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Posted
by Justanotherfan
December 8, 2011 at 5:02 p.m.
The Beginning of an Era? Really?
Charlie Weis? Really, Charlie Weis?
Ok, let's think about this for a minute.
Charlie Weis is a brilliant offensive coordinator. He has run successful offenses in the NFL, and had some pretty solid attacks at Notre Dame on a couple of occasions. He has a reputation of being great with young quarterbacks and he doesn't bring a lot of baggage to the table. These are all good things.
That said, he failed as a coach at Notre Dame. He has said that he "doesn't like recruiting." He has said that he "doesn't like making appearances at booster events." He's not a defensive coach. These are all not so good things.
Great offensive coach/ poor defensive coach is a wash. The right coordinator and position coaches can make up for that, so that is not a concern. Lack of baggage is good. I will grant him a pass on struggling at Notre Dame because nobody has really won at Notre Dame since Lou Holtz left.
I'm even okay with him not being a rah rah pep rally booster event fund raiser type. It's alright to have a coach that isn't a fundraiser and public speaker, as long as his X's and O's are solid.
That said, how can you hire someone to coach at the University of Kansas when he doesn't like to recruit? This isn't Texas, where you can walk into a school with a UT polo on and convince top flight players to commit on the spot. This isn't Florida, where you have D-1 caliber athletes tripping over each other at every high school in the state. This isn't a name school like Alabama or USC or even Notre Dame, where you can recruit purely off the name.
This is Kansas. We have to recruit. We have to recruit night and day. We have to out scout and out work and out recruit other schools. We have to scout hard and recruit hard and sell hard to convince a kid to ignore Texas, and A&M and the mad hatter at LSU and Nick Saban at Alabama and Arkansas and medium sized game Bob Stoops at Oklahoma and Boone Pickens money at Oklahoma State and 100,000 screaming fans at Michigan or Ohio State or the sunshine at Florida or USC or any of those other things so he can play football on the hill in Lawrence. You have to have a DRIVE to do that, and outrecruit those names and those traditions and those locations and the homesickness and everything else that pops up along the way. Charlie Weis has said he DOES NOT HAVE THAT. Is it fair to tell Reggie Mitchell that he isn't the head coach, won't be paid like a head coach, but that he has to get recruits here because the head coach doesn't really enjoy that part of his job? Really? Really?!?!
The other issues with Charlie Weis I can ignore because they aren't really that important. But half the job of being a college football coach is RECRUITING. Charlie Weis DOES NOT LIKE RECRUITING. I'd argue that 60-70% of the job at KU is RECRUITING and we are set to hire a coach that doesn't like to do that.
I'm baffled. I hope my gut feeling is wrong. I really sincerely do. Will we be looking for a new coach in December 2014 or 2015? And how bare will the cupboard be then?
Comments
frompekka2sasha 1 year, 6 months ago
You might want to look at his past recruiting rankings. They suggest he does recruit well. The biggest issue is that he won't be wearing a Notre Dame polo.
justanotherfan 1 year, 6 months ago
If he does recruit well, then he can't coach because his final 3 Notre Dame teams outright fell apart. They lost to Navy. Twice. Lost to an 8 loss team for the first time EVER. He went 3-9 at Notre Dame - worst record in Notre Dame HISTORY.
So either he can recruit well, but can't coach, which I don't believe, by the way, or he can't recruit and the only reason those classes ranked where they did is because some average guys signed at Notre Dame.
Either way, we have signed on to find out here at KU now. I hope he can recruit and coach here.
justinryman 1 year, 6 months ago
He also has only one of 2, 10 win season at ND since the 1993 season.
inteldesign 1 year, 6 months ago
I agree with Justanotherfan and you. His recruiting success was because of his rep until that point combined with the fact that this was Notre Dame. It is a combo of the two. The first myth has been busted...not that great of a coach and to agree with Justanother what did he manage to do with the talent? His last year with his own highly regarded recruits he was 6-6.
jross1972 1 year, 6 months ago
Just because he doesn't like recruiting doesn't mean he's going to ignore it. Besides, a name like "Weis" at Kansas makes recruiting a whole lot easier.
justinryman 1 year, 6 months ago
It's true that he didn't like recruiting, but that was said when he was at ND.
That was his first go at it and he had to live up to the standards of ND and their fans along with national media. Sure probably wasn't fun to do.
Lets see what he can do know that he knows what he has to do, to get things done at KU. I am pretty sure ADSZ asked him about those quotes and put a deal in place about recruiting. Since we haven't seen what he can or can not do, lets not jump ship before it's left the dry docks.
The man hasn't even been part of the University for 24 hours and you have already made up your mind that from his past quotes he won't make it at KU.
Can you also tell me this weekends lottery numbers???
justanotherfan 1 year, 6 months ago
justinryman,
I really do hope Weis succeeds because I am a KU fan. I am not secretly hoping for his failure. I am just looking at his past history.
Seems to me that a lot of people did the same thing with our most recent coach. They looked at his history at Buffalo and said "this guy will never make it", calling for his ouster more or less from day one of his work here. He did not succeed and now he is gone. Some of those same posters cheered when he struggled, called for his firing and cheered again when he was fired.
I am not calling for Weis to be fired. The man hasn't even had a chance to work yet. I am just wondering how this will work out since the issues he had at ND could manifest themselves in even larger ways here at KU.
I hope he wins because I want KU to succeed. I hope for his success like I hoped for Glen Mason to succeed, then Terry Allen, then Mark Mangino, then Turner Gill.
justinryman 1 year, 6 months ago
I hear ya!
FreddyD 1 year, 6 months ago
How many coaches really 'like' recruiting? Most coaches that I've talked to don't like recruiting. It's one of the nastiest, most cut-throat businesses out there. People will say anything and everybody is looking for whatever little edge or bit of information they can use to gain an advantage. Ask Bill Self if he really 'likes' recruiting. Sitting in gyms all day, where you are not allowed to actually talk to the kid you're there to recruit, away from the family, the travel is hellish, the list goes on.... So when Weis says he doesn't like to recruit, don't take that to mean he's going to mail it in at Kansas and let that be the sole argument against him. And do you really think The Zeng is going to make the biggest hire of his professional hire by bringing in a head coach who doesn't or can't recruit? Of course not.
And I've argued this for the last 24 hours, the dude recruited well at ND with all the strict requirements they have - recruiting at KU is going to be a whole different beast. I can go into any school in Houston or SETX and just about any kid with speed and a position can qualify to play at Kansas. Not so much at Notre Dame. And don't most people think he's learned his lesson from the last few years? I mean, that was a huge learning curve at Notre Dame, whether you're Charlie Weis or Bill Walsh, he came straight from the pros and it was a totally different beast. Throw in its his alma mater, and he made mistakes with his defensive staff, and yeah, there were problems. But 34-27 isn't the end of the world.
I'm truly baffled at the negativity from KU fans towards this hire. I'm not saying this blog is being negative, but the reaction from national media and some fans is incredible. As I've said, this is Kansas University, where basketball is King and a tangerine bowl-like season every few years has satisfied the masses for a LONG time... Now we bring in Charlie-Freaking-Weis and people are complaining about his time at NOTRE DAME and FLORIDA!
10 years ago, KU couldn't attract a janitor from those schools, much less a football coach. Great hire and I expect big things. Rock Chalk for Life. In The Zeng We Trust.
inteldesign 1 year, 6 months ago
Come on, Freddy, stop with the smoke. His name is meaningless. It is what he can do that means something. In fact his name will work against us like no other if he is not successful. Some people will totally forget about his 6-6 season at Florida, and his 32-27 record at ND but they will simply say, "Even Charlie Weiss couldn't get it done at KU." Talk about a scorched earth. No one will want to talk to us then. Bear in mind that we are adding TCU and WVa. Is Weiss going to be better than Gill? In all probability, yes. Do I really see a long-term commitment here? You're kidding, right? So two years from now we will be doing this again.
You are only baffled Freddy if you are not being truly objective about this. And another thing about recruiting to Notre Dame which few people understand. There is a network of very fine catholic prep schools which always target athletic talent in their respective parish where they give scholies to a nice private school. How do you think these Catholic High Schools are doing so well from state to state. My, you are naive. And they do it to give the Notre Dame and other big catholic schools a very nice pool of candidates that are academically superior. Let me say that for the athletes this is a good thing, especially the minorities, but let's not put ND on the same playing field when it comes to recruiting. It just isn't so.
FreddyD 1 year, 5 months ago
Meaningless name huh? Man, hiring Weis was a very stupid move wasn't it? Hell, the guy's fat, needed a new hip and he's not a very good recruiter either according to the haters a week or so ago...
Inteldesign, I certainly hope you don't take that name too seriously, because your read on Weis is as far from intelligent as it gets... Charlie Weis is putting KU Football back on the map... And for the Intels and all the other Weis haters - wherever they are now - KU football is back and I know for a fact from talking to two current members of the KU football team - this group is very excited about the opportunity to play for Weis and look forward to the tough, disciplinarian style he's bringing to Lawrence... They don't care what happened at ND, and honestly, I don't either. The guy is a winner. Simple as that. Watch out, because KU is going Bowling next season... And to all the haters, there will be plenty of room on the bandwagon next year when KU starts winning again...
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