By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:53:46 +0000

In 1990, the last person I coached against was Chris Petersen. He beat me, barely! He was himself an accomplished quarterback at UC Davis and has done a great job at Boise winning with talent that I suspect the elite programs wouldn’t actively recruit.
It’s time for ND to start looking outside the fold. Peterson knows the spread offense and would be a refreshing change. As in all occupations, there are always new talents developing. Think outside the box ND.

By: Bill in Shanghai

Bill in Shanghai — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 03:48:46 +0000

I have several reactions to all this:
1. I think Notre Dame has been very naive in the way they handled the decision to look elsewhere, assuming the AD is being candid. There was at least a 50/50 chance CW would be fired after Navy, maybe higher, so that’s when they should have started this as a confidential search. It happens very frequently that an incumbent is not told that a search is underway for his replacement. The excuse that “we had a head coach” is silly. If he’d won out, they could always have backed off.
2. We are already reaping the down side of firing CW. Our top recruit, Chris Martin (a defensive line guy no less), is backing out–exactly the part of the team we’ve all said has been the main weakness at ND.
3. Anybody who believes this recruiting trip by the assistants is anything other than going through the motions doesn’t understand human nature. They will likely all be fired as the new guy brings in his own team. They will be doing what we all would be doing, which is concentrating on where we go next. Additionally, they are essentially eunichs in this process, as they have no position of authority to tell recruits anything that has power behind it. The recruits know these coaches are lame ducks and can’t commit anything to them.
4.Under no circumstances would I keep Brown–these guys were woefully bad in the secondary, and a lot of that did look like technique coaching. Tenuta should go too, I think.
5. I think ND is betting the ranch on this decision. A change causes chaos in the recruiting process, entails a complete system change by the new guy, and always involves the risk of another hire that doesn’t pan out. I think I would have kept CW 1 more year, as at least the offense was cooking, and we’d have a better chance of keeping Tate and Clausen. I would have fired whomever needed firing on defense and committed to catch the defense up to the offense before going whole hog again to replace the entire shebang.
6. If this decision doesn’t pan out, and it’s off to a bad start with losing the DE recruit and with guys like Stoops and Meyer just not going to come, then we really will become irrelevant. It’s happened before to other formerly great programs.
For all our sake,I hope they get it right this time since they’ve bet the ranch.

By: irishfanintx

irishfanintx — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:18:13 +0000

Keith,
What’s the chances on getting Charlie’s thoughts on the firing and what his plans are for the future? I know what the media speculation but would like to hear from him what he plans on doing.

By: SDI

SDI — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:47:01 +0000

Keith–I think you mean John Tenuta in the second paragraph.

By: TLNDMA

TLNDMA — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:08:57 +0000

A few of these guys may stick around, Ianello, Alford, Verducci and maybe Brown, if I were to hazzard a wild guess. If we have a coach in about 2 weeks, this recuiting class can be saved.

Comments on: Ianello and assistants true professionals

By: Mike

By: Bill in Shanghai

By: irishfanintx

By: SDI

By: TLNDMA