Charlie Weis is the worst head coach in the history of Notre Dame football. Although the years since Lou Holtz retired have been rough — falling short of the "gold" standard the school always holds itself to in the sport — not even the Tyrone Willingham era can match Weis' reign of ineptitude.
He is an outstanding recruiter but this lone fact can no longer save Weis' job. In fact, given the influx of blue chip prospects that have flowed into South Bend during his tenure, his aptitude at recruiting seems to only give credence to the argument that Charlie Weis does not have what it takes to coach his football team where it counts, on the field.
Over at NdNation "The Rock" has put together a great fact sheet that gives the cold hard statistical evidence of Weis' incompetence without the analyzation. And believe me, that is enough. I cherry picked what are, in my opinion, the most relevant to examine, but which ever angle is taken the conclusion is obvious, unemotional, and gruesomely logical. Weis needs to be fired now.
Recruiting aside (we've already established Weis is an expert at this) there are three major on-the-field areas in which every coach must excel to be considered successful at the college level: overall regular season record, record against school rivals, and bowl record. While each coach may have varying degrees of success in any one of the three, their interconnectedness and importance are unavoidably tied to any coach's job security.
The Regular Season: Charlie Weis brought some instant success to the Irish, going 9-3 and 10-3 in his first two seasons with Ty Willingham's players. But in his third season, when the Irish fell to an abysmal 3-9 (the first nine-loss season in school history), it was Willingham's lack of recruiting effort and ability (especially on the offensive line) that was predominately blamed. Weis defenders (including myself) urged patience, citing that Charlie proved he could coach by succeeding with what Ty couldn't. It would take some time for Charlie to work in "his guys" but when he did everyone would see what his high octane offense would accomplish and the Irish would thunder back to prominence.
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