And the new Notre Dame coach is......

[KingPK 0]

Charlie Weis is to become the new Notre Dame football coach, ESPN's Chris Mortensen reports.

 

Sources close to the university have confirmed that the New England Patriots offensive coordinator has agreed on a six-year contract that will pay him approximately $2 million per year.

 

Weis will fly to South Bend after Sunday's home game against the Cincinnati Bengals and meet with the Fighting Irish football team that night.

 

A press conference to introduce Weis will be held on Monday.

 

It became clear on Saturday that Weis had become the target of Notre Dame's search to replace Tyrone Willingham, with controversy still swirling over the coach's firing after just three seasons.

 

Notre Dame, which interviewed Weis this week, also interviewed Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Tom Clements on Thursday night. Notre Dame officials called Clements, a former Fighting Irish quarterback, on Saturday morning and told him he was no longer in the running for the job and negotiations with Weis began.

 

The report is "nothing that we would comment on," Patriots spokesman Stacey James said.

 

Weis will be the first Notre Dame alumnus to coach the Irish since Hugh Devore was interim coach in 1963. Devore replaced Joe Kuharich, who was from South Bend and a Notre Dame grad. Ara Parseghian, who became coach in 1964, was the first Irish coach in 45 years who had not played for Notre Dame.

 

Weis didn't play for the Irish either, but he did graduate from the school in 1978 with a degree in communications and education.

 

He taught and coached high school in New Jersey from 1979-84 before taking an assistant's job at South Carolina for four seasons. He returned to coaching at the high school level for one year before joining the New York Giants' pro personnel department in 1989.

Weis was hired by the Giants as defensive assistant and assistant special teams coach in 1990, earning his first Super Bowl ring. When Ray Handley was named coach of the Giants in 1991, he named Weis running backs coach.

 

Weis worked for the Patriots from 1993-96, coaching tight ends, running backs and wide receivers. In 1997, Weis was hired by New York Jets coach Bill Parcells, who asked former Giants offensive coordinator Ron Erhardt to groom Weis as the Jets' offensive coordinator. In 1998, he was named Jets offensive coordinator/wide receivers coach.

 

He has been the Patriots' offensive coordinator the past five seasons, earning two more Super Bowl rings.

 

He is credited with helping to develop quarterback Tom Brady, tight end Ben Coates, running back Curtis Martin, wide receiver Terry Glenn and former Notre Dame receiver David Givens.

 

Congratulations to the big guy, as he's been pining for a head coaching job for a few years now (it's one of the reasons he went for the stomach stapling surgery that almost killed him a few years ago).

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

I'm not sure about that choice. He's going to still be working for New England during some prime recruiting weeks.

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

Damn, I was hoping he'd be high on the Dolphins' candidate list.

[Precious Roy 0]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

[KingPK 0]

It is a 6 year deal though, so though he might miss out on this year, but if they actually honor this entire contract (unlike Willingham), he'll have a good chance to prove if he can be a head coach. This is probably a steppingstone to an NFL job later on.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

Odd choice but I shall reserve my judgment til 2007 when Weis has had a few years in Notre Dame.

[Brett Favre 0]

He was also the offensive coordinator for the 1998 AFC Title Game Jets. Good for him, he deserves. This is also good news for the rest of the NFL. Maybe the Pats lose a step or two on offense? Hopefully?

[Guest Failed Mascot]

Thing I like about this is guys from Notre Dame will be familiar with part of the Pats system now. Its looking like LSU and Notre Dame are more of the minor league affiliates for the Pats than anything else.

[Guest Vitamin X]

He was also the offensive coordinator for the 1998 AFC Title Game Jets. Good for him, he deserves. This is also good news for the rest of the NFL. Maybe the Pats lose a step or two on offense? Hopefully?

The Pats have always been ridiculously good on defense, not necessarily offense. Now if it was Romeo Crennel we were talking about..

[UZI Suicide 0]

Good for Weis but I don't see how it's all that great for ND.

[Art Sandusky 0]

Well, he's white, so he should last his whole contract.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

What happy news for Bills fans.

 

Not only did they pass over our Offensive Coordinator just when the offense started working...but they took one away from a division rival.

[Cartman 0]

If it was Crennel that left(and i believe he will soon) they have Eric Mangini right behind hiim to take over and run the same defense.

 

Replacing Weis may not be as easy though. The passing schemes weis comes up with are a huge part of the teams success. He is vastly underrated.

[Vern Gagne 0]

Well, he's white, so he should last his whole contract.

That, or Willingham was doing a poor job.

[Cartman 0]

Well, he's white, so he should last his whole contract.

That, or Willingham was doing a poor job.

Definitely the latter.

 

I'm so sick of hearing race issues in sports.

[Art Sandusky 0]

Well, he's white, so he should last his whole contract.

That, or Willingham was doing a poor job.

Because Notre Dame would break a hundred years of standards and not finish the contract of a coach because he failed to make a bowl one year. No way a bunch of rich, old, white, and catholic alumni university contributors and rich, old, white, and catholic university administrators at a rich, old, white, and catholic university would fire a younger black man.

[Guest Vitamin X]

Well, he's white, so he should last his whole contract.

That, or Willingham was doing a poor job.

I'm not too much into college sports myself, so forgive my ignorance if Willingham was indeed a terrible coach.. However, from what I've read Willingham had posted a winning record in all 3 of his seasons, and ND was even eligible for a bowl bid this season. So it's not like he was that bad, and even had been doing a better job than the men who had preceded him. So why not finish out the contract? Because a bunch of ND Football Boosters think the Irish are better than they really are?

 

Bollocks, I say.

[Bored 0]

Speaking of Willingham, ESPNews is reporting that he'll be named the head coach at Washington.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

Well, he's white, so he should last his whole contract.

That, or Willingham was doing a poor job.

I'm not too much into college sports myself, so forgive my ignorance if Willingham was indeed a terrible coach.. However, from what I've read Willingham had posted a winning record in all 3 of his seasons, and ND was even eligible for a bowl bid this season. So it's not like he was that bad, and even had been doing a better job than the men who had preceded him. So why not finish out the contract? Because a bunch of ND Football Boosters think the Irish are better than they really are?

 

Bollocks, I say.

Willingham was 10-3, 5-7 and 6-5 during his three seasons as a Notre Dame coach. He won his first 8 games his first season so his record after that point is very lackluster. I'll also point out that he won the most games with the team he had the least influence on.

[Art Sandusky 0]

So a 21-15 record over three years justifies a firing and, once again, breaking their previous stance of honoring the whole of signed contracts.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

I blame his firing on Ron Zook getting the boot midseason from Florida. I think Willingham would've survived the season but seeing Zook get the boot just added fuel to the fire.

 

And 21-15 is an unacceptable record in college football. If you're at a top of the line school, Notre Dame isn't but they think they are, then averaging 5 losses a year is completely unacceptable.

[The Czech Republic 0]

So a 21-15 record over three years justifies a firing

Yeah it does, that's a 7-5 average record, which in D1-A college football is like going 3 and a million.

[2GOLD 0]

I just love how the AD and the President were claiming they had nothing to do with the firing of Willingham. I guess a magic Notre Dame fairy appeared and fired him for them.

 

When the two people in charge of the program claim neither fired the coach, then yes I believe something is rotten at the Golden Dome.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

Or both guys are just talking out their asses.

[Art Sandusky 0]

So a 21-15 record over three years justifies a firing

Yeah it does, that's a 7-5 average record, which in D1-A college football is like going 3 and a million.

7-5 gets you into a bowl easily. There are 28 bowls, so only 56 teams out of 118(I think) have a postseason. The only teams that might be bowl eligible and not make it are from smaller conferences or whatnot, and Notre Dame has no problem with this because they're far from being some mid-major wallowing in obscurity. Not a good excuse. I mean, this wasn't as absurd as the firing of Ron Zook, but still baffling.

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

ND is supposed to be a top-shelf program. 7-5 and a mid-level bowl doesn't cut it at top-shelf programs.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

If you're an elite program anything under 8-3 is unacceptable.

[The Czech Republic 0]

So a 21-15 record over three years justifies a firing

Yeah it does, that's a 7-5 average record, which in D1-A college football is like going 3 and a million.

7-5 gets you into a bowl easily.

But which bowl?

[Art Sandusky 0]

Yes, ignore the rest of what I said.

 

And honestly, to call Notre Dame elite still is starting to sound silly. Their fall hasn't been as precipitous as Penn State, but they're upper-midcard talent now.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

If you're at a top of the line school, Notre Dame isn't but they think they are, then averaging 5 losses a year is completely unacceptable.

 

Hence why I wrote that earlier.