I didn’t sleep last night.
I’ve been Google searching, board hopping, ESPN monitoring, emailing sending, and generally over-obsessing on the coaching situation since late yesterday afternoon. My living room looks like a command center—and all of it has been in anticipation of the news now coming over the wires from all sources.
Charlie Weis is out.
The decision itself has ramifications that are at once sad, terrifying, and exhilarating.
Sad because I feel genuinely sorry for Charlie Weis and his family. Despite the petty cruelties of some message board people, everyone has to at least acknowledge that Weis is a good man. I have never met the man but I have always had a sense that he is a solid family man, a charitable man, and, despite occasional surface presentations, a softie. His players undoubtedly love him. “Pass Right” and “Hannah And Friends” alone should have earned him the respect that he never seemed to earn with the more crusty Irish fans among us. Let’s not forget, Charlie is a Domer. I wish him well.
Terrifying because I’m not certain where this leaves us. I expect that Weis’ ouster means that both Clausen and Tate are NFL-bound, if they weren’t already. I think it means that we lose a number of key recruits. Recruits that have formed relationships with the man and his staff. Recruits that wanted to come to Notre Dame to play for him.
Exhilarating because, at the risk of waxing poetic, a new day dawns. We are on the verge of yet another turn around. I don’t yet know who will replace Charlie Weis but if any among the names out there are true, be it Stoops, Kelly, Patterson, Davis, or someone we have yet to even consider, things will be new come spring football 2010. A new offense. A new defense. A new recruiting class. That’s exciting.
All I ask is that we remain calm. In the next few days think before you start a rumor. No one cares if your cousin’s best friend lives in Elkhart and “heard from a guy”. Jack Swarbrick is the only one that knows. And he ain’t talkin’.
Now, I’m going to get some sleep.
Go Irish.
Great post! The rumor mills are busting at the seems spreading their canidates for the job.
it’s “pass right”