Comparing Willingham & Weis

post from Fanblogs.com on 23 October 2007 05:04:32 PM. © Fanblogs.com

Jon Wilner at the San Jose Mercury's blog looks at a comparison of former Notre Dame head coach Ty Willingham against current Irish head coach Charlie Weis through 33 games.

The results? Well, judge for yourself.

***Record through 33 games
Willingham: 20-13
Weis: 20-13
***Record vs USC
Willingham: 0-3
Weis: 0-3
***Point differential vs USC
Willingham: -93
Weis: -61
***Record vs. Michigan
Willingham: 2-1
Weis: 1-2
***Point differential vs. Michigan
Willingham: -28
Weis: -57
***Record vs. ranked opponents
Willingham: 7-8
Weis: 4-8 with no ranked opponents left
(Numbers based on rankings listed in the UND media guide for 2002-2006)
***Losses by 20 points or more
Willingham: 8 in 36 games
Weis: 7 in 33 games
***Losses by 30 points or more
Willingham: 5 in 36 games
Weis: 3 in 33 games

It's hard to see a clear favorite there - seems pretty close. Of course, Willingham was fired by the Irish, so that can't bode well for Weis, can it?

Wilner goes on to note that Weis is making his mark upon the Notre Dame football history books:

* Worst opening-day loss ever (33-3 to Georgia Tech)
* Worst start ever (0-5)
* Worst loss to USC (38-0)
* Worst home loss in 51 year (38-0 to USC)
Oh, and don?t forget the seven-game losing streak and those five consecutive 20-point losses, both of which date to last season.

The Irish Kool-Aid crowd would say this is "too close to call", but I'll go out on that limb anyway -- by every standard of Notre Dame football, the Charlie Weis experiment has been a failure.

Jeff Carroll of the South Bend Tribune asks where's the progress?

During Tyrone Willingham's short era on the Irish sideline, people were practically throwing themselves off the Golden Dome after three consecutive 31-point defeats to the Trojans.
So how, then, does 38 do you?
Notre Dame was officially eliminated from bowl contention on Saturday, as if there was much doubt. The Irish have lost nine of the last 10 games they've played, by an average of more than 24 points a shot. And let's call the one victory, at UCLA two weeks ago, what it was in light of what we've seen since -- a fluke.
The offense is the worst in the country in nearly every statistical category. And if you've watched enough, you know statistics don't even do the ineptitude justice. Isn't offense supposed to be Weis' specialty? Weren't we all, according to Weis himself, going to see how USC coach Pete Carroll managed once it was "Xs and O's time"?
...
Losses have mounted and three players have transferred out of Notre Dame. A fourth, offensive lineman Chris Stewart, gave the idea serious consideration.
And how did Weis respond to the ongoing exodus last week? By saying publicly that, essentially, backups aren't important to him anyway.
At least he's honest. With Weis fielding a veteran team the last two seasons, he made no real effort to get his youngsters ready. He doesn't see beyond the next game. He's said it himself.
Well now the next game is Navy. And if Weis thinks people have been having fun at his expense now ...

The Weis-lovers would have you believe that -- thirty three games into the Weis era -- that the losses are still Willingham's fault. Some of the players are Ty's recruits, after all.

But Carroll will have none of it.

In 2004, Willingham brought in a class, the current seniors, that was ranked No. 32 by Rivals.com. Not acceptable by Notre Dame's standards, that's true.
But among the schools ranked behind the Irish that year: Texas Tech. South Carolina. Wisconsin. Virginia Tech. South Florida. Kentucky. West Virginia. Illinois.
Recognize any of those programs? They all seem to have recovered nicely.
Willingham gets a lot of the blame for the '05 class, as well, the current ND juniors. He was fired late in that recruiting cycle, and part of the reason was because of the haul he was assembling, a class that Weis would salvage and that Rivals would rank 40th. Again, not acceptable in South Bend.
But how about a look at a small sampling of the programs ranked behind the Irish that year by the recruiting prognosticators? Kansas. Boston College. South Florida -- again. Rutgers. Illinois -- again.
This isn't to say that Notre Dame should be putting a national championship-caliber team on the field this season. The upper classes certainly do leave much to be desired. But there is no excuse -- none, nada -- for 1-7. For 48 yards on 30 carries, eight games in. For 39 sacks allowed in eight contests, already a school record and counting.

OUTSTANDING POINTS by Carroll and I want to spend just a moment here, because it is often just thrown out there as presumption that Willingham left the cupboard bare.

2004 (this year's seniors) ... Rivals #32 ... ranked ahead of Texas Tech. South Carolina. Wisconsin. Virginia Tech. South Florida. Kentucky. West Virginia. Illinois. How is it even possible that these teams can put a winner on the field and Notre Dame -- who out recruited them -- cannot. How?

2005... (this year's juniors) ... Rivals #40 ... combined Willingham/Weis class ... ranked ahead of Kansas. Boston College. South Florida. Rutgers. Illinois. Again, how is it possible for these teams to be contending for conference/national championships, and yet Notre Dame cannot win a game to save their lives?

Charlie Weis is an outstanding offensive mind - without question - but he is failing as a head coach.

There is nothing in his resume to suggest that Weis is capable of developing talent. He certainly didn't have to develop players in the NFL, just show them the plays, tweak here & there, and collect the trophies. But now - with his team needing it the most - Weis is not developing talent at Notre Dame.

Good recruits are coming into the Notre Dame system and - but for their own inner passion to excel - languishing under Weis. There is no such thing as marked improvement, it is simply a transaction with Weis. It almost as if the recruits are NFL free agents, signing with the team and then expected to use their talents to improve the team. There's nothing to suggest that Weis is actually taking a player from one level and ELEVATING his game to the next level. And this is Weis's Achilles' heel - he isn't developing players.

If the powers that be at Notre Dame don't recognize this fundamental weakness (or weakness in fundamentals, to be more exact), then Notre Dame will continue to languish.

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