Weis Goes on The Record

He sat down with 'the fair media' to do a Q&A today.

Some highlights:

On ND and his successor...

""Notre Dame will hire a top-notch coach. It'll be his deal then and what I don't want to be doin' (and I said this very clearly in a lot of my last conversations with Jack). I want to make sure I'm leaving Jack with all the information he needs to pass [on to] the next guy. So when he walks in the door he knows where the landmines are. He knows about academics; he knows about where we are in recruiting. Not that he can't have his own ideas."

I will be available if that person wants to talk to me. I'd be happy to answer any questions that he'd have. I'd be happy to do it and I wouldn't offer things on my own; I'd just answer questions that he'd have, because it's his deal, not my deal. I want Notre Dame to be successful. If Notre Dame goes and wins them all next year, everyone could say, 'now that they've got a real coach we can win games.' you want to know something that's fine by me, just as long as these kids here are successful.

I'm not rooting against Notre Dame. ...I'm not hoping that Notre Dame will lose...I really wish (ND) had kept Weis. But they didn't...I don't want the next guy to come in and feel like I'm hangin’ over his shoulder, you know, wishing negativity. Trust me, nothing would please me more than me being sacrificed to have this ominous black cloud lifted off of this program, where the sun could shine through, and we could actually move this in the right direction."

Love that Weis is just pulling for ND to win. Selfless, and right. Not unexpected, but still deserves recognition.

What he said to the team...

"Basically how a Notre Dame education set me up for success (Weis is a 1978 ND graduate). [During] my life, every time I went to interview for a job, it was, oh you went to Notre Dame, oh you went to Notre Dame, oh you went to Notre Dame....That was my message...It wasn't about being 6-6, it's about a Notre Dame education."

A coach stressing an education. How refreshing. And how sad that it's refreshing.

On Res Life sucking balls...

"I think if you took a poll of the students at Notre Dame on what's the biggest negative issue, I would bet at least 50 per cent of them would say Residence Life...Without getting into the names of people who work at Residence Life... I just think that these are college kids and college kids do what college kids do...Let's say a kid has been too loud because he had some alcohol, why wouldn't you just tell him to go to bed ? Why would that be something that ends up in the hands of Residence Life...? I'm just saying that boys will be boys and I'm just defending them; we as parents know what we interpret with our own kids what is out of line, and we all wish the best but we know our kids are going to be in trouble in their lifetime -- but there are so many things that I think border on petty."

ND should stand for something, and ND should have higher standards than other programs. But sometimes, there are witch hunts, unrealistic expectations and hugely inappropriate punishments and that's not right. With new leadership, we're hoping Res Life changes significantly. It's good to have a moral/ethical code, and it's good to expect more from ND students and student-athletes. But it's not good to go on witch hunts, and to issue out arbitrary and non-challenge-able verdicts that are way too harsh. Res Life has been a joke, and I'm glad Charlie called them out for it. FTR JENKINS, FIX IT.

Weis will remain committed to Hannah & Friends...

"We're committed to this community to keep Hannah and Friends working. That's why we're here right now...We're committed so much that we're thinking about retiring in the current house that we have. That's one of the things that we're talking about. Now we might sell it, we might not. Maura and I have had this conversation because we're committed to this place being part of our legacy. It's really important to us...There's been plenty of people in the community that have been absolutely wonderful.