Penn State Follow Up

I thought about our football team a lot today. I thought about Weis, the success he's had over the past few years, and the recent struggles we have had as a football team and program. I organized my thoughts to present facts suggesting Weis is a good coach followed by some arguments supporting the recent notion I have suggested that he isn't a good coach. Before I begin, I'd like to say that I don't think there is a comprehensive body of work from which to definitely claim Weis is or isn't a good coach. This will only be a list of supporting and refuting evidence. I will not draw a conclusion from it. I just wanted to put something out there to help ease my doubts, concerns, and pain.

I'm going to try and avoid comparisons between Weis and his predecessor(s) but sometimes they are necessary to illustrate his competence and ineptitude. I'd also like to say that these lists of positive and negatives are in no way comprehensive. If you feel there is something I am missing please feel free to submit a comment and I'll include it.

Positive: The thing that Weis obviously has that Willingham didn't is the ability to recruit consistently. His first class was really a half class, partially put together by Willingham and held together by Weis while still working for the Patriots organization. That class wasn't great but it did have a few solid players in it. The next two classes have been top-notch and the current class is ranked #1 by many of the countries recruiting services. So to his credit, Weis had definitely upgraded the talent level at ND. And he has done it consistently.

Sure, he has lost a few premier players we really needed, but most of those were on the defensive side of the ball (with Benn being the lone exception I can think of) and that is as much a result of Minter's ineptitude as a recruiter as anything else. Now that Brown is on board and closing out our top targets, I feel much better about the future on that side of the ball.

Positive: Weis has also hired premier name coaches in nearly every capacity. Everyone he hired came with good accolades, experience, and high recommendations. He made a concerted effort to get coaches that had ND ties, that had a history of effective recruiting, and that understood how to succeed at a place as unique as ND. Minter was an aberration and a second choice of Weis as he tried to hire Brown his first year.

Positive: In his first year (arguably two) Weis took essentially the same players that Willingham had and improved the team's record by three or four games. He hasn't lost to anyone he is supposed to beat and he has, in many cases, hung with some of the best teams in the country. The loss to Michigan last season is the only game we had no business being in. But we had five turnovers and I can hardly pin that on Weis. The other games we were supposedly "blown out" in, namely USC and LSU last year, we were in through at least the first half, having dropped balls, mental mistakes, etc. that, in many cases, I don't believe Weis is directly or primarily responsible for. This suggests Weis has the capability to a) develop talent and b) effectively utilize the strengths of his personnel.

This success, however, was largely due to the junior class of players he inherited from Willingham. A class that included McKnight, Stovall, Samardzija, Fasano, and Quinn, among others was the highest ranked recruiting class Willingham had. It was something like fifth in the country I believe. Ahead and behind those players (in terms of eligibility) were some players sprinkled with talent but there wasn't an entire class of quality players. That typically showed in games where we didn't put the opponent away early, i.e. games where we had a lot of mental mistakes, penalties, poor special teams play, and/or turnovers. We never have had the talent to make up for those mistakes during Weis' tenure.

Positive: I've seen a definite shift in the attitude of our team from the Davie and Willingham era. A Willingham coached team would never have rallied against Michigan State last year or nearly come back to beat them the year before. That does speak positively of Weis and his ability to transfer his "never say die" attitude to the team.

Negative: Weis' coached football teams have racked up some pretty dubious records. The first two games of this year have been the worst two rushing outings for a Notre Dame football team in the history of our program. Our defense under Weis has also given up the most passing yards in a game during the history of our football program. There are others as well, most receiving yards given up to one receiver and most consecutive 20+ point losses also come to mind. These
obviously aren't good things for our football team. In most cases they resulted in the loss of a game, or at least very close to one.

But records can be suspiciously circumstantial. For example, we had 44 yards rushing on 23 attempts against BYU in 2005 but I didn't see anyone complaining when Brady threw six touchdowns and we won handily. Similarly, 15-20, maybe even 10, years ago barely anyone we played attempted enough passes to set records for passing yardage against our defense. So while there have been some negative records accumulated during Weis' tenure as coach, I think they need to be taken in context.

Negative: To say that we have struggled offensively over the past few games would be a gross understatement. I have voiced my concerns over the offensive gameplan and approach (here and here) and at least a few authors out there agree with me here, here, and here). We need to take a more physical, downhill approach to our running game utilizing angled blocking schemes. Right now, as a young team, We don't need to do a lot of things offensively, we need to do a few, simple things well.

Negative: Our offensive line is playing worse than I've ever seen them play. I don't understand it at all. It completely baffles me. We have plenty of talent to perform adequately even in their infancy. Although they are young, there are many teams around the country that are breaking in young offensive lineman that have far less talent. The ineptitude I have seen in our offensive line play is absolutely inexcusable.

The strange thing is the fact that Weis praised this group repeatedly last Spring and this Fall. This leads me to one of two conclusions. Either Weis' always sticks up for his guys, will never intentionally speak ill of them publicly, and will consistently maintain a positive, confident front for the media, OR he didn't know how poorly the offensive line was going to perform. Many would say they prefer the former and I would agree, at least on the surface. I think it is great that Weis is always in players' corner. I don't fault him for that at all. But if he knows that the offensive line is a problem area and is just using a facade to "back his boys" and not give away information to the opposition, how can he not address the problem with an entire Spring and Fall of practice?

Furthermore, given the results of game the Georgia Tech game, how can he not adjust his scheme to roll the QB, simplify the protection schemes and run blocking, and use running backs more effectively in protection? I don't know which is a bigger problem, not knowing you have a problem, or knowing you have it and not being able to fix it.

Negative: If this current level of play is maintained what will happen to recruiting? For better or worse, opposing coaches are going to whisper things into these kids' ears and try and use our poor play and record to generate a negative recruiting buzz about our program. Weis needs to maintain his connections with his recruits and continue to work to close them, getting them to sign on the dotted line next February.

Negative: It seems that many times Weis is unable to get his players mentally ready to play in the game. Whether it is a lack of effective leadership or motivation is irrelevant, the bottom line remains that we are unprepared from a mental standpoint in many games. The game against Michigan State last year is a primary example. How can you not be motivated to make amends after a loss like we had to Michigan? I understand we went on to win but the point remains.

Negative: The strategic X's and O's advantage and nasty play Weis' promised has yet to consistently materialize. I've seen times when he has been a brilliant mastermind of playcalling. I've also seen times when we have played inspired, physical, nasty football. But that hasn't consistently been the case. Even in our first year we didn't always play nasty. I think we (including myself) overlooked the fact that we were winning with a finesse passing style of offense and a bend but not break defense. Being a nasty football team means you dictate the tempo and nature of the game while also winning the battle at the point of attack. Being nasty means you make third and short by running it right the heart of the defense and succeeding. I'm not sure we've done that once on offense this year.

One could argue that we are simply suffering from what Willingham left us, poor talent in our junior and senior classes. I've heard it said that it was known this was coming, but we just weren't prepared for how bad it would really be. To some extent I think that's true, but I don't think it is reasonable or correct to place all of the blame on the poor talent in our senior and junior classes. Some of this is coaching and Weis needs to learn to adapt to his situation, his players, and his opponents.

The points above lead one to believe that it is possible we will see a large improvement in the team once the young talent matures, gets experience, and develops under the the tutelage of Weis and his staff. That may be the case. I, for one, am waiting to reserve absolute judgment until I see the improvement (or lack thereof) in our team play over the course of this season. Next year may indeed be a better year to take these observations (and those of the future) and draw some more solid conclusions. In the meantime, at least we can take solace in things like cute kids in Irish football attire.