Error processing SSI fileWeis gives Irish hope
Defeating Wolverines would earn 'savior' label
Charlie Weis: He began his era by defeating Pittsburgh. Weis is a Notre Dame alumnus and can be the first Irish coach since Knute Rockne in 1918 to open with back-to-back road victories.Related links
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Irish's demise: Notre Dame has had three coaches since Lou Holtz left the program in 1996. In 11 seasons, Holtz was 100-30-2 and led the Irish to the 1988 national championship. Here are the coaches since:
Bob Davie: His 35-25 record over five seasons got him fired and turned him into a college football analyst.
George O'Leary: He was fired after a five-day stretch as coach in 2001 after being accused of falsifying his résumé.
Tyrone Willingham: He was 21-15 from 2002-04 but was fired because his team didn't progress on the field.
Charlie Weis doesn't want to read this. He doesn't want to hear it, either.
But his impressive debut as Notre Dame's football coach -- a 42-21 victory at then-No. 23 Pittsburgh last week -- has made one of college football's storied rivalries even more intriguing.
And when the 20th-ranked Fighting Irish kick off against No. 3 Michigan on Saturday in Ann Arbor, all eyes will be on Weis, the offensive mastermind behind the New England Patriots' recent run of Super Bowl success.
"I had become such a distraction going into the last game, but I think now we're past that," Weis said Tuesday, sounding hopeful, and perhaps a bit naive. "I think now the fact that we've played OK in our first game and we're going against one of the top teams in the country, that's really the story and that's the way it's supposed to be."
Maybe so, but this is the way it is: If Notre Dame can muster another upset on the road -- the last coach to start his tenure with back-to-back road victories was Knute Rockne in 1918 -- Weis would be officially anointed the savior in South Bend.
"A lot of people think that's what you're looking for, that you want those pats on the back," Weis said.
"But that's not what I'm looking for."
What he's looking for, he's already found.
Weis, 49, left behind the NFL, where as offensive coordinator he helped lead the Patriots to three Super Bowl titles the last four seasons, to return to his alma mater and a new challenge, one he'd been pining for privately for more than a decade.
"A long, long time ago, I thought, 'Wouldn't that be something if you could ever be the head coach at the University of Notre Dame?" said Weis, who was introduced as just that last December, following the dismissal of Tyrone Willingham.
Weis, a 1978 Notre Dame graduate, wasted little time laying the groundwork once he accepted the job, juggling his new duties -- assembling a staff and salvaging a 2005 recruiting class -- while helping to guide the Patriots through the NFL playoffs. A three-day vacation in Puerto Rico with his family after the Super Bowl was about all he had time for before settling into his new office in South Bend.
Frequent turnover
Weis need not be reminded he's the fourth Notre Dame coach in the last four years, including George O'Leary's bizarre five-day tenure in December 2001.
He also is well aware the Irish haven't won a national championship in nearly two decades and haven't finished a season ranked in the top 10 since 1993. And, yes, the last coach was fired after three seasons with a 21-15 overall record.
When asked last December about his plans for turning things around, Weis replied, matter-of-factly: "The object is to win as fast as we can."
Saturday's result, then, was a perfect beginning.
"Already, you can kind of feel the buzz from the students here on campus," said Brady Quinn, Notre Dame's junior quarterback and one of 10 returning starters on offense this season. "They're obviously excited to see the season start off like that -- a new era -- and just having a lot of questions answered in the first game. As a team, we feel like we still have a lot to prove. I mean, there are still a lot of people out there that doubt us."
Lou Holtz, the last coach to win a national title at Notre Dame in 1988, isn't one of them.
"His plan of how he's going to get Notre Dame to the top is very impressive," Holtz said. "I don't think there's any doubt he will get Notre Dame to the top. He has a new $25 million football building. He has a reputation as a leader. He has a great administration behind him. He runs a disciplined program. He's tough with the athletes. And if you could buy stock in a football program, I would certainly buy stock in Notre Dame."
Weis, himself, is a bullish investor who makes no secret of his successful formula: It's equal parts hard work, dedication and smarts. Quinn, part of a player advisory group during last winter's coaching search, remembers walking out of a meeting with Weis -- then merely a candidate for the Notre Dame job -- and saying, "We need that guy."
Strength against strength
A month later, Weis was the guy, and he already was relishing the chance to match wits with opposing coaches at the collegiate level, telling reporters, "It's time for the X's and O's. Let's see who has the advantage now."
Last week, it was another former NFL coach -- Pittsburgh's Dave Wannstedt --who found himself at a disadvantage.
It took Weis only a handful of plays to determine that Wannstedt was using the same base defense he'd used with the Miami Dolphins.
And he exploited just as he would have with the Patriots, utilizing screen passes, including one that tailback Darius Walker turned into a 51-yard touchdown on Notre Dame's opening drive.
It only got worse from there for Pitt as the Irish -- behind a power running game and steady diet of short passes -- scored on six of their first seven possessions.
"That's how I view football," said Weis, a protégé of Dallas Cowboys coach Bill Parcells.
"That's why I just had to chuckle when everyone was making such a big deal of us going against Pittsburgh and their secondary. I wasn't worried: A secondary could've not been out there as far as I was concerned, because that's not where we were going. I knew that, and you didn't, because I'm the one who gets to call the plays.
"You have to try to find the guys that you think that you have a chance to exploit. Last week, I just viewed the game as their front seven was inexperienced, and I thought that that's where the game should be won and that's I believe where the game was won. Now, I don't always calculate it right. But we did last week."
And this week?
Weis wasn't about to tip his hand Tuesday when he met with the media. But given Michigan's recent defensive struggles, coach Lloyd Carr admittedly endured a few sleepless nights as he prepared for the new-look Irish.
Notre Dame's new-look coach -- the crewcut might be making a comeback in South Bend -- wasn't resting easy, either.
"You can't rest on your laurels and feel good about yourself just because you played a good opener," said Weis, whose team moved into the Associated Press Top 25 this week for the first time since September 2003.
"I think you've got to be worrying about Michigan, because if not, you'll get your butt kicked.
"We've played one game. We've played one game, and we played fairly well in the one game. ... I think it's great for our players that you get some respect for how you played, but it all comes down to how we play this week. We'll see where we're rated after we play Michigan."
You can reach John Niyo at john.niyo@detnews.com.
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