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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.
