CHARLIE!!!!!

I hate to write about Notre Dame so much, but recent events involving their coaching situation obligate me to do so. Today, they agreed with New England Patriots offensive coordinator Charlie Weis on a deal that will make him the new head coach. Now on one level the hiring hurts for me because it means Michigan will get continually outcoached every year it plays Notre Dame now. It also just hurts because I'm a Patriots fan, and I hate to see a great coach leave. But I can't really complain about anything at this point because the Patriots already have 2 Super Bowls and the Red Sox just won it all (wish they still had the legendary Carl Everett though). I shouldn't even complain about the Celtics, since they made the conference finals 3 years ago (of course I am always thankful for Ricky Davis, who buys out a section at games for "Ricky's Renegades." I don't think "Renegades" is a nickname).

Is Charlie Weis(s) the King of Madison or the new ND Coach?

So why worry about Charlie? Most people, unless they follow sports closely, have no idea who he is. This is especially true for the great people of Bethesda, MD, who only know of Charlie Weiss, a fellow that my co-blogger and i have been friends with since high school. Bethesda Charlie goes to Wisconsin, and is the only reason their football team started out 9-0. I'm not kidding; all i will say is you shouldn't think that Jewish guy that ran for 170 yards against Penn State is actually named Matt Bernstein. So Bethesda Charlie is a legend, and I can only say that the same SHOULD be true for New England Charlie.
The only reason Weis is not a head coach in the NFL already is the fact that the Patriots kept playing past the league's "interview season," and before that he was considered too overweight. The overweight perception was according to himself, and he even got gastric bypass surgery, nearly dying in the process, to make himself a more appealing head coaching candidate. But here are the reasons to fear him as the ND Head coach:

1. NFL Players he touched and turned to gold: He was NE Tight Ends Coach when Ben Coates had his Pro Bowl seasons, coached Terry Glenn when he set the rookie record for receiving, coached Curtis Martin for half of his hall of fame career, coached (the unredeemable) Vinny Testaverde to a 30 TD season, the list goes on. Don't forget that he coached Michigan's own Tom Brady, two time Super Bowl MVP and world's most eligible bachelor, which will especially hurt when ND is recruiting QBs.
2. On the subject of Weis and ND recruiting players that Michigan is recruiting, they can simply pitch the fact that Weiss, having 20 years of NFL experience, is a better road for them to succeed in the NFL. This worked for Pete Carroll, a bad coach when he was in New England; it will work for Charlie.
3. Kirk Ferentz, Nick Saban, Pat Hill. Is there a pattern? All three coached for Belichick at some point. Ferentz at Iowa just pulled off the best coaching job of the year, and most Big Ten followers should take note. He is far and away the best coach in the Big Ten, and probably one of the top 5 nationally. Another member of that top 5 would be Mr. Saban, who won the national title at Louisiana State last year, and is deservedly the 2nd highest paid coach in college football. This is the same Saban who was coaching at Michigan State before the clueless Bobby Williams, and gets great talent everywhere (at State he was responsible for getting Derrick Mason, Plaxico, Jeff Smoker, TJ Duckett, etc., all of whom burned Michigan badly). And Pat Hill, while he coaches at Fresno State, has had a 10 win season and sent David Carr to the NFL. These three have all been successful, and Charlie Weiss will be as well.
4. Weis is one of the kings of the trick play: a 20 yd pass TO Tom Brady in the 2001 AFC East division clincher, getting David Patten to run, throw, and catch for TDs against the Colts earlier that season, the direct snap to Kevin Faulk on the two point conversion in last year's Super Bowl, the list goes on. You may think that to be useless information, but remember in college football, trick plays in rivalry games are like magic bullets. If they work, there's a good chance your team is winning. I have no doubt he will pull them out against Michigan, and I have no doubt that if Jim Herrmann is still prancing the sidelines, we will lose.

I am certainly not saying Michigan will never beat ND again, all I am saying is that I worry they have a strategic advantage each time the two play. For now, Michigan still has the talent advantage, but who knows what can happen now that Lloyd gets to recruit against a proven NFL winner at one of the best tradition programs in football, instead of an inept, aloof coach that is unaware of the difference between Stanford and Notre Dame. Of course this hiring hurts me even more than other Michigan fans, because ND's gain hurts the Patriots. The only positive effect is that the Michigan-ND rivalry will be great as it once was until its discontinuation in the early 90s. Certainly, the effects of the Weis hiring are going to be wide-ranging.