SOUTH BEND, Ind.–Notre Dame head football coach Charlie Weis looked over the Georgia Tech roster in preparation for the upcoming game between the Fighting Irish and the Yellow Jackets. Weis, with his “let’s-not-get-ahead-of-ourselves” style, sought something positive to say about the Yellow Jackets’ chances in Saturday’s game. He came up empty.
“Let’s face it. No matter what the media is saying, and no matter how they’re trying to spin this game to make it seem more exciting, we’re just way, way better than Georgia Tech,” Weis said. “I mean, Reggie Ball? Come on. I expect our guys to hang forty-three on them. Remember last year when people were saying the same things about how Pitt was going to beat us?”
When asked whether Tech has any positives going into Saturday’s game, Weis looked to the Georgia Tech sideline. “No. Well, I guess…Jon Tenuta [Tech’s defensive coordinator]? He’s okay. He calls a pretty good game against, you know, other people’s offenses. If you want to print that, you can go ahead and print that,” Weis chuckled. “We’re real scared of Jon Tenuta. No. Better yet. Use ‘terrified.’ Yeah. Say we’re ‘terrified’ of Jon Tenuta.”
Weis pointed to more uncertainty about Georgia Tech’s game in the form of new special teams coordinator Charles Kelly. “Kelly came over from Nickel State. If you want a challenge, try Googling ‘Nickel State’ and see if you can figure out where the hell it is. That right there is pretty much all the preparation I think we need on special teams. But, I went ahead and got some tape from Nickel State, anyhow. I think they were a little surprised when I called them, but not as surprised as I was that they actually had tape.”
Weis was able to find more challenges for the Irish on the Tech sidelines. “They also have two backup quarterbacks who are left-handed. And the Latin word for ‘left’ is ‘sinister,’ so I guess it’ll be sort of scary when we knock Ball out of the game and one of those guys comes in.”
Through it all, Weis refuses to let his team get overconfident about the game against Georgia Tech. “I told them, they’d better be looking over their shoulders at that sideline on Saturday, because there are going to be some scary guys standing over there watching us play.”
