Charlie Weis announced the honorary coaches for next month’s Blue/Gold game at his Friday press conference and the list is full of NFL talent. Weis has New York Giants defensive end Justin Tuck, Arizona Cardinals defensive end Bertrand Berry, Tampa Bay Bucs center Jeff Faine, and former Washington Redskins running back and current Notre Dame manager for Football Alumni Relations Reggie Brooks lined up to serve as honorary coaches for this year’s Blue/Gold Game which takes place April 18.
Like my last post, I’ll have a full feature article on the homepage later tonight (UPDATE: Here is a link to the feature article) about the coaches, but for now, here’s a little of what Weis had to say about each of the former players he has coming back.
- Justin Tuck – “The Giants win the Super Bowl, and Justin Tuck was the main reason why.”
- Bertrand Berry – “Bertrand graduated in ’97, whereas Justin graduated in 2004. But they were both major integral parts of the success of their teams, but we’re delighted to have them coming in for the Blue and Gold Game.”
- Jeff Faine – “Offensively, Jeff Faine, just yesterday we got that finally closed down. We’ve been working on this for a while. He was checking his mini camp schedules in Tampa. We’re really excited. “
- Reggie Brooks – “Though he’s wearing a lot of hats that weekend, he will be involved in the Blue and Gold Game as well.”
Another pretty solid set of honorary coaches put together by Weis. This tradition of bringing back former players as coaches each year is one of the best things Weis has done since he’s been named head coach. Just to refresh everyone’s memory, here is a list of the past Blue/Gold Game coaches.
- 2005: Joe Montana, Joe Theisman, Chris Zorich, and Tim Brown
- 2006: Rocket Ismail, Jerome Bettis, and Mike and Bob Golic
- 2007: Lou Holtz, Foge Fazio, Tony Yelovich, Ara , Parseghian, Joe Yonto and Brian Boulac
- 2008: Jim Morse, Terry Hanrattay, Terry Eurick, Allen Pinkett, Bryant Young, and Ryan Grant
Terry Eurick was named a coach representing the 1970s for the 2008 Blue-Gold game but didn’t end up making it in. Former ND All-America Greg Marx replaced him representing the 1970s.
What is great about Tuck coming back is that he was very critical of Willingham being fired and hasn’t said a whole lot about ND since then. He’s also an up and coming star DE in the NFL. Young DE’s seeing that can only help us.
hmmm is it a coincidencethat his bringing in d-linemen, and o lineman and runningaback, when those are our three areas that need most improvement. i love Tuck was an underrated player when he played.