Replacing Charlie

I just can’t write enough about Charlie Weiss’ impending doom. It’s just a great story. Here is a guy who took advantage of his alma mater by selling them on the notion that some NFL team was disillusioned enough to offer him a head coaching job after 7 games as the head coach of the Irish. All the sane people in the world realized it was a giant hoax to get an extension, but I guess there aren’t a lot of sane Irish Catholics. So now, a few years has passed and people have come to realize that Charlie isn’t cut out to be a head coach and possibly, he wasn’t that good of an offensive coordinator in the first place. If I remember correctly, Tom Brady and company didn’t start breaking records until he left town.

With two games remaining in the season, the Irish need to win big over UCONN and upset a red hot Stanford team on the road to save their coaches job. Some people might disagree, but I think it’s over if that doesn’t happen. With the likely exodus of upperclassmen to the NFL draft, next year looks even worse for them and it will be hard to sell the administration that they are on the right path.

The real question is who should replace Charlie? Rumors will swirl about Urban Meyer or Bob Stoops, but those guys aren’t dumb. They might use that info to get a raise, but they have jobs that are far better than the Notre Dame position.

Brian Kelly, the Cincinnati head coach, has to be the number 1 choice for the Irish. He brings with him an offensive system that seems to work with whoever is running the show. Additionally, he’ll come in with a level of familiarity in terms of Midwest recruiting. Kelly is the head football coach at a basketball school, in a football state. No matter how good he does at Cincy, he’ll always play second fiddle to Jim Tressel at Ohio State and to the basketball team. Outside of a pay raise, I don’t know what else would keep him in Cincy.

If Notre Dame can’t get Kelly, I could see them possibly looking at Tommy Tuberville. Tommy doesn’t bring with him a proven offensive system, but one thing he does offer is the ability to win big games. He owned Alabama most of the time he was at Auburn. He was also able to bring in a ton of great talent, but that may be hard to replicate because of Notre Dames academic standards. This hire would work best if they were able to hire him along with a proven offensive coordinator. I heard Jim Zorn might be available.

Outside of the big names, I think the best fit for Notre Dame would be a great system guy. Someone who’s system has proven to be successful in almost any situation. The two guys who immediately come to mind are June Jones and Paul Johnson. Jones was somehow able to win and win big at Hawaii. Now, the competition isn’t amazing in the WAC, but it’s also one of the more difficult recruiting locations, so he had his work cut out for him. Additionally, he’s turned around SMU in two seasons and that seemed impossible just 18 months ago.

Johnson has a pretty good thing going at Georgia Tech, but Notre Dame is still a better job. Johnson has only been at GT for two years, so buying him out may be cheap compared to anyone else they are looking at. Johnson’s flexbone option has already proven to be successful at the BCS conference level and would certainlyl has shortcomings on the defensive side of the ball, but in this day and age of college football, everyone does.

every 4 work will in South Bend given their unique scheduling. If a team only sees the option once every 4 years, it becomes even more difficult to defend. He still has shortcomings on the defensive side of the ball, but in this day and age of college football, everyone does.