Charlie Weis, you ARE fat and ugly, but that’s not the problem

on 03 21, 2009

Charlie Weis will be featured on ESPN’s “Sunday Conversation” this upcoming Sunday during SportsCenter. During the previews shown on ESPN, Weis can be heard telling the interviewer that he claims that he doesn’t care when people call him over-weight or even ugly (well Charlie you aren’t good looking, and let’s face it, it’s no secret that you are rather large), but he really struggles with the personal attacks on his character from fans and people that don’t even know him.

Well Charlie, you can hardly blame fans of Notre Dame for harboring some feelings of ill-will towards you. After signing Weis to a 6 year approximately $12 million dollar contract, Fighting Irish fans expected greatness from you. A product of the New England Patriots’ coaching pedigree, Charlie was supposed to be a savior for a program that went 6-5 in Tyrone Willingham’s final year.

After Weis’ first two seasons, he had amassed a 19-6 overall record and brought the Irish to back to back bowl appearances, however, Notre Dame would lose both of those games. Following that 2006 Sugar Bowl loss, Weis has only managed to go 10-15 overall.  Notre Dame is one of the richest schools in the NCAA in terms of tradition. Every year, more and more top talents sign on to wear that gold helmet. Notre Dame is one of those schools that no matter how poorly they do the previous season, you can bet they will have a solid recruiting class because of what the school stands for, similar to UCLA or Duke in basketball. In Weis’ 2006 and 2007 recruiting classes, he has had nine All-Americans according to USA Today. With so much top talent flowing through South Bend, how can Weis be anything but apologetic regarding his team’s results the last couple years.

Notre Dame fans can obviously be spoiled and expectant of a little too much given their rich tradition, but I think they deserve better than Weis’ 29-21 overall record (1-2 in bowl games). Weis continues to carry himself as though he is content with what he has done in his time with Notre Dame, and that is what irks people.

By now you may have heard about the story of the child whose last wish was to call a play for Charlie Weis’ Irish football team. Weis promised he would allow that to happen on the first offensive play, and he came through on that promise. Notre Dame found themselves pinned on their own one yard line for their first offensive possession, but Weis stuck to his word and called a play action pass which resulted in 13 yards and a first down. Now it’s stories like this that make it difficult to hate the guy. It makes me agree that his character is probably the last thing that should be attacked, but at the same time I wonder if maybe that child should have taken over the play calling duties for the Irish.

Weis’ recruiting class again is elite coming into the next season, and his QB position should be a little less shaky, so Weis needs to produce in his fifth season with the Irish if he wants to avoid more attacks on his personal appearance and more importantly, avoid losing his job. Maybe Weis should focus less on what people think of his appearance and more about how he is again going to unravel the mess in South Bend, only this time he’ll be undoing his own handy work.

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