In the News
11/11/2006
Weis proof that dreams do come true
By Clay Latimer, Rocky Mountain NewsNovember 11, 2006
Charlie Weis really knows how to get into a part.
In only his second year as Notre Dame coach, he has directed magical come-from-behind wins against Michigan State and UCLA.
On a campus smitten with mystique, he appeared at a Friday night pep rally with Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger of Hollywood fame.
In only his fourth game as a head coach, he used a pass play that had been called by a 10- year-old dying of cancer - from Notre Dame's 1-yard line.
Move over, Lou Holtz. Fighting Irish folklore might be adding a new chapter.
Weis, the first Notre Dame graduate to coach the team since 1963, seems perfectly cast to revive a slumbering dynasty and recreate the magic of Knute Rockne, the Four Horsemen and other Irish legends.
"It feels almost like the place has an aura to it," Weis said this week in a teleconference.
"Even today, I'll go by the library and there I am - looking up at Touchdown Jesus. I've been to a lot of places and never felt the same feeling."
Those are soothing words to Notre Dame fans, but not as soothing as Weis' record: 17 wins in 21 games. A Top 10 ranking. The possibility of a Bowl Championship Series game. Elite recruits. Talk of a national championship after a decade of mediocrity.
"He's brought special energy to the program," said Air Force coach Fisher DeBerry, whose team (4-4) hosts No. 9 Notre Dame (8-1) today at Falcon Stadium (2 p.m., CSTV).
It's too early to know if Weis has staying power on a campus that considers national championships a natural right.
A year after Ty Willingham appeared to have jump-started the Irish, he looked around and saw alarming signs: angry alums, FireTyWillingham.com, a newspaper column suggesting the school's famed Touchdown Jesus be replaced with a mural of St. Jude, patron saint of lost causes.
Abundance of assets
But Weis has assets his predecessor lacked. As offensive coordinator with the New England Patriots, he earned a reputation for daring play-calling and sophisticated passing schemes - not to mention three Super Bowl rings.
Working 15 years for Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick, Weis, who has packed as many as 300 pounds on his 6-foot-1 frame, learned all about organizational skills and leadership - and how to get in somebody's face.
"He brought an attitude to school that wasn't there before - that New Jersey toughness," said former Notre Dame running back Allen Pinkett, now an analyst for Irish radio broadcasts.
In fact, Weis has been dubbed Tuna Jr. in South Bend, Ind., a reference to Parcells, who turned Weis into his whipping boy when the latter took an entry- level job with the New York Giants.
One day, Weis offered a coaching suggestion during a team meeting.
"And (Parcells) looks down at the end of the table with his scowl. Says, 'You've been in the league for five minutes. No one cares what you think. So just sit there and shut up,' " Weis said during a recent 60 Minutes interview.
Weis was just as aggressive when he took a graduate assistant's job at the University of South Carolina in 1985.
"He was a fat, obnoxious loudmouth that didn't fit in," Jim Washburn, a South Carolina assistant at the time, told the New York Post. "Everybody thought he was a (jerk), and then he became one of the most respected and loved guys down there."
Even now, with his salty language and hooded sweat shirt, Weis resembles a dirt-under-the-fingernails factory worker, which he was for a while before taking a job as a high school English teacher and coach.
But friends and colleagues say Weis' demeanor conceals a subtle intelligence.
"Charlie is superintelligent," said Nick Bonge, a boyhood friend from Middlesex, N.J. "You wouldn't believe it. He was at the top of the class. Everyone in high school knew how smart he was.
"I mean, it was a small town. Everybody knew everybody. Charlie had a great family upbringing, was brought up in a very religious family. His mother and father taught him respect. Charlie was always thinking ahead. He could have done anything. But he had two dreams jobs: Notre Dame and the New York Giants."
Tapping into the heritage
As a student at Notre Dame, Weis played intramural sports, was a talk- show host on the campus radio station, schmoozed with virtually everybody and lived in a dorm where he befriended many football players and offended others with sophisticated critiques of games.
On Saturdays, Weis would show up at Notre Dame Stadium a couple of hours before the opening kickoff to watch Irish players during warm-ups.
"Notre Dame is one of those schools you go to and fall in love with and everything it stands for," Pinkett said. "Some of the little things other folks might look at and say, 'That's a little gimmicky,' are important traditions here."
Convinced those traditions had been ignored in recent years, Weis tapped into the Notre Dame heritage as soon as he returned to South Bend in 2005.
During 14 winter nights, he visited every residence hall, meeting and greeting students. Before his first spring game, he invited former Irish stars Joe Montana, Tim Brown, Joe Theismann and Chris Zorich to serve as honorary captains.
After a 42-21 win against Navy last year, he led his players to the southeast corner of Notre Dame Stadium, where the Midshipmen had gathered. When the Navy band started playing Navy Blue & Gold, the Irish players stood respectfully at attention. Soon, the stadium fell silent.
It was a powerful moment for a nation at war - and the type of gesture Notre Dame fans expect from a coach.
"The entire Notre Dame experience is important to him. That makes a huge difference," Pinkett said.
Fulfilling a dying boy's wish
But nothing touched the hearts of Notre Dame fans like the story of Montana Mazurkiewicz. A month into the 2005 season, Weis visited Mazurkiewicz, a terminally ill 10-year-old boy who lived near South Bend.
"He told me about his love for Notre Dame football and how he just wanted to make it through this game this week," Weis said that week. "He just wanted to be able to live through this game because he knew he wasn't going to live very much longer."
Weis asked the boy for a play to call on first down against Washington that Saturday.
"Pass right," Montana said.
Although Notre Dame was on its 1- yard line, Weis stuck with his pledge, and tight end Anthony Fasano caught a 13-yard pass from Brady Quinn. But Montana didn't see the play - he had died the day before at his home.
Weis understood the Mazurkiewicz family's pain. His daughter Hannah started talking about 18 months and appeared to be a happy, intelligent child. Then she stopped talking, slipping into a wordless daze.
Today, she can't say more than two or three words at a time or dress herself. Hannah, now 11, has global development delay, a form of mental retardation.
Weis and his wife, Maura, have established a organization called "Hannah & Friends" to help others with similar disabilities.
"Hannah's like our, our messenger, our angel, who, you know, God gave us to do some good," Weis told 60 Minutes. "And we learn more from her than we do from anybody else."
In 2002, Weis decided to undergo gastric bypass, a weight-loss surgery made famous by NBC weatherman Al Roker. Excessive internal bleeding during the operation nearly killed the coach, who was in a coma for two weeks. Twice he was given last rites.
Although he recovered, Weis suffered a temporary loss of feeling in his legs.
But hard times seemed far away three weeks ago, when Quinn threw a 45-yard pass to beat UCLA - only the third time in school history the Irish have won with a touchdown in the final 30 seconds.
The Irish seemed just as distant Sept. 23 when they trailed Michigan State 31- 14 at halftime, one week after a disappointing 47-21 home loss to Michigan.
In the final 8:18, though, Notre Dame scored three touchdowns - that included Terrail Lambert's 27-yard interception return with 2:53 remaining - for a shocking 40-37 win.
"A lot of times these kids don't get enough credit," Weis said. "They're still kids. A disheartening loss early in the year can break a team's spirit sometimes. It didn't break their spirit. I've grown to really admire the fight these guys have."
For Weis, a Notre Dame man to the marrow, that might be the ultimate compliment.
They're No. 1
Notre Dame generally is considered to have won 11 consensus national titles. The coaches who produced them:
• Knute Rockne - A phenomenal showman and tactical innovator, he won three national championships (1924, '29 and '30) and had five undefeated and untied teams during a 13-year career in which the Irish went 105-12-5. He was famous for inspirational pep talks and for developing a passing offense that helped popularize the game.
• Frank Leahy - Leahy, a tackle on Knute Rockne's last three Notre Dame teams, produced four national championship teams (1943, '46, '47, '49), six undefeated seasons and an unbeaten streak of 39 games in the late 1940s. Known for his stoic nature, he appeared on the cover of Time during a spectacular career that ended in 1954, when he resigned for health reasons.
• Ara Parseghian - During 11 seasons under Parseghian, the Irish never won fewer than seven games, and twice - in 1966 and 1973 - they went unbeaten en route to national championships. In one of the most-hyped games in college football history, Notre Dame and Michigan State met Nov. 19, 1966, to settle the national championship. After rallying to tie the score 10-10, Parseghian elected to settle for a tie.
• Dan Devine - Soft-spoken and lacking a fiery personality, he never seemed comfortable in South Bend but still won the 1977 national championship.
• Lou Holtz - Holtz, famous for his folksy humor, led the team to the 1988 national championship, winning all 11 regular-season games and beating third-ranked West Virginia 34-21 in the Fiesta Bowl.
latimerc@RockyMountainNews.com
