5 things that will bring this program back

by Rob on Oct 29, 2007 11:52 PM EDT in Football Comment 3 comments

Here's 5 things I'd tell Weis to do to improve the program. Add yours if you have any more.

1. Get Nasty

For as much of a tough guy Weis likes to think he is, his football teams, throughout his 3 years here, have been pretty much anything but `nasty'. They've been finesse teams and Weis has shown that he prefers to throw the football rather than run it, and if you need any proof of that, just look at the USC game when he called something like 15 straight passes at one point. When he was hired, he made it clear that he wanted a nasty team and we just haven't seen that yet. What I have seen, especially this year, is a bunch of linemen and fullbacks who'd rather block air and get their quarterback or running back killed than lay a finger on anybody. Why? I'm a firm believer that you play like you practice. And frankly, we must be practicing like a bunch of girls. Weis has admitted that he hasn't been running tough practices and it has showed. How is it that we had no injuries in the preseason? I realize there are depth limitations to killing the players in practice, but could it be any worse than what we are seeing right now? Weis needs to scrap the NFL-style practices and practice more aggressively. What we've seen are kids that aren't ready for the jump from high school football to college football and there's a direct correlation to the paddy cake practices we've been running.

Now that's nasty

2. Develop a brand of football

Weis has been famous for saying that he gameplans each week and each week, we'll respond to the weaknesses of the other team's defense. This line of thinking was successful in his first two years, but we saw where that line of thinking got him against Georgia Tech in the Demetrius Jones/spread offense experiment. The week-by-week gameplan might work out in the NFL, but with less time to practice and much more inexperience, I don't think it can be your M.O. all the time. Weis needs to find some kind of system that works and that will be dominant no matter who we play. Perfect it and watch it win you games. Right now, everything is dependent on first whether Weis prepares a good gameplan. I know he thinks he's invincible, but I don't think we should take that risk all the time.

3. Ban the players from the dining hall

I tell everyone that we are one of the only programs in Division I that basically let their players eat whatever the hell they want. Most people think I'm crazy for actually caring about this and they usually say that since the players are working out so much, it really doesn't matter what they eat. Seriously? That is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. Nutrition is key in athletics. I walk by players all the time in the dining hall and they're eating much worse than even I am eating. Fries, burgers, cookies; my God do they eat anything they want. If nutrition wasn't a huge part of athletics, I doubt so many programs would invest so much money into training tables to make sure that their athletes are getting the best nutrition possible. Notre Dame has said that they don't want to treat their athletes any different from the regular students, yet as a regular student, I'm not allowed to workout at the Gug or pick classes before everyone else. Just doesn't make sense.

4. Recruit better along the trenches

Basically, become the anti-Willingham. Remember, he's the guy who recruited 6 offensive linemen in 3 consecutive years. Weis has done considerably better, receiving commitments from 9 in his first two full recruiting classes, but with only 3 OL committed in this class and a thin pool of potential linemen commits to pick from, we need to go out and offer some more players. Mike Frank of Irisheyes.com brought up a good point in that we will never out-recruit athletes from schools like USC and Florida. When we were dominant under Ara and Lou, we run the battle in the trenches. We have yet to do that under Weis; in fact, I'm not so sure we ever will be able to do that. Depth is partially a numbers game and we're still short in numbers. Hopefully recruits Kenneth Page and Trevor Robinson go with the Irish, or else we'll be in big trouble due to our limited offering.

We need Samoans

5. Win more games

I couldn't think of anything else.

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how about the crooked refs and the crooked coaches

for those of us who were there when those crooked pac 10 refs stole notre dame's win over usc in 2005 and who witnessed big 10 ref dennis lipski's orchestration of what looked liked a very ugly nd loss to michigan in 2006, until we broke down the game films and isolated the bogus penalties called against nd and the blatant penalties not called against the opposition and play and game clock manipulation( in the 2005 usc game, there were at least 4 uncalled blatant penalties by usc at the end of that game, not counting the bush push), forcing a switch to an nfl style real time ref review system run by an honest ncaa with full transparency of the background and history of every ref to the public became our no 1 priority.
now that the feds have taken an interest in this issue, we are going to see a full implementation of honest ref systems in college football and basketball and in all other college sports much sooner than anyone thought possible.

the technology has been available for a long time and is not expensive. in addition, it does not slow down any nfl games.

as long as the conferences have anything to do with reffing and as long as dishonest refs like dennis lipski can operate behind the closed doors in the conferences, the ref system is an open invitation to payoffs by sports bookies in las vegas and well heeled boosters of schools willing to offer payoffs.
there really is no recruiting problem any more. charlie and corwin and their staffs have resurrected the notre dame recruiting network all over the us by spending quality time with high school coaching staffs all over the us who had not seen anyone from notre dame for decades and they are already hot on the trail of the best and brightest for 2009 and 2010.

they have done all of this with integrity and honesty( why do you think that there have been no defections, despite the very ugly start of the 2007 season on the field) and without compromising any of notre dame's high academic and character standards.

sure, there will always be spoiled dumb dishonest jocks who will choose other schools because of fancy living arrangements, cash payoffs, no real academic obligations, and, in the case of usc, get out of jail for free cards no matter what they do from the la county da until we vote usc grad steve cooley out of office.
however, notre dame does not need or want these type of athletes( who are not student athletes) to win and never has.

7.there are plenty of intelligent talented student athletes out there every year who are smart enough to know that going to one of the nfl or bust places is simply idiotic, whether they end up with nfl careers or not.

there are more excellent commits coming for 2008 and you have neglected to take into account joe fauria, who has grown out of being a te into a very fast and very talented 6'8" ot.
all of the 2008 nd players will arrive at notre dame for a summer of strength and conditioning and developing that team chemistry well before the 2008 season.
with the talent and depth of talent that charlie and corwin and their staffs have brought in for 2006, 2007, and 2008( with more fine commits still to be announced), then, for the 1st time since charlie arrived at notre dame, notre dame will have the talent and depth of talent to conduct those joe moore type of had hitting practices which are necessary to contend for national championships every year, but not wise at all until you have enough depth of talent.
as for the food, notre dame has the best strength and conditioning coach in the us who does not cheat and the student athletes at notre dame do get the message about nutrition, despite what you may see at the dining halls.
when you mention notre dame student athletes being allowed to eat anything they want, of course they are, bu they choose much more carefully than what you see at the dining halls would indicate.
are you seriously under the impression that the full time athletes at the nfl or bust schools are locked up and allowed to eat only what their coaches put in their cages?
being able to go out on the town and hit the bars and nightclubs is an integral part of the deals at all of the nfl or bust schools. the notre dame system will always work better and be better for the fine student athletes who choose notre dame.
not holding those joe moore type of hard hitting practices in 2005,2006, and 2007 was a tough decision, but the corect one for notre dame and for the student athletes, as was the decision for clausen to have that surgical procedure in the spring, instead of letting him play through the pain, as his high school coach did and as virtually every one of the meat market coaches would have done to jimmy this year if he had not chosen notre dame.
while the future of notre dame football is very bright, we do not intend to miss one second of any of the 4 remaining games of this courageous 2007 team. without the never quit manner in which they have played and will continue to play, the future would never have ben possible.
if you have never been to stanford or palo alto or the farm, as they call the campus there, this is a road trip you should not miss. it even fits in with future jobquests with the proximity of the silicon valley and those very high paying gigs, which come with stock options that have created many millionaires and billionares faster than any other area of business and the freedom to do other things that goes along with the big bucks.

those companies would welcome many more intelligent, high character, notre dame grads if they only showed up and applied.

there is also no reason why those notre dame grads could not duplicate the silicon valley success in the south bend area in the same way that stanford grads did so in california.

stanford grads and students are highly intelligent and civilized people, unlike the jerks in ann arbor and some other locations.

these members of the notre dame 2007 team deserve a great sendoff which they will get from more than 30,000 loyal notre dame fans at stanford, remember, there are quite a few guys who came back this year out of loyalty to notre dame, knowing the risks that a very uglt season on paper might seriously jeoparize nfl careers that they easily could have started this season, along with the big bucks.
we intend to show every single one of them that we rank them no 1 in the us in courage, loyalty, dedication, and heart, qualities that are much more important than paper records and are just a small part of the legacy that they are leaving for those future national championship teams.

we hope to see you at every notre dame game left in this season and at stanford,

bob gilleran

by robertgilleran on Oct 30, 2007 2:40 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs