A little sports blogging...Last year, Notre Dame fired head coach Tyrone Willingham after his third year of coaching.
This year, after seven games, Charlie Weis, God love him, gets a 10 (ten!) year extension, reportedly worth $30-40M. The Irish are 5-2, their wins coming at the expense of teams that are a combined 17-24.
In his first eight games, Willingham lost none and beat Maryland, Purdue, Michigan, Michigan State, Stanford, Pittsburgh, Air Force and Florida State. (Air Force didn't suck back then.)
I'm glad Charlie Weis is coaching at Notre Dame. He's an alum, he's a terrific guy, he rallies the Notre Dame faithful, and he has one of those horrible former offensive linemen haircuts. He's a football genius and he bleeds blue and gold. What more could you want?
Maybe some equity. Some integrity. Some fairness from the college of Our Lady. Being from Indiana, I remember the feeling from the beginning of Willingham's tenure was that he just didn't fit in to the Notre Dame mystique. And that was in large part due to the fact that he was a coolly reserved black man. Coaches at Notre Dame don't look like that. Willingham was never given a real chance despite his successes. Charlie Weis has been given more than a chance; he's been given a goldplated surety for maybe as long as he wants to be in this coaching gig. If that's not discrimination, what is?
More analysis here, from ESPN
This isn't discrimination. Charlie Weis got an extension for a couple reasons. First - leverage. When Willingham started 8-0, no one was mentioning his name for a NFL headcoaching job. No owners were floating his name around. That's happening with Charlie. Now, that could be because NFL owners are racist, but the fact is, Charlie Wies has leverage. When Dan Snyder is looking for another head coach, I can guarantee you that Charlie looks like a great prospect.
ReplyDeleteSecond - unlike Willingham, Weis has brought Notre Dame back. Now, I know starting 8 - 0 is better than 5-2, but when you look at the enthusiasm, the national coverage, the recruiting gold mines that are being dropped weekly on NBC and ESPN - Notre Dame is at a spot nationally that it hasn't been in years. The ND-USC game was one of the highest rated games on NBC in years, and ND probably should have pulled that one off.
And one more thing - Willingham could never beat USC. Indeed, Ty routinely got destroyed by his Trojan counterparts. Fair or not, if you can't beat USC, your tenure might be short. And while Weis hasn't beaten them yet, did anyone who watched that game really think that the Irish were too far behind?
Weis is not going to be stolen away practically midseason. ND should have waited until the end of the season, after Weis has coached a bowl game. The fact that they didn't suggests discrimination to me.
ReplyDelete