2007 SEASON PREVIEW: AUGUST 25, 2007

In the Irish Dictionary, Rebuilding Means Reloading

By Paul Smith / smith@collegeblitz.com

Chesterton, Ind. » First thing you must remember about Charlie Weis is his coaching resume. When you have had a pair of Bills — Parcells and Belichick — for your bosses and, not entirely coincidentally, sport four Super Bowl rings, underneath that gruff Jersey exterior, cartoon-character face and "Happy Days" crewcut is the mind of a football scientist.

A mad scientist at times.

People never stop learning when they deal with Charlie Weis.

As he stood in the storied, spacious Monogram Room at Joyce Center this past Monday morning, an unsuspecting media member, steeped in the world of cliches and format questioning asked exactly the wrong question.

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Notre Dame had graduated Brady Quinn, the flashy quarterback with the Gentleman's Quarterly profile. Gone, too, from a team that went 10-3 last fall were big time downfield playmakers Jeff Samardzija and Rhema McKnight plus feature back Darius Walker, whose evasive, twisting runs sustained many a key Fighting Irish drive, including several bursts in an improbable come-from-behind home win over U.C.L.A.

Lose all the words of that early question, one of the first as the media sheep munched on their brunch.

Rebuilding.

Followed by a look that could at once be described as a cross between watchdog and basset hound.

"Rebuilding?" he repeated in mock surprise, a photo opportunity not missed by South Bend's WNDU-TV. "May God strike me dead if I use that word." Some of the more mean-spirited coaches would have cut that off at the pass, but Weis can be charmer one minute, churl the next.

"I have an ethical responsibility to those nine guys who came back (including thunderous super-senior cornerback Tom Zbikowski, huge tight end John Carlson, who has All-American potential, and others who most definitely will contribue). They all graduated. They came back to win this year. I owe it to them to try to win now."

If you have visited the bucolic campus, you know it contrasts boldly with the gritty, rusted-out rustbelt look of South Bend.

There are no palm trees, no 80-degree late-November days with scantily-clad cheerleaders and Southeastern Conference rituals.

Notre Dame is what it is, in some ways the hardest of hard sells, but it has what few of the glitzy, Playboy cover, margaritaville campuses offer in competitive volume.

Tradition.

"When I got here (in December, 2004), we knew there weren't too many expectations," Weis said, not needing to recall the Irish's freefall under Ty Willingham. "We played with a chip on our shoulder."

"We played that way through the season."

Only a screwy overtime finish against Michigan State and a totally-questionable clock restoration by Pac-10 officials in the final seconds enabling No. 1 U.S.C. to escape with a late touchdown and 34-31 win separated the Irish from the most storied season in their history, as they finished 9-2 in the 2005 regular season and lost to No. 5 Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl.

Last year, with most of the significant players returning? In the end, the record was the same, the feeling was not. "It was a totally different feeling," Weis assessed.

This year, with the massive rite of personnel passage, the Irish will be college football's yon Cassius, lean and hungry look. Nine straight bowl losses dating back to the back end of the Lou Holtz years, by an average of 16.5 points, underline that. Particularly that stinging 41-14 Sugar Bowl loss to L.S.U. last January.

Then you throw in a fairly candid observation by E.S.P.N. college football analyst Mark May, who looked at Notre Dame's first eight games -- opening with Atlantic Coast Conference contender Georgia Tech, at Penn State, Michigan, home to a Michigan State team with a new coach, Mark Dantonio, at Purdue, U.C.L.A., then home with Boston College and U.S.C.

"Seven bowl teams in the first eight games,' May declared on E.S.P.N.'s college football show last week. "They could go 2-6 or even 1-7."

"He's entitled to his opinion, of course," tight end Carlson said to WNDU-TV. "He's seen a lot of football."

But there was little doubting Carlson's sense of purpose. His eyes stared daggers as he spoke. Mention May, the former Pitt All-American lineman and Washington Redskins all-pro, and you will set a record for shortest conversations ever held with Notre Dame players.

And this year, maybe more than usual, a sense of secrecy. Weis learned over a nearly two-decade span under the masters that you despense only the information you want the media to know.

Thus the entire Irish football community danced its way through the starting quarterback issue.

Right now, the Irish starting Q.B. is a three-headed monster -- much-heralded freshman Jimmy Clausen from Westlake Village, Calif., the nation's most touted, along with junior Evan Sharpley and the more athletic sophomore, Demetrius Jones, who logged some promising playing time behind Quinn last fall.

Weis fended off rumors that Clausen was injured. "I really don't want to tell Georgia Tech what I'm doing," Weis told John O'Malley of The Times of Northwest Indiana, "because I'd rather they spend more time having to figure out what we're doing.

"Are they going to play a true dropback quarterback (Clausen)? Are they going to play an athletic quarterback (Jones). I'm not really in the business of giving out free information."

Indeed.

So the Irish approach this season with an honest, healthy sense of desperation, a desire to do more than just vie for the spotlight.

How good can they be? Center John Sullivan, who plays at least at a near All-American level, anchors a potentially-strong, if somewhat inexperienced offensive line.

The running attack will feature plenty of inexperience -- James Aldridge, who rushed only 37 times for 147 yards last year, has logged the most playing time -- but also some young talent. Two talented freshmen in Chicago's Robert Hughes, who rushed for 22 touchdowns at and Miami product Armando Allen will blend with Junior Jabbie, who earned most valuable players in the spring Blue-Gold scrimmage to give Weis some semblance of a running attack.

Weis hopes.

The offense, then, would appear to be a definite question mark. But as an offensive coordinator in the pros, Weis was an exclamation point.

Defensively, ummm, no, Weis didn't cry, "Volunteers?" last spring. Zbikowski and linebacker Maurice Crum are the genuine articles, potentially two of the nation's best.

But inexperience surrounds the other side of the ball for the Irish. Make no mistake there. New defensive coordinator Corwin Brown will introduced a 3-4 scheme not unlike the one you see in the pros with an emphasis on edge rushing and active linebackers to jam up running plays.

Trying to predict any Notre Dame season over the past 12-13 years has been a dicey deal. But with Weis' ability to get maximum output, in time the Irish should mature enough to be at least competitive.

Throw in a blowout recruiting season and Irish fans will have plenty to look forward to.

In 2008.

This year ... the Irish are reb...oops, reloading. How quickly they do may represent the difference between perhaps a 6-6 finish and 8-4. If it's any better than 8-4 look out next year!