Notre Dame, Ind (UHND) — Charlie Weis addressed the students of Notre Dame at 6am Monday morning, his first full day on the job. Weis talked and answered questions for about a ½ hour earlier this morning and gave a little more insight to his philosophies and gave the students further proof that Notre Dame definitely hit a home run with his hiring.
While Weis has yet to coach a game or prove anything on the field, he is continuing to do everything right off the field. Weis’s talking with students this morning, on his first day on the job, shows that Weis truly gets it and truly wants to see this team back on top.
Weis talked about his dream jobs in coaching being the New York Giants in the NFL and South Carolina and Notre Dame in the college ranks. Ironically all 3 of these jobs have been open the past two seasons. A year ago Weis lost out to Tom Coughlin for the Giants head coaching job. This season, both South Carolina and Notre Dame were open with Weis landing at Notre Dame, and landing here to stay. “I’m not 3 and out, im not taking this job to go get a job in the NFL,” Weis stated when referring to his future at Notre Dame.
The hard feelings over the firing of Tyrone Willingham were also addressed by Weis early in his talk. Weis acknowledged the coaching staff and their efforts and was complimentary of them. At the same time however, Weis did say, “If you weren’t 6-6, they wouldn’t have let the coach go,” in reference to any players who may have been upset over Willingham’s dismissal.
Coach Weis also let people know that the offensive play calling duties will be his for now and will remain that way until he is comfortable handing them over to his offensive coaches. He also mentioned that he will know everything that goes on on the defensive side of the ball. He said he doesn’t care what they do on defense as long as the defensive coaches can tell him why they are doing it.
USC and their head coach Pete Carroll came up during Weis’ speech. Weis said that he and Carroll are friends, but that “he’s never really done that well against me,” which drew applause and laughter from the crowd.
While Weis said all the right things, he was careful not to make any promises he knows he cannot keep. He did say however that, “We’re not going to be a 6-6 team here very long.” Weis was careful to follow up that statement with, “I don’t know if it’s going to be done in one year. I don’t know if it’s going to be done in three years. But I can tell you one thing, every week we’re going to be competitive.”
The topic of recruiting also came up with Weis saying what he has all along, he doesn’t want to recruit showboats or “prima-donnas”, but rather hard working kids who want Notre Dame for Notre Dame. He confirmed that there will be a junior day for the February 27 th basketball game against UCLA and that he will speak at halftime of the game.
Everything about this morning’s talk by Weis was very positive. Weis is reaching out to the student body early in his tenure because he knows they will be important to creating a raucous environment inside Notre Dame Stadium.
Weis also said the right things but refrained from making statements he couldn’t back up. Weis straight up said that USC is a better football team than Notre Dame right now and no one can argue with him. Weis’ comments today let me know that Weis knows exactly what he is stepping into as well as adding to my belief that Weis will get Notre Dame back to where it belongs.
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