Notre Dame Football Struggles

When Notre Dame fired its first African-American coach, Ty Willingham a couple of years ago, the belief was that while Coach Willingham was an upstanding, hard-working, solid character guy, he was unable to return Notre Dame to its rightful place among college football's elite teams. With the most storied history in college football and a smidgeon of lucky charms, symbols, and myths on its side, Notre Dame has long been one of college football's premiere programs. But with Notre Dame unable to win a major game or compete on a national stage, the decision was made to release Ty Willingham and to replace him with the offensive coordinator for the New England Patriots, Charlie Weis.

When Weis came in he was hired as an offensive guru who would bring some life to the morabound offense the Notre Dame fans had seen under Ty Willingham. After a highly successful first season when the Irish won ten games, Notre Dame followed it up with sub par seasons in 2003 and 2004 where they went 5-7 and 6-5 respectively. After Notre Dame's last regular season loss, Willingham was fired. At a program as rich as Notre Dame's, changing head coaches is a thought-driven process. Willingham was not their first choice. In fact, he was hired after Notre Dame has hired Georgia Tech head man George O'Leary. O'Leary's tenure only lasted a few days when he was forced to resign after having inaccuracies on his resume.

So when the decision was made to hire Willingham, the move was in part to bring stability and assurance to a program that had been rocked by the O'Leary scandal. With a talent laden group and Willingham out of the picture, Notre Dame moved quickly to hire Charlie Weis whose responsibilities kept him with the Patriots until after the Super Bowl that season. In fact, Super Bowl week was going on while recruiting occurred, leaving Weis to trust his associates. This may come back to haunt Weis over time. While a lot could be said of Willingham, he recruited well and left Weis a bevy of talent around which to build. With a stud quarterback in Brady Quinn who would become a first round draft pick, Weis had the makings of a program on the rise.

What has transpired though is a continuation of the last fifteen years or so of Notre Dame Football. Since 1993, the Fighting Irish have failed to challenge for a national championship. That team along with the five preceding it was perennial Top 10 finishers under Coach Lou Holtz. But since then, there have been a few nine win seasons but little else outside of Willingham's ten win season during his first year. This is the kindling for the ire being mustered against Charlie Weis who was hired with the belief that scoring points and winning games would occur as it always had in South Bend.

That has not happened. In fact, during the first three games of the 2007 season, the Fighting Irish are winless and have yet to score an offensive touchdown. Inside the numbers you find a starting quarterback who is a true freshman who has the talent but neither the experience nor the maturity to play for Notre Dame right now. You also find an offense that cannot run the ball at all against any one. With three games in the bag, the Irish are averaging negative yards rushing per game. But if you read all the recruiting experts the last two years, Charlie Weis has had stud recruiting classes that would blanket the field with speed and talent. For someone who loves the Irish, if there is speed on the field it must be in the cheerleading section because it is not on the field. That makes the firing of Willingham an interesting one.

While he struggled, Ty Willingham never lost three games to open the season. He had the last ten win season for the school and recruited the players that played during Weis' best season, his first. If truth were to be told, Weis' best game may have been a loss to national champion USC. And if that is the case, how far has Notre Dame fallen and how much of a leash Weis has that Willingham did not. Weis received a contract extension midway through his sophomore campaign, raising his package around a million dollars a year. Willingham had neither raise nor commitment from the university for a ten year package.

Which begs the question, what has Weis done that Willingham did not? If Willingham recruited the stars Notre Dame has celebrated the last five years where are these high fliers that Weis brought to the South Bend campus to play in the stadium that Rockne built? If you remove race from the table and assume that race had nothing to do with why Willingham was fired after only three seasons, the shortest leash anyone in college football has seen in some time, you are left with no explanations. Zero wins and three horrible losses that have made the graves of Irish football players turn over in shame should raise more of a question in the coaching abilities of Charlie Weis than they have. But then, it isn't about race is it. It is about wins and losses. And Weis has won with Willingham's players.

Who will win with his?