going to go and try to do whatever it is I do with excellence. That includes this blog. I’m going to post much less often, but hopefully when I do post, it will be much more worthwhile than it has been. By not posting just for the sake of posting, hopefully I’ll find more time and energy to set out and pursue some new goals for myself.
I’ve got to go now and figure out what expectations I’d like to exceed.
Go Irish.
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25 Comments
It’s time we acknowledge that CW is not a good coach. Now he is supposedly the special teams coach, and that was one of the worst aspects of the game. He doesn’t get the boys’ blood up for the game, they make lots of errors and penalties, and worst of all, they don’t hit.
We don’t need an “X’s and O’s” guy, we need a serial killer who happens to be a football coach (think Urban Meyer or Nick Saban).
Staying on topic, I’m also an alum. I really thought after this game that there are better things I could and should do with my time than obsess with a team that seems to go nowhere year after year.
Great Post. I’m with you wanting the “geek” to get it done. He doesn’t know how to talk with his players. That’s why they shit the can each and every time they come out of the locker room at half-time.
The offensive “package” idea works when you create flat out mismatches at the point of attack, but I think that approach just makes us predictable.
Last year, quarterback by committee didn’t work, what makes him think running back by committee is working any bit better?
Going into last night I thought the defense would be the weak link and the offense would have to pick up the slack. Wow, was I wrong! The D gives up only 10 points and is MONSTER on 3rd downs, and keeping the game within reach.
There is the outside chance that the offensive line is still the week link, so in my book Charlie gets one more year.
Good post, if you could duplicate it I would continue to read. The post begs the question “what is the purpose of the football team?” Personally, ND football keeps me connected to the University and my friends. It is a form of distraction from daily stresses. But it also is a form of motivator. When CW and the team fail to perform up to expectations we are left finding solace and motivation in other avenues, or re-ordering our priorities (see above). One might think that is a heavy burden, and an unrealistic one. Don’t forget, Charlie is the highest paid employee at UND. He makes the money, because there are strings attached. Finally, I expect you have high expectations for yourself and others, as the the team fails to meet those expectations you become frustrated. Demand the best, expect others to do the same. This is what makes Notre Dame and America great. Anything less and we’ll all be speaking french.
The frustrating thing for me is that I believe Weis CAN “get the boys’ blood up”. We’ve seen it happen, but not for a long stretch now. I remember watching the now-infamous MSU game where JLS had a meltdown and ND came back from a 19 point deficit. There’s a portion of that TV broadcast where Weis has a group of maybe 3 or 4 guys on the sidelines, and you can tell he’s calmly explaining to them exactly what needs to be done, methodically educating them, all the while ramping up his volume and the severity of his tone…and then he absolutely screams with fury and enthusiasm something that, to me, looked like “and GET BACK THE DAMNED BALL!”. I was proud and excited, and we know how that game played out.
That’s gone. It takes something more than re-evaluation and introspection to bring it back. Until that comes back (or is reintroduced, should it be determined that Weis can’t bring it), Notre Dame won’t be any better than we are now. It’s depressing, but to paraphrase…we’re a 5-4 football team and that’s not good enough.
Great post. Don’t be too hard on yourself, most folks I know haven’t succeeded as wildly as they hoped they would. Just like in sports, most of us will ultimately fall short of the goals we set for ourselves. Unlike sports, you don’t have to go undefeated to succeed. Being a good husband and father is an admirable achievement unto itself.
As for Charlie, it’s starting to look like he is not likely to reach his goal of winning another NC for ND. That doesn’t mean he’s a failure, it just means that he’s like the rest of us–not as good as he hoped he would be. Maybe he’ll surprise us. If not, I hope he finds a way to make a graceful exit, because he seems like a good person, who works hard, and loves ND.
WOW…I feel disgraced. Last night I actually stopped watching the game. I turned to the WV game and became more agitated as I seen something that ignited my frustration even further. WV came back to force OT with less that 5 min to go down by 13.
As I sat in the stands last week for the Pitt game I wondered how you allow a team beat you game in and game out. Then the thought hit me and it is something that you can’t teach…heart and desire. Superstars or not, the team needs to understand that they are ND football and that means something. Why does SD State come in and almost win? Heart…they understood that they were playing in South Bend and that means something. Once our boys understand that and start playing with tenacity they will win, and Her Loyal Fans will once again be inspired. Trevor got it, Brady got it, and Jeff got it; its attitude and desire. Just ask Rudy he definitely got it. For now I light a candle and pray, not for wins but for the team to understand that they are ND and that still means something!
While watching the game last night, one of my best friends, a fell1ow irishman and ND diehard, looked at me and said, simply, “Maybe it’s time I lessen the importance of Notre Dame football in my life.” While all of us perhaps do put too much stock into Irish football, it is that devotion that characterizes us, that causes co-workers and friends to admire and/or despise our fandom. It is what makes us part of “the nation.” I have always been a Charlie supporter, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult. And that’s sad. Your “every man” point about Weis is a valid one, and one that I hadn’t previously considered. Perhaps this is why I’ve rooted for him. Why I’ve ingnored the tell-tale signs that point to his inadequacy. Last night we werent’ “young” or “inexperienced.” We were out-coached and out-executed in every facet of the football game. I want Charlie to succeed. I want it so badly it makes watching the games painful. But when a diehard Notre Dame fan begins questioning the importance of ND football in his life, something is dreadfully wrong.
Valpodoc-not to nit, but Scott Malpass’ compensation outpaces Charlie’s.
MQ, I like the sentiment but I am going to keep posting at the same pace and with the same level of mediocrity. People are meant to be great at certain things - this is a passion of mine but I know I will never be a ‘great’ blogger (as if there could be one) and I am fine with that.
As for the team, two things. First, last night was miserable. Our offense has regressed two weeks in a row. Since Purdue we have gone backwards. The big mistakes and sloppy play are inexcusable…BUT, you all need to reset your expectations. Not for ND football overall, but for this year. I called 7-5 this year, and its still what I expect. I am a lot less pissed than most ND fans I know bc I expected it. Why? bc teams just don’t go from 3-9 to 9-3 in a year very often. Especially not when all the leadership ad talent comes from Frosh and Sophomores. After purude I leaned toward 8-4, but stuck with 7-5. After last night I lean to 6-6, but stick with 7-5. Turarounds take time. The mistakes last night on offense, and the up ad down character of this team overall this season, are largely a function of it being a young team. Turnovers, muffed punts, penalties in key situations - veteran teams don’t do those things. And those things kill games. People, be mad, yes. Be impatient, yes. Be critical even-I am. But please do so with some perspective.
At one point there was a discussion on this blog about the moment in the Davie and Willingham eras when you finally faced the fact that these guys weren’t going to take us anywhere.
For the Weis era, for me, it was last night. Actually the moment the punt was blocked.
I’m not going around spouting off the “fire Weis” nonsense, but I have resigned myself that we will almost always hit in the 7-5 to 9-3 wins, depending on the ease of the schedule. All I’m hoping for at this point is that, like with Faust, recruiting stays strong so that when Weis’ time finally does run out there will be tools with which to rebuild.
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I watched Notre Dame Football (Holt ear) when I was younger but only started following it recently. I became obsessed with the team and especially with recruiting, often checking up on the next commit. However, the more I watch this team play the more depressed I become. The offense is playing like high school. I feel bad for the defense. Although the defense is trying, but it takes all three phrases of the team to win games. This is the first time I am submitting a post. This is a good article by the way. I feel better by posting my feelings. I never went to Notre Dame, so I am not kissing someone’s ass. However, I hope someone from the A.D. office is reading this coming from an outside person with a clear state of mind. This team has many problems:
1. Coaching - football players are a reflection of their coaches. It is clear that Charlie Weis is not coaching these players up to their potential. He can recruit all the 4 star or 5 star kids, but they do nothing once they get to Notre Dame. Weis just doesn’t know how to inspire and motivate his players. This team always comes out flat and I blame it on the head coach. Playing a team that you have lost 5 times and starting out like that is inexcuseable.
2. Game time Adjustment- What does this coaching staff do at halftime ? I have not seen one game the past 2 years that this team come out at halftime and complete. Making adjustments at halftime is what carries a team to wins. I am sorry to say that Weis gets a “F” in this category. Weis has no clue how to adjust to what the other team is doing. An example is that once Pitt started putting 8 man on the back or zoning, Notre Dame is dead. BC followed some up. So what are you going to do Charlie? I don’t want to bash you or anything, but you need to realize what your problem is. By the way Charlie, have you seen the way Urban or Saban coaches their teams, you should.
3. Excuse & Excuse - all the die-hard followingers alway claim that this team is “young”. This is not true. This team has many players who are 3 years into the program. Brian Smith needs to shut his month because this is a below average team which leads to the next..
4. Offensive line - you are the worst of all evils. You can not create holes nor can you pass protect. Do you know why the running backs are going nowhere, it because of you. I am mostly disappointed with Young. Football is a man’s game and Young has been playing soft for the better part of 2 years. Maybe this game is too rough for Young because seeing him getting “pushed around” on passrush is sad to watch. However, the whole line needs to go running hills and lifting this summer. Then it leads to the next..
5. John Latine - if Latine is not fired by end of this year, all hope is lost. It is clear that he can not get the job done with four years of time. Notre Dame football needs to move forward.
6. State of the Program - It is a sad time to be a Notre Dame fan. By the way, the administration needs to do something about the game day atmosphere. You have fans in green, white and blue. Have you seen the fans of USC, all in red. Have you seen the fans of the SEC, one loyal color.
So I have come to the point I regret following this team for the past 3 years. I have better things to do in life and needs to spent more time on it. Spending my time watching further games of this team is depressing. The team is heart-less and the Coach is clue-less. I will still be attracted to Notre Dame and promises to follow again in the future. Maybe then, this team would have some makeovers or the AD has taken charge.
I think last night’s game is prompting a general catharsis of the “ND Nation”. Domer.mq, I’ve been a quiet follower of your posts, so please don’t feel that you have to turn out a Pullitzer-worthy post before you put pen to paper, or keyboard to screen, whatever the equivalent is. This weekend, I watch ND roll over to BC, and I also finally admit to myself that my girlfriend’s been cheating on me and I have to face up to the fact. Yesterday, the ND loss felt more important but reading your post told me I need to get some perspective in my life. Keep posting, domer.mq, sometimes you touch people in a way you might not know.
Not to add insult to injury or take away from what has been said in the above, but are any of the more outspoken ND fans who swore this team would utterly destroy Navy now starting to feel a little worried? Just wondering…I still think ND will win this weekend but have never understood why so many ND fans penciled this one in as a 99.99% chance of a win just a month ago.
Adam, that’s because 99.9% of ND fans are completely unrealistic in expectations/knowledge of the team/our opponents. The general thought process is as follows: We’re Notre Dame. They (most of the time) are some program that isn’t as ’special’ as us - so we should kill them. This is why a lot of fans were calling for 11-0 going into USC with TWO wins on the board. Again, reason goes out the window. This is a 7-5 team. Has been since the Spring, will be til the last down is played. They went from bad to mediocre. Next year? 9-3, maybe 10-2 team. They’ll go from mediocre to good. The next? 11-1 or 12-0. They’ll have gone from good to great. Charlie can get this done. These players can get this done. But this is a process and takes time. I’d write an entire post on this, but since all the fans have pretty much ignored my infinite wisdom thus far, I’m not going to waste my time. That said, as opposed to all the bashers out there I believe in Coach Weis, his staff, and this team. The development from last year to this year is clear - clear in that it happened. Consistency is what comes next - and that mostly comes with maturity. Everyone seems to forget that we’re STARTING a frosh WR, frosh RT, frosh TE, and a bunch of sophomores. Geez.
No doubt this is a much better ND team. I’ve watched it week to week (closet fan) and have seen the improvement. Likewise, I can tell you the 6-3 Navy team it will be up against this week has had some lucky breaks (Temple). That being said, when I look at next week’s game I see a team which knows how to win (Navy) and a team which does not (ND). I’ve been surprised by the mindset of ND fans over the past year. Do many really believe, after winning in South Bend last year, that this Navy team is just gonna roll over and say “oh well, we got our historic win now let’s slide back into mediocrity…”
Trust me. I work with these young men on a week to week basis. Even with Bryant or Dobbs at QB this will be a competitive game, especially if ND commits turnovers (which they’ve had a propensity to do as of late.)
Time is a healer of all things and with the program it is nothing different. Charlie has gone from the pros to the most storied program of all time. Charlie, Corwin and the rest of the staff get it. It is just going to take time for them to adjust. Charlie can and will get it done. He is smart. Our problem is we have had mediocrity for so long were sick of it. Part of that is we as fans are also smart enough to see how good we have the potential to be and the other part is 88 was long ago. Navy will be a route and Clausen will have a great game. I do have one serious question though who is the leader of this team?
“Navy will be a route and Clausen will have a great game.”
Thats kind of what I was talking about…
Biscuit, unless you can put your thoughts into simple graph form, I’m not interested.
BK, you love the MM. It’s your crack, you know it. (I mean, other than the actual crack you smoke, of course).
Wow, hard to believe domer has reached this point. I’ve seen angry/petulant/happy/sad/apopoletic domer, I’m not sure what this one is? Whatever it is, not sure if I like it. You guys run a decent (for ND) blog, would hate to see this deteriorate into a Biscuit-DTK discussion about how much or little UM sucks or whether or not Biscuit is blind in his man love for CW.
Glad to hear the Biscuit providing some positive vibes. When I’m feeling optimistic about this team, I agree with your slow but inevitable progression to greatness theory. I definitely see the growth and this team is still really young. But according to someone (Carol in the SBT I think) ND is 1-14 against ranked opponents under Weis. And that includes the two Brady Quinn years. I also read that the ‘89 ND team didn’t have many seniors either (again, haven’t verified that this is true). Those kind of stats depress me.
I keep telling myself that Weis’ offense will not be able to hit on all cylinders until Clausen has the maturity to run it properly. As long as ND struggles to run the ball, teams will sit back in two deep coverage, force ND to throw short passes, and wait for penalties or Clausen miscues to kill drives. That’s the blueprint for stopping ND right now and any team with a good D line can easily implement this approach. It’s no secret that all the teams ND has lost to have been able to stuff the run without bringing up the safeties. Those who couldn’t have gotten torched by Jimmy, Floyd, Tate, et al. There is a lot of pressure on Jimmy to carry the team right now. But that won’t change until ND figures out a way to run the ball.
I have waited a few days before I responded to the biscuit and have read all the comments that have followed. First off, You are not paid millions to do a blog, and Weis is paid millions to coach football; so the expectations of him are slightly higher. Second, your blog is the homer, pro-Irish, tonic that I find awesome. HLS is excellent at what it does. Third, I agree that Weis is not going anywhere until at least after the 2009 season, so stay on the bandwagon or get the heck off. Irish Football is huge to my family and none of us ever went to the school. Our family actually follows all sports and are proud that we blew bc out in hockey, that the men’s b-ball are ranked in the top ten and that women’s soccer is still undefeated amongst many things to be proud of. But with Notre Dame it always comes back to football. If you say you are a fan of the team then damn well support it. If it means toning down yourself as fan during struggles, then do what you have to do to cope. But if you are a fan of the Irish, do not give up on this team, it serves no useful purpose.
tjak rules. that’s what i’m saying. no one is helped by futile and mindless rants about firing CW. it’s not happening this year people. sorry. if ‘09 sucks, then yes. but he did too much good in the first two years and in recruiting. up and down and up and down is the way of a young squad. if you hate it? fine. stew in silence. but enough bashing - that’s not the ND way. we love this team and we support it. and if they do down, we go down with them! i’m so sick of the entitled ‘we want winning now’ mentality of fans (including, but not limited to, ND). this program was on the path to shambles when CW was hired. guess what? he couldn’t stop that train. but with recruiting and staff, he’s slowly (yes SLOWLY) turning things around. but a little patience is needed. just a LITTLE. ONE SEASON. bash away next season if we’re not rolling over the UNCs and BCs of the schedule.
[...] is so much in this post on Her Loyal Sons that I agree with. First, the part where domer.mq is a geek. But more where mq talks about [...]
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