There was no avoiding the questions about his future – they came early and often on Sunday afternoon – but Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis isn’t going to answer them just yet.
“We’ll have plenty of time for me to answer that question more in detail at a later date,” he said when the subject of his job status first came up. “But right now, I think the most important thing is for us to do what we do on a weekly basis.”
One thing is for certain – the rumors that circulated among alumni and other channels Saturday night, the ones that had Weis telling his team that he was stepping down – were false. The Irish coach made it clear that if he is headed out the door, it won’t be because he chose to do so.”
“No. That’s not happening,” he said when asked if he would consider resigning at any point.
At the same time, Weis isn’t being unrealistic about the current situation. He was asked about what he told the 2004 Notre Dame team back when he was hired, about a 6-5 record not being good enough.
“I still agree with that,” the coach replied, before adding that he would not be in a position to put up much of a fight if the administration opted to go in another direction after next weekend’s game at Stanford.
“If they decide to make a change, I’d have to say that I’d have a tough time arguing with that,” Weis stated, because 6-5 isn’t good enough.
“My intent is to be here, but if that were the rationale, it would be tough for me to argue with that point.”
Beyond that, any big-picture questions on Sunday were met with responses about getting ready for Stanford. The news, expected or otherwise, will have to wait at least another week.
“When I have some information for you that I can pass on to you,” said Weis, “I certainly will.”
The Hierarchy Of Blame
When a team is struggling on the field, most of the heat from outside of the program falls on the head coach – and like any good leader, Weis has always been quick to take the heat.
But the answers aren’t always so simple – so when the coach was asked Sunday about where the blame falls for the numerous defensive breakdowns by the Irish this season, he was sure to give as detailed a response as possible without singling anyone else out.
In short, it’s the coaches first and the players second – but no one is exempt.
“When there’s breakdowns on either side of the ball,” Weis started, “I always start with coaching. I always start with that because that’s what I do. From the head coach to the coordinator to the position coaches, I think that the number one responsibility that we have to do is teach our players what to do. And then there has to be a correlation, a transfer of information from the classroom to the practice field to the game field – and when that doesn’t happen enough times, there’s a breakdown in the communication between the players and the coaches. So before I place any blame on a player, ever, it always starts with the teaching element of coaching, which is what coaching really is.
“That being said, you look at the stretch play yesterday that [Connecticut] ran for a touchdown. Now, were there enough players there? Did they get outnumbered there? Was the edge set? All the answers to those questions are yes, yes and yes. Then somebody’s got to make a play.”
Weis continued to take the blame after the loss to UConn, but when his players came in for postgame interviews, almost all of them attempted to hold the players accountable – and the coach made it clear that he appreciated their words.
“Most college kids,” Weis said, “have a tough time taking on the accountability issue, taking the blame and putting it on their own shoulders rather than letting it go in the other direction. They don’t need to do that. I know I ‘m the head coach of the team, so ultimately the responsibilities for things that go wrong fall on my shoulders. So they don’t need to that – but the fact that they’re saying those things tells you a lot about the character of those guys, because they don’t need to be doing it.”
And regardless of what the players say, Weis will continue to put himself in the line of fire first.
“If [the administration] decided to do something, could you understand that?” he asked hypothetically of himself. “I’m the head football coach. Who else is responsible? I could sit there and try to blame everyone else, but ultimately, it falls on my shoulders. That’s the way it is.”
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