With the fans and talking heads circling like vultures around Charlie Weis again, it wasn’t a big surprise that many of the questions at Tuesday’s weekly press conference were about “the big picture” rather than Saturday’s game at No. 8 Pittsburgh.
Weis’ answers were also not particularly surprising.
“I’m only worried about beating Pitt, and I’ll never change,” he said. “The day that I walk away from here. I get time to sit back and reflect, I’ll give you a holler and we’ll go over that one. I’m just worried about beating Pittsburgh and I put all my energy in the week, from the time the last game to the time the next game starts, into just beating that opponent. Maybe I’m just trained that way, but it is just complete tunnel-vision way of looking at it. I don’t spend any time reflecting. I only worry about all I can to beat Pitt.”
The coach stated that talk about his job security is not a concern.
“You deal with when the time comes,” said Weis. “You don’t worry about those things. They don’t even cross their mind. You have to spend all your time and energy doing everything you can to do all you can to beat Pitt.”
Of course, such answers weren’t enough to actually steer the lines of questioning toward the Pitt game. Instead, Weis was asked for his feelings on the heat he has been taking from Notre Dame fans.
As was the case two years ago, when the calls for his head started coming, the coach isn’t paying attention to the white noise outside his workplace.
“I should be more concerned with how I’m perceived by the people who do know me than the people who don’t know me,” Weis said. “I think that’s really what’s important in life – not the people who don’t know you, the people who do know you.
“People who don’t know you, why do I care what they think? Really, why do I care? They don’t know you. They’re going to have an opinion based off of what? They don’t know you. If they know you and they don’t like you, that’s a different problem.”
The people that Weis is concerned about, he said, fall into three groups – his family, his players and their families, and his coaches and their families.
“I always start with Maura and Charlie, because Hannah doesn’t really understand,” he explained. “And what people don’t understand, good and bad, is this isn’t a game for them. They’re not a fan – this is their life. It’s totally different when it’s your life than when it’s a game. You guys cover it as a sport, you cover it as a game. It’s not a game for us. This is our life. It’s not just the wins and losses – it’s everything that goes with it, positively and negatively. So, you do the math on how that’s going.”
The Evolution Of Jimmy
Weis talked about how the Purdue win in September was a true breakthrough game for Clausen, because it showcased his ability to lead a last-minute comeback drive as well as his ability to play through pain.
“When you have a quarterback like Jimmy Clausen, there isn’t a game you go into that you aren’t expecting to win,” Weis said. “He wants that burden. Most people after the [Navy] game were feeling sorry for themselves. He was mad at himself because he felt that he had lost the game. And that’s what really good players do. They don’t look at any other reason but themselves.
“The kid is texting me at 1 o’clock in the morning about fumbling on the 1-yard line. He had just thrown for 450 yards and gone up and down the field. That meant nothing to him. The only thing he wanted to talk about was fumbling on the 1-yard line. That will show you a lot of the character of this kid.”
I Saw Red
Weis turned on a bit of his Jersey charm when asked about how he planned to fix the red-zone problems that plagued his offense against Navy.
“We’re going to try not to fumble on the 1,” he started. “We’re going to try not to throw an interception inside the 5. Then we’re going to try and make field goals when we’re on the 14-yard line. That takes care of a few of them. And then on fourth-and-three, if we go for it, we’re going to try and score a touchdown, or maybe the just kick the field goal instead. And we’re also going to try not to have two wide receivers off the line of scrimmage and have an illegal formation.
“We’ll try to do all those things, but in reality from the head coach, who’s the offensive coordinator and play caller, right on through the quarterback and everyone else, we’re going to have to be a lot cleaner in execution, because that just wasn’t good enough.”
Money Ain’t A Thing
Strangely, the topic of coaching salaries started to come up – and Weis didn’t even let the question finish getting asked before he started answering.
“Mine is grossly misreported,” he said. “If you would like to have my tax returns, I would be more than willing to have them – just as long as you were willing to pay the difference between what’s been reported and what I actually make. And you’d better have a seven-figure check ready. That’s all I have to say.”
Actual Pitt Questions!
Eventually, Saturday’s contest did come up in conversation.
• The biggest game-related topic was Pitt’s defensive line, which currently leads the nation in quarterback sacks. Weis was asked to compare the Panthers’ front four to that of USC, which created a great deal of pressure on Irish quarterback Jimmy Clausen.
“The one thing USC has is more depth than most other teams,” Weis stated. “They roll some people in and out. I think Pitt, at this point, this year, at this moment right now, is more experienced. I think USC has more depth.”
• On Sunday, Weis hammered his team with the idea of accountability, and it appears that the message was well received. Several players were in on their off day Monday to do some extra film study and such.
“There were more people around here yesterday than there have ever been around,” the coach said, “I think that more people have taken a more personal accountability, and that bodes well as we move forward.”
• Sophomore tight end Kyle Rudolph did not have a broken collarbone, as was initially feared, but he is likely to be shelved for the regular season with what appears to be some sort of muscle tear in his shoulder. Weis was told that Rudolph returning for the Stanford game is a possibility, but he added that he believes “that is a reach. I think he would be able to practice again in December.”
Junior Mike Ragone will be the No. 1 tight end this week, and senior Bobby Burger, just back from a neck injury, is in the No. 2 spot.
• Sophomore receiver John Goodman will take over for junior wideout Golden Tate on punt returns, a move that Weis said was made to “take some hits off of Golden.”
In other depth chart news, both junior running back Armando Allen and sophomore right guard Trevor Robinson are expected to step back into their starting roles Saturday. Freshman Theo Riddick entered the depth chart at running back, sharing the No. 2 designation behind Allen with Robert Hughes.
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