Theismann on the Current Situation

The Chicago Sun Times had an interesting quote from former Notre Dame quarterback Joe Theismann on the current situation at Notre Dame.

”The natives are restless, and they have every right to be,” former Notre Dame quarterback Joe Theismann said. ”The standard of football we’ve seen is not up to the standard of expectations we’ve had. Something is amiss. Fundamental football is something I’m struggling with. I don’t think you could describe us as a physical team on either side of the ball. But I’ll say this right off the bat: I don’t believe you can lay it all on Charlie. There is still youth and inexperience on this football team. But when I see people line up to defend an onside kick, and nobody looks like they know what’s going on — that’s coaching.”

I think Theismann gives a very accurate summation of the current state of Notre Dame football.   Not all of the problems right now are because of Charlie Weis as some people will lead you to believe, but there are some obvious coaching problems with the team.  The onside kick against Navy is a very clear example of that and I think Theismann is right on the money with assessment of the Irish right now.

Theismann was very fair with his statements and managed to be critical yet supportive of Weis at the same time.   This team is lacking in fundamentals and is not overly physical and a lot of that does come back to coaching.  At the same time, this team is also still young and inexperienced at a number of positions.

Like Theismann said though, something is amiss.  While the team is young an inexperienced, it shouldn’t be so young an inexperienced that it loses to Syracuse on Senior Day.  Something about that loss just can’t get out of my head and I think the word “amiss” describes that loss rather well.

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15 Comments

  1. HAHAHA this guy is hilarious. He must have drank too much of the charlie weis kool-aid. It messed him up real bad.

    robert t. gilleran – I salute you sir. You are the lone bright spot to this terrible notre dame season.

  2. I’ve also been told that if Weis is fired based on performance that the buyout would only cost about 4 million.

    And, I was told that, “That much money could be collected in about 15 minutes if you call the right people.”

  3. A source of mine told me that if a move to fire Weis is made, that it will be made on Tuesday or Wednesday and the most likely cantidate would be Brian Kelly from the University of Cincinnati.

  4. 1.sorry, we are neither banned nor dead nor any of the other things which you so kindly mention, which we take, considering the sources,each hiding behind a phony internet identity, as signs that all of our hard work is starting to pay off, as it did in the enron( attorneys’ and experts’ fees of over $700 million already approved by the us district court) and mci worldcom civil rico cases and many others.
    2. no, we are just following our normal evidence gathering and other procedures in all civil rico cases. we gather the leads to follow up on 1st. then,during stage 2, we pretend to be dead or gone while we are running down all of those great leads which people like you have provided. then, during stage 3, after we are ready to hand off the evidence to one or more of the excellent plaintiffs’ law firms, all over the us, which we choose for each civil rico litigation,just as we did in the white et al v ncaa case, which the ncaa has already been forced to settle( for over $10 million in damages and permanent ncaa rules changes) and to keep the terms of the white case settlement posted on the ncca’s own website, where anyone can find them today and for the next 10 years.
    3. just ask myles brand and his associates at the ncaa and the hard times defense attorneys who ran up millions in dollars of completely unnecessary fees and costs before they had to tell myles and his associates at the ncaa that they were doomed to much larger damages if the white case evidence had actually gone to trial before a judge and jury in the us district court in los angeles.
    4. following any logical thought process( which we understand may be challenging for each of you), you are each applying the same vicious epithets hurled at me to jeff samardziya, to the espn, which posted the samardzija interview on their website, and to frank and his uhnd crew, who posted the samardziya video interview on their website, along with our comments.
    5. our open invitations to joe theismann and a few select others, who have earned that opportunity, remain open.
    6. as for you weis and nd bashers, well, it is just too late for you and your weis and nd bashing campaigns to get your posts back of the internet and your identities out of frank’s records.
    7. we set the traps and you posted your ways right into them.
    8. have the vicious comments by you and those like you and the dishonest officiating had adverse effects on charlie and on his family, on his staff and on their families, on notre dame recruits and on their families, and on the fine student athletes whom charlie and his staff already have at notre dame and on their families?
    9. absolutely yes!!!
    10.will you prevail in your vicious hate campaigns? no way!!!
    11. will we bother with small fry like you in the civil courts? no way!! you have already done yourselves in.

    robert thomas patrick gilleran

  5. Has anyone noticed when other teams come out they are arm in arm in a semi-circle swaying to the right then to the left in team unity? Testosterone–umph-pizzazz! ND teams for a LONG time have just “walked” on the field with little or no adrenaline whatsoever!
    This DOES have a lot to do with spirit. As much as it hurts me to say it, Notre Dame players–as a whole–lack the spirit–and that begins with coaching.
    Notre Dame Students behaved like spoiled brats at the Syracuse Game and I am ashamed of them. I love Our Lady’s University. However, our administration before doing the next knee jerk reaction ( hiring Davie–Oh my-hiring and firing Willingham and then somehow wanting Urban Meyer-no O’Leary no–Charlie–get the point?)
    Comments from Gillerain or what’s his name are not required.
    Theissman is right!
    Irish # 1 forever in my heart!

  6. honestly man, if you’r point is that the officiating has SUCK’d, then i agree. but I’m not sure its because of some big “conspiracy” against us. probably more a combo of bad officiating/not knowing the rule book 100% **that “foot in bounds” call in the Navy game still infuriates me! …+ the EXACT same play happened in Jets/Titans gamelast week (obviously two feet instead of just one) & the ref’s got that call correct, unlike in our game** and just plain bad luck.
    to me our inconsistency and lack of a “killer instinct” are far bigger contributors to this lack-luster season.
    blame the coaches, blame the players, or blame both, leaving points out there on the field instead of putting them on the scoreboard is all you have to look at.

  7. Robert, in an attempt to appear erudite…you have rendered all who read your diatribe retarded. If you’ve watched Notre Dame football, you honestly cannot contest Theismann’s statement.

  8. HAHAHAHAHAHA – wow.

    That is exactly why you should have to pass an aptitude test and a sanity test to be allowed to blog.

    I feel less intelligent after reading your asinine comments.

  9. 1.while theismann played extremely well at notre dame and in the nfl, there are very good reasons why theismann has never been a coach in any capacity and why theismann has absolutely zero influence on football coaching and other football decisions at notre dame.

    2. notre dame was a very different place when theismann played there, both in terms of academic standards and in terms of the extremely toxic recruiting environment for notre dame which existed all over the us when charlie and his staff took over in 2005, a type of toxic recruiting environment which theismann has never taken the trouble even to try to understand.

    3. apparently, theismann has also not taken the trouble to read the current ncaa rules on football reffing and tech reviewing and the current corrupt state of collge football officiating.

    4. if theismann had taken the trouble to obtain that knowledge of the rules and actually break down and review some game film with real experts, as we have, he would know that the outcomes of the 2008 north carolina game, the pitt game, and the syracuse game were determined by dishonest refs and tech reviewers, who also had a real influence on the outcome of the michigan state game as well( even though the michigan state game is one that notre dame might not have won even without the dishonest officiating).

    dishonest game officials also tried their best, without success, to steal wins from notre dame’s 2008 team in the michigan, stanford,and navy games as well.

    5. we will always love joe theismann for the fine manner in which he played at notre dame and for the fine role model which he has provided for so many in his life after notre dame.

    6. however, in the matter of charlie and his staff, joe has simply not done his homework and he and a few others like him are making recruiting and rebuilding a notre dame football program, which was very close to death when charlie and his staff arrived in 2005, even more difficult than it already is and has been for charlie and his staff and for the very talented, but still very young, student athletes whom charlie and his staff recruited for notre dame against huge obstacles.

    7. if joe theismann would like to sit down with the experts whom we hired in 2006 and go over with them, game film by game film, the officiating in every notre dame game back through the 2005 season, including notre dame’s 2005 win over a vastly more talented usc team in south bend, stolen by a completely dishonest all pac 10 ref crew( for obvious reasons, pete carroll turned down charlie’s requests the carroll agree for a big 10 tech review crew to be at that game since, in 2005, tech reviewing was used only if both coaches agreed to it in advance), then joe theismann has an open invitation from us to visit our facilities and spent as much time as he wants with our experts reviewing the ncaa rules and the game films, frame by frame, along with the vast evidence which we have collected on those refs and tech reviewers whom we have indentified in many games involving notre dame and schools in every single conference which have also been victimized by dishonest officiating.

    8. joe theismann is correct to sense that something is wrong. however, the problem is not with charlie and his staff or with the fine young student athletes whom he has recruited for notre dame.

    9. are all of the refs and tech reviewers dishonest? they certainly are not and some of the honest ones are our best witnesses.

    10. the temptations of easy money from boosters and sports bookies and immense pressure from the conferences which hire and pay the salaries of all football officials currently, combined with the so called sportmanship conduct rules of the conferences and the ncaa which prevent coaches and student athletes from speaking out in public about the corrupt game officials and the conference and ncaa officials who protect them and severely fine coaches like mike leach of texas tech who violate the rules of silence and speak out to the public, have created a toxic environment which only encourages the dishonest game officials and makes the honest ones want to give up, something which quite a few of the very best have actually already done in disgust.

    11. crooked officiating was not nearly as extensive when joe theismann was laying as it has become now and wee understand why joe and others find it difficult to believe that the problem is as serious as it has now become, with independents like notre dame taking it in the ear much more than most conference schools.

    12. however, the technology is now here both to expose the problems and to solve them.

    13. neither charlie and his staff nor anyone directly connected with notre dame can do anything about the corrupt officiating or about the seriously corrupt current extremely selective rules enforcement policies of the ncaa, in which system, any school which pays off the right people can break every rule in the book every season and walk away laughing at the schools like notre dame, which abide by the rules and refuse to make any payoffs.

    14. if the solutions were left up to any committees, there would never be any solutions to these systemic problems.there are simply too many people making too much money from the current systems for that ever to happen.

    15. fortunately, having used our vast experience and skills with economic violence in the civil courts to bring down such well known scams as enron and mci wordcom and many others, including numbers of dishonest ex judges, and having gathered all of the necessary evidence on the corruption in college football and other college sports starting in 2006, we are ready to shove those solutions down the throats of the conferences and the ncaa well before the 2009 season ever begins.

    16. the ncaa has already had its warning shot in the case known as white et al v ncaa. they actually tried to fight that one in the civil courts, only to be forced to settle for over $10 million plus the millions in attorneys’ fees which the ncaa paid out thinking that they could force the attorneys who handled that case to give up.

    17. the terms of the settlement in the white case can be found at the ncaa’s own website by anyone who wants to look there. keeping the settlement terms on the ncaa website is one of the ongoing conditions of that settlement.

    18. having collected and assembled the evidence in any such case of corruption, we can choose from among many excellent plaintiffs’ law firms all over the us to pursue those cases with no compromises of any of the key issues, but only on the monetary damages issues, as was done in white et al v ncaa case.

    we would love to hear from joe theismann and to provide him with a look at the evidence,as quite a few select others have already done,

    robert thomas patrick gilleran

  10. CW has been struggling with the coaching issues all year. Special teams play has been terrible. Field position continues to be a big problem without any type of consistent return game. Offensive line play appeared to be getting better; but, in the last four games it has been horrible.

  11. I think you meant to say, “the onside kicks.” It was pathetic. The worst part about it was this: Navy went up the second time and pretty much said, “we’re going to do an onside kick and we’re going to get the ball back.”

    Not all things go back to Coach Weis, but that lack of initiative by those on the kicking team absolutely goes back to Coach Weis. Hopefully, he learned a thing or two from that game. Hopefully everyone learned a thing or two from that game.

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