Notre Dame, Ind (UHND) — OK first off, I reserve the right to a cheesy title for an article like the one I choose for this one every now and then. It’s been almost 5 months now and I haven’t done any play on words on Weis’ last name yet so I was due. Anyway, his decision to have the Irish Leadership Committee is one heck of an idea.
After the weekly captains last year, which I never liked (then again who did?), setting the captains during Spring is a nice change to way the things most schools do. I can kind of see why the old staff did the captains the way they did, but it didn’t work since there didn’t seem to be much leadership last year.
Picking the captains isn’t the only part of the committee I like however. The House of Representatives is a nice move by Weis since it gives the players a single unified voice at each position. It creates a set of leaders on this team for the rest of the team to look up to and go to for help.
Weis and this staff are stressing leadership from the players which is something that has been missing at Notre Dame the last few years. I’m not suggesting that the last few squads were void of any leadership from the players, but there didn’t seem to be a strong sense of leadership from the players.
This also adds another level of accountability on these representatives. If the receivers aren’t stepping up who do you think will hear about it the most? Rhema McKnight since he is the representative at the receiver position. In return Rhema, or any of the reps, will be on all the other receivers to step it up. A lot of times a player can think a coach is just getting on them to prove a point, but when another player tells you to step up
The position of team captain also takes on a little more prestige once again. When the Irish had new captains every week it was almost like grade school where everyone had a turn at it. While special teams will still be that way, the position of offensive and defensive captain are set for the season.
This is just another sign that Weis gets it and will be able to turn this program around. Up to this point everything he’s done has made a lot of sense and hasn’t left people questioning why. For someone who hasn’t coached in college for years, he definitely seems to have a great grasp of how to do things.
