How is Charlie Weis still coaching college football?

on 08 24, 2009

Editor’s note: Article by Alexander

Charlie Weis is the most overrated and overpaid coach in college football. In 2005, after having three Super Bowl titles in four years under his belt with the New England Patriots, he was hired by Notre Dame in what looked to be a great choice. In his first year they went 9-3, and Weis was offered a ten year contract extension. They then suffered a 34-20 loss to Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl. The next year they went 10-3, but were humiliated by LSU in the Sugar Bowl 41-14, the ninth consecutive bowl game loss which is the NCAA record for consecutive bowl game defeats. After that season things went way downhill for the Irish.

Weis lost a bunch of seniors and now had his own recruits coming in instead of ones that he inherited from the former coach. They won just three games in 2007, two of them against teams for being terrible at football, Duke and Stanford. They lost 38-0 to a Michigan team that had lost their first two home games against Appalacian State and Oregon. It was also the first time since 1944 that the Irish had lost to two military acadamies in the same year, Air Force and Navy. In 2008 it looked like things were going back up for the Irish as they started the year 4-1. The second half of the season was a dissapointment though as they finished the year 7-6, although they did finally win a bowl game, 49-21 over Hawaii. That wasn’t the most suprising part of the year though. The second to last game of the year, they lost to Syracuse 24-23. Yes, the same Syracuse team that has won more than 4 games just twice since 2002. His .580 winning percentage through four seasons is worse than the previous two coaches who were fired from Notre Dame (Bob Davie-.583 in 5 seasons, Tyrone Willingham-.583 in 3 seasons).

College football is not like the NFL. In the NFL the head coaches and general managers bring in the talent and players to win super bowls. When you are a head coach in college football, you have to recruit your players and convince the best players for your team to help you win. Charlie Weis has obviously not brought in the talent needed to win in college football. He had good records, although they lost their bowl games, when he inherited what Tyrone Willingham brought to Notre Dame. When he lost those players and his recruits started playing they failed to even be a middle of the pack team.

So the reason Charlie Weis is still at Notre Dame is unknown to me. Maybe it’s because he went to Notre Dame, although he didn’t play football. Maybe it’s because they don’t want to look stupid for offering a coach a ten year extension midway through his first year and then firing him after 4 seasons. But whatever the reason is, it sure isn’t because they want the best possible head coach running their football team.

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