Charlie Weis's Resignation Speech

Jason Whitlock was more right than I was. He was right for all the wrong reasons, but he was still right. Charlie Weis will not make it at Notre Dame. That's obvious.

That's why I have written Charlie up a resignation letter. It looks an awful lot like his hiring speech.

"Ladies and gentlemen, right now we're a 6-5 football team. That's not good enough for you, and it's certainly not good enough for me. And that's why I'm resigning."

"The attitude of the head coach has been permeated through the players. We couldn't get up for a Senior Day with a New Year's Day game on the line. Our guys ran out of the tunnel and didn't look like they gave a shit. And they didn't play like they did either."

"If you hired me here to go .500, you got the wrong guy. I'm resigning so you can get the right one."

Rebutting Jason Whitlock - Again

I haven't even read this article yet, but I hear Jason Whitlock is bashing Charlie Weis again. Even though I'm not so sure how I feel about the guy myself after two ridiculous losses to Pittsburgh and Boston College, I am positive that my fellow Cardinal alum Whitlock has once again made a bunch of ridiculous, if not patently false, assertions regarding the fourth-year Irish coach - see a couple posts down for what happened the last time he tried to do this.

Again, Whitlock in bold italics.

It is very brave and quite magnanimous for The Great Weis Hope to throw his offensive coordinator under the bus by publicly announcing his decision to reclaim leadership of the Notre Dame offense with defensive powerhouses Navy and Syracuse on the Irish schedule.

This "Great Weis Hope" business has to stop. It's never going to catch on. No one besides Whitlock even probably gets the reference. And Whitlock is blatantly ignoring the reason given for Weis taking play-calling duties for the week: Mike Haywood, the offensive coordinator, is going to be missing practices to be attending a family funeral. Granted, I think (and I don't want to make light of a family tragedy) this is as 'convenient' a reason as many others do given the ND offense's struggles, but I have to, for the sake of integrity, assume outwardly that this is the real reason.

And in case Whitlock missed it, ND faced a terrible defense LAST WEEK. BC had given up 27 points to CLEMSON AT HOME THE PREVIOUS FREAKING WEEK...and Notre Dame got shut out. With Haywood calling the plays. Funeral or not, clearly something needed shaking up.

Too often, I waste column inches blasting Charlie Weis, Notre Dame and the lifetime contract awarded to an unproven blowhard. I never take the time to point out the good side of "Pear Bryant."

You certainly do waste column inches. Maybe you should stop. And now Whitlock is making fat jokes. That's rich. How much do you weigh, Jason? That's what I thought.

I cannot deny the courageousness and nobility of Weis embarrassing offensive coordinator Mike Haywood following Notre Dame's 17-0 loss to Boston College over the weekend.

Look, most college coaches of reasonable character and integrity would've stripped Haywood of his control of Notre Dame's offense privately. A low-key, moderate-ego coach would've kept the behind-the-scenes maneuvering behind the scenes.

I will have to read further into it to see Whitlock's rationale for saying that Haywood is being embarrassed, but I've missed that to this point. Weis has not even mentioned Haywood by name this week as being a problem. He has just said the offense needs to improve - repeatedly. I don't think that after a zero-point showing that this can really be argued, but since Haywood is black, like Whitlock is, he'll probably find a way.

(EDITED TO ADD:I just noticed after re-reading that Whitlock never does say that Haywood is black in this article. Considering your background, Jason, that seems a pretty dishonest thing to do, especially since your dislike for Charlie seems largely predicated on his whiteness vs. another guy's blackness.)

And I don't think there's any coach in America that would do something as radical as take over play-calling duties for a week without telling the media about it. But I wouldn't want to get in the way of an uninformed bash session, would I?

But Weis has virtually no ego. He is arguably the most ego-less coach working today.

That's why he made it crystal clear to anyone who would listen that he will be responsible for any offensive success the Irish have when they face defensive juggernauts Navy and Syracuse.

I am once again awaiting actual evidence that Whitlock has to back this up. So far, all we know is that Weis is taking over play-calling duties. In fact, Jason hasn't even specifically said that, lest he miss out on an opportunity to make a fat joke and/or use a stupid nickname for Charlie. All we've got from him is "reclaiming leadership of the Notre Dame offense".

The undersized Middies are giving up just 27 points per game to Division I opponents. The 2-7 Orangemen are nearly as stingy, surrendering just 37 points per outing.

As you can see, a week after battling the nation's 10th-best defense (Boston College), it's extremely noble for Weis to alert the media of his plans to fix Notre Dame's offense.

Yes, we know the next two opponents are bad on defense. Got it. And BC is not the nation's 10th-best defense. They are ranked 10th on defense, but that is thanks to a ridiculously easy schedule. This team is TWO AND THREE IN THE ACC, possibly the worst league of the BCS six. Stop building them up to be some incredible force that poor Mike Haywood could not have hoped to gameplan against.

I'm sure the same media members who championed Weis' lifetime contract will once again sing his praises when the Irish show remarkable improvement and climb to 7-4 before getting waxed by USC.

Again, Notre Dame's progress and Pear Bryant's greatness can best be seen by analyzing Washington's failure under Tyrone Willingham. You must remember that Tyrone Willingham's recruiting is what destroyed Notre Dame football, and as long as Tyrone is recruiting — no matter the school — Notre Dame won't be any good.

STOP. DEAR GOD, STOP. No one has even MENTIONED Ty Willingham since he finally got his unceremonious axe from Washington. Not one Domer, not one Irish subway alumni, not anyone wearing the color green on any occasion in America. STOP TRYING TO PANDER TO THE LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR. Dear God. And, I ask what I asked last time, who exactly "championed" this contract extension? Everyone in America is basically calling this extension an anvil around ND's neck at the moment.

That has to be the explanation. I realize The Great Weis Hope is in his fourth season and has a roster flush with mature talent he recruited. And I realize that Boston College coach Jeff Jagodzinski made a point to remind his players that none of them was good enough to be recruited by Pear Bryant. (I must admit I stole the Pear Bryant nickname from an e-mailer.)

I'm not going to defend Weis's work the last couple of weeks. It's not worth trying, because he has not done a good job. Calling the ND roster "flush" with "mature" talent is probably not entirely accurate, but there is plenty enough talent on this team (as Jagodzinski did point out last week) that Notre Dame has no business losing to the Eagles.

I love how Whitlock didn't even come up with the ridiculously unoriginal "Pear Bryant" name himself. That's even more pathetic than using it a billion times after coming up with it yourself (see: Great Weis Hope).

You would think that superior talent and the decided schematic advantage that Weis promised upon his coronation as Notre Dame messiah would allow the Irish to at least kick a field goal against Boston College. That's naive thinking. You don't understand the damage being caused in South Bend by Willingham's recruiting in Seattle.

This is sickening. It really is. It was one thing when he attacked ND fans for being overly willing to blame the last couple years on Ty. He was overdramatizing it, but at least he had a point. This is just wailing away on a dead horse. No one has even alluded to Ty in weeks. It has not happened. I know Whitlock is a good writer. Crap like this is not why.

And if you can't understand that, then you surely can't grasp the self-serving motive of Weis retaking over his offense with two weak opponents on the schedule.

You see, now I'm actually starting to believe that Jason thinks this was a calculated move. Which is even more pathetic, more ridiculous, more jaw-droppingly STUPID, than this whole sarcasm-laced tirade was.

It's no secret. I dislike Charlie Weis and despise the free pass he was given by the media when he was handed a huge contract extension for doing less than Willingham.

Weis is a bully and a coward, and his well-timed announcement that he would abandon this "head coach stuff" so he could bail out his offense proves my contentions.

There is no "free pass". This never happened. Most of your former colleagues at ESPN spent the 2005 season alternately blasting Notre Dame's schedule strength and reviving the racism accusations against ND for handing Weis a contract extension. Whitlock is openly making things up. And your deciding to assume the worst about Charlie when he decides to try and win a damn football game any way he can proves nothing except your open racism. Yes, I'm calling it racism. Because this is ridiculous. If Weis was black, you'd love him.

He's planning on the Irish averaging 35 points the next two weeks and selling his impatient fan base on the myth that he's making real progress. He's hoping the media will assist him in selling this lie.

Unless you have access to Charlie's brain, you can't say this with any degree of certainty. And since ND's season freaking high for regulation-time points is 35, I doubt he's banking on averaging 35. But I bet he wants to average more than 0.

Weis is an average college head coach with horrendous people skills. That's not a good combination. Bobby Knight had poor people skills, a brilliant mind and a superior work ethic. Nick Saban is a football Bobby Knight.

Weis probably does have horrendous people skills, and there's some evidence out there of that being true. But have you ever met Charlie, Whitlock? I'd venture to say you have, but I may be overestimating your ability to face up to people you've spent years trashing behind a computer screen. And Charlie has an incredible work ethic, or maybe you haven't taken a look at: A) his recruiting classes, or B) his daily itinerary that begins with getting to work BEFORE FIVE IN THE FUCKING MORNING, a time at which I assume you are still sleeping/digesting pizza (hey, I can make fat jokes too!).

Weis might be a reverse of Pete Carroll, who bombed in the pros and excelled in the collegiate game. Coaching in the NFL is easier. Everyone is on more equal footing. There are fewer variables. You can hire someone else to evaluate talent. College coaches have already developed the talent.

Maybe he is. I don't believe he'd be the first. This paragraph is probably the only one in the entire column that I don't have a gripe with. Coaching in the NFL is not "easier" in terms of the hours, but the other stuff is true.

Weis is in over his head coaching the college game.

You can't prove that, though you aren't the first to claim it, so I'll let it slide.

There are rumors that Notre Dame might pull the plug on The Great Weis Hope if he loses to Navy.

Rumors that were debunked today by Notre Dame A.D. Jack Swarbrick (for the readers, not for Jason).

I'll be rooting for Notre Dame this weekend. I want Charlie Weis at Notre Dame as long as I'm a columnist. His failures and the rationalizations offered up by Notre Dame fans are worth two to three columns a year.

Yeah, you're hilarious. For all this talk about rationalizations, I haven't seen you print one comment from anyone to prove it. Maybe you just don't want to distract from your own writing "brilliance" on this topic, or maybe you don't want to give idiots a forum (though you could just make the comment anonymous if that were the case), but I don't know how much of these so-called rationalizations aren't inside your head.

Hell, I've written two this month and could easily get a third if Navy pulls an upset. Stay tuned.

If Navy pulls the upset, I will probably give up on Charlie. Not that that means I'd let you get away with making things up for another column, but I would give up on Charlie.

Till next time.

Ball State vs. Northern Illinois

The mighty Cardinals, ranked 17th in the nation by the BCS and, of course, my alma mater, are back in action tomorrow night on ESPN2. Watch the game (the College Football Final gang of Rece, Mark and Lou will be there for your entertainment) and read my preview on FansKnowBest.com.

Go Cardinals!!