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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
sagcat
Published Letters: 151 Editor's Choice: 10
The answer is Charlie Weis, and it's not close.
Willingham had three recruiting classes. The first was the one he gathered during his wonderful first year when he went to the Fiesta Bowl. That class produced Brady Quinn among others. The second class - this year's seniors - is regarded with surprising consensus as the worst class in ND history. Check the roster - we've got five seniors left and none of them are difference makers. The current junior class is slightly better. Willingham had started work on it... kind of... and Weis held it together while still devoting his efforts to the Patriots.
The next three classes - Weis' first two full classes, the current Sophomores and Freshmen, plus the one being assembled to come in next year, are all excellent. Next year's class may be our best since 1990.
So while Weis is having trouble right now, irish fans understand that he's working with almost no upper-classmen. The talent is young and/or not on campus yet. We all saw what Weis did with the one talented class Willingham left him, and we expect he'll be able to do it again - as soon as next year.
And the if the University of Washington played Boise State every year for 100 years, UW would win 95 of them. I wish Willingham success, but there's no question in retrospect that he was a bad fit at ND and that he had (for reasons perhaps known only to him) completely quit recruiting.
From Harrington:
"Sorry, but I'm not buying it. When Lou Holtz took over the Irish in 1986 and turned the program around in one game, I didn't hear anyone talking about how the credit should have gone to Gerry Faust for his steller recruiting job. And so I don't want to hear anything about how Charlie Weis gets a pass now. This is his 3rd year and he's doing far worse than Willingham did in his 3 years. Sad to say, but the only reason I can see for the different treatment is as clear as the skin (color) on his face....."
Actually, in ND circles, it's very common to hear Faust complimented for several things, despite the very strong desire to see him not coach the team anymore. He's a likable guy who bleeds ND with the rest of us. He's regularly given credit by the fan base for recruiting well, and recruiting Tim Brown, especially. His problem was that he treated all that talent like HS kids! He was just too nice a guy to really make it in college.
And at this point in their respective tenures, Weis is doing better than Willingham in both overall record and in recruiting. So how exactly he's doing "far worse" than Willingham isn't apparent, at least to me.
And if you want to see racism in TW's firing, then you're going to see it. But that institution is nothing if not fiercely ethical, and I'll stand by the facts. That would include that we're one of the only schools to have ever *hired* a black coach, that both our current coordinators are black, and ~especially~ our graduation rates of black athletes compared to other schools. Importantly, a very large part of what ND's about is social justice, and ND has as an institution stood by civil rights and actually worked to better the lives of the underpriviliged. Look at the school's work in Haiti and Africa. Hell - look at the school's work in South Bend! You're crying racism up the wrong tree.
Fair enough, Harrington. The team currently stinks, and we've been blown out four straight times. That's not good. Weis can't do that on an ongoing basis and escape the wrath of the zealots.
But it has nothing to do with racism, does it?
And help is on the way. We'll be fine. Maybe even by the end of this year. The biggest reason ND fans are giving Weis the benefit of the doubt right now is that there's so many reasons to hope, while near the end of TW's third season, there was horrible recruiting news and the team was going into games with a defeated look in their eye. It was despair, and we had a coach who didn't seem to want to be there.
I'd be shocked if the irish went to Ann Arbor this weekend thinking they'd already lost. Now we very well might lose, but I don't think we'll go in with our heads hanging as TW's teams did.
I try to vote with my page clicks carefully, and I just accidentally clicked through an entire article on the Yankees. Can you please subtract one from the total count?
Sorry, King. I was hoping to actually see an article about something interesting, like college football and it's upside down season. Something I figured you had to have noticed and would be writing about any day now.
Matt
Portland, OR
This is the second time in a week I want my page-click back. But this time, you even put that tantalizing quote about football at the tail-end of your email teaser. I was positive you were finally going to talk about college football and give us your unique perspective.
Somehow I have the feeling that if not for Beavers Gone Wild Saturday, you'd have an article today on how the season is so bizarre, your alma mater made it to Number One.
Matt in Portland
I'm unclear from the content of the article exactly what the problem is with masturbating 8 times each week. Are you worried the brits are going to chafe? Are they going to grow hair on their hands or go blind? Spend an inordinate amount of time in purgatory after their deaths? Exactly why the ridicule?
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Salon headlines in your mailbox
