Notre Dame, IN (UHND) — David Cutcliffe’s tenure as Notre Dame quarterback coach has come to end almost before it began. Cutcliffe, hired in December by Charlie Weis, had been recovering from triple by pass surgery since March before deciding to take a year or so off from coaching for a complete recovery. Cutcliffe made the announcement today through a statement released by the university and then addressed the media at a 1:00 press conference.
In his released statement, Cutcliffe said “Poor health initiated a series of events that culminated in this decision. Through it all, no one could have asked for more support than Charlie and the people at Notre Dame gave me and my family.” He also added that, “I’m taking the remainder of this year to become even stronger. During that time I’m committed to growing professionally so that I’ll be a better coach in the future'”
Cutcliffe had missed the entire Spring season while he recovered from the March surgery. During that time he was replaced temporarily by former Irish quarterback Ron Powlus. Powlus worked with the younger quarterbacks while Charlie Weis spent most of his time with Brady Quinn teaching the junior to be the new system..
Weis had been planning on Cutcliffe returning in full capacity prior to a call from Cutcliffe last week. “ The way David and I had basically left it is I had gone down and met with him and his wife at his home shortly after he got home and said that ‘You have no timetable, just take as long as you need to get ready to go. All I ask from you in turn is to let me know when you’re ready to go or if by chance there ever comes a time when you feel you’re not ready to go.’”
Even once Cutcliffe called Weis last week to let Charlie know of his decision, Weis had hoped Cutcliffe may return and wanted the former Mississippi coach to think things through. “I told him that I wanted him to sleep on it over a weekend. I waited until after that weekend was over. I then gave him a call back and wanted to make sure that he wasn’t making a rash decision, that it was important to me to let him know that I was going to give him all the opportunity I could to let him make that decision.”
As far as a replacement, Weis said he already has someone in mind, but that things were not definite yet. Once a contract is signed, Weis will let the media know who that choice is. From Weis’ statements however, it appears as if it won’t be long until we find out who the next quarterback coach is.
