November 15, 2007
How Charlie Weiss Deals With Losses: He Owns Them
Maybe Notre Dame's head football coach Charlie Weiss has to state the obvious. His team is 1-9 and is being hailed as the worst team in that school's long and illustrious history. They may not win another game. There certainly are questions about his ability to coach the college game, despite his first 2 years at ND being positive, but there is one thing Weiss is very capable of doing. He is taking the blame (from Stewart Mandel, Sports Illustrated):
"Rather than sit there and make excuses and talk about the volume of numbers in the upper classes, you just have to say you didn't do a good enough job of putting them in a position to win," he said after the Navy game. "I take all the responsibility."
That is a man talking with absolute confidence in his abilities. Weiss is not getting it done but because he KNOWS he CAN get it done he has no problem admitting failure. Contrast that with our own Karl Dorrell and his Culture of Blame. Karl Dorrell would get much more respect if he owned up like Weiss does here, but we can all see it in Dorrell's face on the sideline and in press conferences: he simply doesn't believe he is capable. That is why you don't hear him own up. Remember what Dorrell said after the inexcusable embarrassment at Utah:
"This was a complete team effort, in terms of how well we did not execute in offense, defense and special teams."
Weak. We had nearly our entire team there (no injury excuse) and Utah was playing mostly underclassman and backups in key positions. And we still got creamed. And Dorrell lays blame on everyone within his reach … surprisingly missing out on the referees.
We bring up this point for another reason - putting the players you have in a position to win IS the coach's job, as Weiss states. So enough about the players being the ones who put on the pads, about the players not executing, about having to play backups. All coaches and teams have injuries and problems to overcomes, that's football and life. It's what you do with what you've got that matters. And on that point, Karl Dorrell has not measured up in so many ways. Worst of all, he can't even own up to it.



















2 Comments on How Charlie Weiss Deals With Losses: He Owns Them
November 15, 2007
Nathan @ 5:51 pm:
If you read the middle of that article — page 2, it says:
Nebraska’s Bill Callahan (who led the Oakland Raiders to a Super Bowl) and UCLA’s Karl Dorrell (a former Denver Broncos position coach) are likely down to their last days. Their teams, much like the coaches, have been marked not only by their underachieving record but a visible lack of emotion. Similarly, Pittsburgh’s Dave Wannstedt, a 10-year NFL head coach, is just 15-17 in three seasons at his alma mater. Georgia Tech has a modest .581 winning percentage (about the same as Weis’ .571 mark) in six seasons under former Cowboys coach Chan Gailey.
I’m surprised you didn’t also trumpet this quote.
November 18, 2007
Joshua @ 9:38 am:
Sorry but this is not true. Weis might be saying that now, but after the Air Force game he was in full-on “blame the players” mode.
http://wearesc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19394
(sorry about that being a USC fan site, it has the full quote).
In summary: “I am amazing teacher. I might be doing something wrong but the players have to think about why they aren’t getting my amazing teaching lessons”.
Charlie Weis is a horrible football coach and right up there with the worst of ‘em in college football today.