How the fuck…?
Sitting here this week awash in depression, shock, and utter disgust, I can’t get past the fact that we just lost at home – again – to a mediocre Naval Academy squad that likely couldn’t have taken out my high school team (Navy!!!) and followed it up by U.P.S.’ing it for Pitt.
And after drinking away most of the sorrows, you can’t help but keep asking just how the fuck we’re not better than we are. How the fuck did we load up a roster with multiple Top Ten recruiting classes and then lose to a Michigan team that’s now 1-6 in conference play? How the fuck is it possible that we have a better-than-50% chance of not scoring when we have a first down inside the 10? How the fuck was this staff able to string together two consecutive B.C.S. appearances and create arguably the best offense in school history, then backfill the roster with far better raw material, and be sitting here five years later with a very real chance of winning six games?
There’s not one answer, and there aren’t really any easy ones, but here’s The Can’s best stab at how the fuck we got here:
1 – The 2006 Recruiting Class
While this was probably most touted class the program had reeled in since Bob Davie’s earlier years (#6 in Scout’s Rankings), we’ve reached the point where we can pretty safely give this group a collective label of “bust.” Ironically, this class is quite reminiscent of some of Davie’s: Loaded with “stars,” lauded by the Tom Lemmings of the world, and filled with guys who don’t remotely seem to fit the big picture. While there have been some good players to come out of it, far more haven’t panned out, especially at critical positions.
The one position where we absolutely, positively needed a hit was at Quarterback, and to say we failed would be understating the matter galactically. Frazer and Jones were two headcase drama queens not remotely worth their press clippings, but with the added bonuses of being cancerous teammates who knocked shit from the table. Mind you, the alternative was a redneck soap opera of its own, and I’ve never wept that we bowed out of the Mitch Mustain Mama Drama. A glaring, blaring, motherfucker of failure.
Tailback was another critical miss, and much like recruiting a running quarterback who couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn from ten paces, I have to ask what the thought process was with our strategy. Don’t get me wrong – Aldridge was an absolute beast in high school, and I’m sure that the staff watched his highlights and envisioned a cross between Corey Dillon and Ahman Green (I sure as hell did). And while injuries have gone a long way towards keeping him from reaching his five-star potential, how useful is a 220-lb. bruiser when your plan is to run mostly one-back formations with zone-read runs that favor quicker, niftier backs? And I couldn’t even tell you where Munir Prince is these days. Missouri? SEMO? Hell with it, I’m not taking the time to look it up.
Further, failing to land a single studuseful receiver has been absolutely devastating for the team. I can’t believe more people don’t talk about this. George West and Barry Gallup are essentially M.I.A., Richard Jackson showed next to nothing and left town, and Robby Parris, while productive, is never going to be confused with Stovall or Samardzjia. Just one receiver the caliber of Tate and another in the range of Goodman or Walker would have made a huge difference in the offense to date. We weren’t close here, and it kills us to this day when we go 3, 4, and 5-wide.
And of course at the bottom of the stocking, Carufel and Reuland got yeast infections and left, Yeatman was a victim of Notre Dame’s draconian Residence Life policies, and Gaines/Gordon/Schmidt/Burkhart/Mullen/Wade arrived on campus and promptly disappeared.
The first full class a new coach recruits is generally his best – he has momentum, a new energy about the program, and the most mojo and fan support he’ll likely ever have during his tenure. And while it’s always critical from the standpoint of getting your era up and running, it was exponentially more so in Weis’ case, because as we all know by now Lionel Tyrone preceded him with the two worst classes in the school’s history (doing so consecutively before moving on to leave a heaping pile of bouncing rubble where The University of Washington’s football program used to be). We needed a home run, and we missed at the most critical positions. That’s why we’re probably still a year away on this rebuilding project, despite that fact that it’s Weis’ fifth year.
2 – Running Backs
The short of this is that we never replaced Darius Walker. We got a couple of big backs (Hughes, Aldridge), a speed back (Allen), and a guy that seems to have all the tools (Gray), and we have neverbeen remotely the same unit since #3 packed up early and headed to Rookie Free Agency (a bizarre event that was never fully explained). All are physically stronger, all but one likely have better top-end speed, but Walker’s vision and shiftiness are apparently the two most critical attributes for a back in Weis’ offense. The only one to even look close has been Allen, but the guy just hasn’t been durable or reliable enough to carry the load consistently. They each miss holes, blocks, and cutback lanes…and it’s enough to drive you insane. It’s possible that Theo Riddick, with his open-field skills and hands, is perfect for this system…but I doubt we’re going to find out.
3 – Defensive Identity Crisis
This one’s a bigger deal than anyone seems to bring up – we’ve had three totally different defensive schemes in the last four years.
We ran Minter’s 4-3/Cover 2 scheme for two seasons, which failed for a variety of reasons: Slow inside linebacker(s), complex and confusing assignment reads that slow down the pursuit, and the Travis Thomas Experiment. It wasn’t very good, but things may have gone differently with a better front seven and Walls/Gray/Blanton/McNeil at the corners.
After the Sugar Bowl blowout went down and Weis wanted to get the band back together, in came Corwin Brown and the 3-4. We recruited guys like Williams and Neal and wanted them to play Nose Tackle and 3-4 End. Opposing coaches used this as bait to steer away top interior linemen, telling them of the boredom of soaking up blockers while the Linebackers rushed the passer, made the tackles, and banged the cheerleaders…meaning adios to Trattou and Hunter (stick me in pee-hole, those were huge losses…), as well as most other elite tackle prospects.
One year later, in came Tenuta, and back to the 4-3 we go……only we’re trying to do it with the aforementioned 320-lb. Ian Williams playing a Tackle position where gap penetration is critical, and Kerry Neal at End, despite the fact that he’s a far different type of player than that position really requires. And of course, we’ve been forced to throw true frosh and sophs like K.L.M., Te’o, Fleming, and Johnson into the mix, as well.
I don’t like Tenuta’s blitz-crazy tendencies, and I do think many of his decisions have killed us this season. It’s insane to regularly rush seven defenders on 3rd and 11 (or damn near every other play, for that matter). But I also know that any defensive system looks better with players who have more than a year’s worth of experience in it and any semblance of appropriate, experienced personnel.
4 – The Offensive Philosophy
This last one pains me, because when Weis’ offense is clicking, it’s an absolute thing of beauty. Receivers get open in all areas of the field, Tight Ends get isolated in huge mismatches, and Backs are all alone for checkdowns on nearly every play. And it can be used in any number of ways, such as explosive downfield plays that quickly bury inferior teams (Navy, Air Force, Purdue, Stanford from 2005-2006), efficient two-minute drills, and even for slowed-up ball control schemes (U.S.C. 2005). It’s really a great system with the right players in place, and Weis is a very, very savvy and creative play-caller.
But what we have to admit at this point are some simple, undeniable facts:
- Weis has Mike Martz-itis. He loves his Quarterbacks, and he’ll throw 80% of the time whether we’re running effectively or not. For every 12-yard gain Armando Allen rips off, there will be 5 passes. For every two plays we line up with a standard pro set and grind out 10 yards between the tackles, we’ll then spread the field with five-wide and sling it for quarters at a time. And every time we get 2nd and 2, 3rd and 1, or anywhere inside the goalline, you’d damn well better believe we’re about to start inexplicably hurling fade passes or a play-action, instead of narrowing the splits on the offensive line and bulldozing forward. Can you even begin to guess how many times this has turned First and Goal at the 3 into 3rd and 12? It’s like once a game, right? Someone should find out.
- We don’t run-block well. At all. I don’t know if this is an issue of talent or coaching or practice. But for whatever reason, defenses have learned that they can drop seven into coverage and leave four down linemen, and there’s not much to worry about. Not only are we not going to stick with the running game, but there’s an excellent chance that five offensive linemen will lose the battle to four defenders, or that a back will miss the hole or the cutback lane, and that even if the first four are cleared, no one’s getting downfield to spring a hole in the secondary and break a long run that will force D.C.’s to keep more defenders in the box. I’ve been told that we don’t hit enough in practice, I’ve been told our Strength and Conditioning program doesn’t develop our power to the fullest, and others will tell you that a finesse style of offense is simply going to give you finesse linemen. My guess is that we spend so much time working on scheme and assignment, that we don’t have enough room to focus on lining up and drilling the piss out of the mouthy bitch lined up across from you. Which brings me to…
- The weekly gameplans are just too complicated. Or maybe “cute” is a better word. College Football allows for 20 hours of preparation a week. And invariably, we’re going to come out and show about 30 different formations and run about 30 different plays out of each. And maybe that’s why it looks like we’ve got players in pass protection who think too much. And maybe that’s why when we reach the red zone, we have about a thousand play variations that might or might not work, instead of several that almost certainly will. This just doesn’t seem to consistently work with the college game with the degree of turnover and inexperience you’ll have each season, meaning you’re probably always going to have a good 9/10/11-win season as your apex, followed by a couple of 6-8 win seasons as a baseline.
So now, we’re at a crossroads where it’s time to make a decision about where we’re headed. And unfortunately, I just don’t see how the program can afford to retain Weis any longer. As last season ended, Swarbrick made the amateurunwise decision to remain silent on our coaching situation for a week that seemed to last an eternity, lending some credence to the rumors that a change was being considered. Consequently, not only did we miss out on a few prospects to close the recruiting dash last February, but the offseason and preseason stories became all about Weis and his jumbo hot seat, a nugget not lost on opposing coaches who have been chasing the same top recruits as the Irish. We’ve lost out on several recruits because of this uncertainty over who would be their coach in a year’s time, and have several more that have yet to commit to us for precisely this reason.
We may yet close with a good class, but it won’t be an elite one. And there will be key holes at positions that will become critical to fill in a year’s time, meaning that even if you do have faith that Weis can run a top college program in the right scenario (and I do), we simply can’t afford another full year of rumors, speculation, and general media noise regarding his job security. It’ll just put us further behind the Top 10-15 programs’ rosters, and we need to stabilize the wheel now if we have any intention of competing for championships in the next five years.
And unfortunately, it doesn’t look like that can happen without a change at the top.