What the Hell is Happening?

So, I feel compelled to chime in and add my thoughts on all of the craziness surrounding the exodus of players from ND Football. Today, we lost our third player to transfer in three weeks with Chris Stewart, a soph. offensive lineman deciding to head home. These is still hope that he could make his way back to South Bend (the South Bend Tribune interviewed his dad and he still really wants him at ND). We should know more next week.

Stewart (maybe), Konrad Reuland (Tight End) and Demetrius Jones (QB) have all left this season. Of course, everyone also remembers Zach Frazier leaving after being eliminated from the QB race. We have lost a total of four soph. players this season and a total of 16 since Weis took over from Willingham. But what does this all mean?

Well, I think there are two angles here. None of the four players that have transferred this year had significant roles on the team. Chris Stewart is an offensive lineman who has bounced back and forth on both sides of the ball. Konrad Reuland was now our fourth string tight end after Carlson, Yeatman and just last week Ragone passed him. Everyone knows the Demetrius Jones story and knows he was never going to be the started at ND. Remember, all of these guys were 4 or 5 star recruits and definitely have a desire to play. They weren’t getting that chance at ND, even with a team starting 0-4.

So, is that it? Did these kids just want an opportunity to play and felt they needed to leave to do so? Maybe. I think this is clearly the case for Frazier and Jones. I think Stewart and Reuland never fully bought into the ND culture, be it because of the school or Weis. Eventually that drove them away (and this is normal, every class has this happen).

What does this mean? Well, in the media this is being twisted as an exodus. I don’t believe that. Transfers are pretty normal, especially when playing time is an issue. Is that timing good here? Hell no. Do I think this is a trend that will continue throughout the year? No, I really don’t. I think almost all of these guys are on board.

The bigger concern for me here is our verbal and future recruits. Can you imagine what they must be thinking? This team is 0-4, players are leaving and running for the hills. I am sure other coaches are having a field day with this. We are already hearing of guys like Omar Hunter getting offers from USC, even with his verbal.

What can Weis do? Simply, he has to start winning. He needs to win 5 or 6 games this year. He needs to show the world that his players haven’t given up. He needs to show glimpses of the young star power his team has. He needs to sell the 0-4 record as an opportunity to the young kids who want to come in here, experience ND and bring it back to its glory.

This can be done, but Weis needs to start this ball rolling now. A win against Purdue would be huge (and note we are 22 point underdogs going into this game). If not Purdue, then UCLA and Boston College. We need to get desperate.

I am convinced that 2008 will be Weis’ make it or break it year. People are definitely starting to doubt his coaching abilities. His seat will get warm this year if he doesn’t turn this around quickly. That said, 2008 will be a no excuses year no matter what and he is going to have to have a BCS year to get the fan’s confidence back. He needs to start building that capability now by developing our young talent.

Keep the faith guys. We aren’t going to lose the whole team to transfer and we have a killer class coming in (and losing a couple of guys if worse comes to worse won’t create a disaster). We are building talent. Hopefully we can win 5 or 6 games this year and build for 2008. We can still turn this thing around.