March 22, 2005
Notre Dame head football coach Charlie Weis spent some time with the media on Tuesday, March 22, in preview of the team’s upcoming spring practice schedule. After some opening comments (which included an announcement that assistant head coach/quarterback David Cutcliffe will not take part in spring workouts after recovering from off-season surgery), the Irish head coach took a few questions from the media as well.
Coach Weis: “I wanted to go over a little bit of the `State of the Union’ so we can get caught up since the first couple times I talked to you. Obviously we have come a long way in a short time and have a way to go to get things the way we like to do business.
“This year, what I tried to do for the spring game, I tried to involve a number of our ex-players more than they have in the past. I am going to name today a couple of names that will sound familiar to you all who will work as honorary coaches for the Blue and Gold game. For the Blue Team, the names are Montana and Zorich. The Gold Team, there will be two names helping out called Theismann and Brown. It was one of my aims to try to get some of our alums back in the program. “
Question about how quickly he will implement his offense…
Coach Weis: “I think you better not do more than your players are capable of doing. If we can come out of spring ball setting up the foundation of the offense, that will let you expound and expand your offense during training camp. It really depends on how much the quarterback can take. He is the one that is going to have to run the whole show. Obviously, I am going to be pretty hands on with the coaches because of the absence of David (Cutcliffe), so I will have a pretty good handle on how that is progressing.
“We have set up a pretty aggressive implementation schedule for spring ball and we figure we can always tone it back if it is too much. That is the way we are going to approach it.”
Question about if he decided to include former players in the spring game because that was lacking in the past…
Coach Weis: “I don’t really know the answer because I was not here. I don’t have all the answers. I think there is a rich tradition at Notre Dame and I would like to have those players as a part of it. I just know that I feel I am a part of Notre Dame, I am not Notre Dame itself and those four players are alums of Notre Dame, who were a part of this program, who matriculated through here and can help restore the image of Notre Dame. One of the biggest goals I am trying to accomplish is to get us all where we want to be. That includes the writers too. Your jobs are a lot easier when we are winning game than when we are losing.”
Question about which ex-player he chose to include…
Coach Weis: “Part of it was familiarity. Tim (Brown) and I had several conversations over the last months on the possibility of coming to work here. That was one of the easier ones. Joe Theismann and I have had contact over the years through the NFL. Joe Montana and I graduated together. One my focal points, as I have said all along, is to try to get into Chicago and get back into the Midwest as a hard focal point for recruiting. I thought Chris (Zorich) would be a very good representation of that Chicago/Midwest mentality.”
Question about his first impression of the Notre Dame football players…
Coach Weis: “They are very smart, to start off with. I think we have to play to that ability. Sometimes people talk about academic standards as a negative, and I think we are in a new offense, new defense, new special teams, you can definitely place that into being a positive. I think they are hungry to win. When you have those two things, they (the players) have a lot of work to do, the coaches have a lot of work to do, but when you have a bunch of intelligent guys who really want to win – you have a chance.”
Question about his excitement level right now…
Coach Weis: “I am encouraged. I’ll keep my enthusiasm at a minimum at this point. I have not even seen us on a football field.”
Question about possible position changes…
Coach Weis: “We have tweaked a couple of guys based on our offensive and defensive schemes. The bottom line is, I first need to find out if they play the positions they play now. I think that we are not overly deep at any position, so the first thing I want to see is if they can play their own position before I start worrying about moving them to a different position. But, there are a couple guys we have tweaked based on who we are going to line up offensively and defensively. Those will present themselves here in the near future.”
Question about changing his patience level with the limited practice time compared to the NFL…
Coach Weis: “It will require a different set of time management skills. I don’t think patience is it. Because now you are dealing with a 20-hour work week and you need to realize what you can get accomplished in that limited time frame. I don’t think you can get overly creative or overly imaginative – that doesn’t mean you can’t get creative. I think you have to recognize the time restraints and, being as we are going to abide by the letter of the law when those times come, you have to recognize what you can and cannot do during that time frame.”
Question if any other coaches or systems have influenced his implementation plans…
Coach Weis: “Most of the foundation of what I do, most of it, either comes from New England or those guys right there (points to assistant coaches). I went ahead and hired one of the best staffs that you can possibly assemble and I think that for me, trying to think I have all the answers is wrong. What I try to do is lay out a basic format based on what I know and utilize the assistants to work together, mesh together and try to come up with something I deem acceptable.”
Question about how involved the honorary coaches will be in the Blue and Gold Game…
Coach Weis: “They are dogging each other pretty good right now. They are talking unofficial trash back and forth. I think the fact that they are coming in on Friday for a game on Saturday, I think that they will have to catch up with what the limited game plan will be. I don’t want to go into a spring game and just show up. How much we do in the spring game will be determined by how many injuries you have during the spring and what your depth is at that time. I would like to give those guys somewhat of an active role so it isn’t just a `show up and here we are.’ I think it will be a good experience for them and it will be a great experience for our players.”
Question about how much of his offense he will attempt to implement this spring…
Coach Weis: “A whole bunch. Our philosophy has always been – throw it on the wall and see what sticks. Some people put a little in, put a little in, put a little more in. What I would rather do is put a whole bunch in and see what they can handle and try to get rid of what they can’t handle. Some of it you may never pick up. Some times it might be just a little too much. Some of it I might happen to like when I am watching it and we will do it a little more.
“A lot of it depends on personnel and how much they can pick up mentally. You go out there and you see, well, there are six running backs you want to play. Then you line up in a lot more two-back sets. Let’s say there are four tight ends you wanted to play, or five wide receivers you wanted to play. A lot of what we do schematically is personnel-related. We are going into spring ball with an open mind. A lot of these players have an equal opportunity to show us what they can and cannot do.”
Question on if the coaching staff has developed a two-deep chart…
Coach Weis: “I think if you have already established who the two-deep are you are not being fair. Then what you are doing is judging or basing your depth chart on past performance. I don’t think that is the right way of doing business because you are new. I can say that Brady Quinn is the starting quarterback. One of the reasons I can say that is because the guys behind him have no experience. We have many players at many positions, whether they have played or haven’t played, that know that they might go in with the first team the first day, but most of these battles are wide open.”
Question on improving the performance of the offense this season…
Coach Weis: “I am not going to talk about the past. Any time you are on one side of the ball and have 10 of 11 starters coming back, what you do have is experience. I think experience is invaluable. On the other side of the ball, where you have many more younger guys getting into the mix, you have to play to the exuberance of those guys. There are pros and cons whichever way you look at it.”
Question on the national background of the coaching staff…
Coach Weis: “It was all by design. This is not a pat on the back. This was laid out last summer. Not that you were going to get every guy in this room who was first on your list. The staff is put together two ways. One is designed on experience, which is tiered as well. One is designed that you have both coaching and recruiting experience mixed into the same staff.”
Question on if the regional backgrounds of the assistant coaches was thought about for recruiting purposes…
Coach Weis: “I am not stupid.”
Question on how he will measure whether the spring is a success…
Coach Weis: “Success is subjective and relative. The most important thing is that we need to make progress both physically and mentally. At this point, it is more evaluations that we have to get through in the spring so we really know what we have once we get to August. A lot of these questions are going to be answered for us when we get out there. Right now, there are still a number of unknowns. There might be players here that you have a better feel for on the field than I do. We have tried to go into the spring being objective and not prejudging anyone.
“I would hope that we have a lay of the land, on all of our offensive packages, of whether we have enough personnel to run them. We like to use a multiple tight end package where we have three tight ends on the field. I want to know if we have three tight ends good enough to consider that package. Some years you might not have three tight ends, you might have two tight ends which is another way of loading it up to pound it at people. It is really important, from our standpoint, to identify what we have. I promise you right now we do not know what we have. A lot of those questions will be answered by the time spring is over.”
Question about his series of meetings with the student body…
Coach Weis: “The reason I met the student body was really because I was a student here. I thought, if I went to school here, if the head coach came into my dorm one night at 10:15, sat down and just shot the breeze for 45 minutes, I thought that would have been pretty cool.
“What I am trying to do is not so much talk about X’s and O’s. I am trying to talk about what going to Notre Dame really stands for. I think that if I can be a good representative of what a graduate and alum of Notre Dame can do with a Notre Dame education – coming from a guy who didn’t play ball himself and now you are the head coach at the University. I am trying to get them to aspire to higher goals. I am hoping that that type of thing permeates through the football team.”
Question about how much film he has watched…
Coach Weis: “I have watched very little film. The only film I am going to spend a lot of time with is evaluating teams that we are going to play. When I can watch their defensive and offensive players against our defensive and offensive players. For example, Pittsburgh. We just played them last year. Even though the schemes will be different, it is still our players going against their players. It gives you a good judge of how so-and-so matched up with so-and-so. As far as team concepts, I really haven’t had the time to look at film. I decided not to spend time in that direction because I really wanted to be open minded going into March.”
Question about his motivation on asking ex-players to come back for the Blue and Gold Game…
Coach Weis: “A big part of Notre Dame is tradition. That is one of the things we have always heard about since we were little kids. I think that sometimes players, and students for that matter, should be reminded of that tradition. I think these four players are representative of the tradition of Notre Dame. That is one of the things I find very important and I want to make sure I magnify it.”