Weis reverses field on play-calling duties

Nov 12, 2008 - 5:31 PM By Bob Birge PA SportsTicker Staff Writer

Charlie Weis' decision to take over the play-calling duties for Saturday's game against Navy might leave Notre Dame fans confused.

Should they laugh or should they cry?

After all, Weis is reversing field.

Following last season's nightmare 3-9 finish, the Notre Dame coach made a big deal about how it would be best for him to relinquish the play-calling responsibility - something he had done in his first three in South Bend.

"I think that when you're play-calling on offense, you might not necessarily be the best head coach," Weis said at the time. "So what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to be a better head coach."

He handed the play-calling assignment to offensive coordinator Mike Haywood - yet now he's taking it back again. This is the sign of a program spinning its wheels.

Weis said Tuesday during his weekly news conference that the reason he is handling the play-calling this week is because Haywood will miss some practice time to attend a funeral for a family member in Houston.

"I want to give him his time," Weis said. "And he really needs a little time here. I think that having gone through a death during a football season myself at one time, you show up for the game but you're kind of in a fog."

That could be a plausible explanation - maybe - if the change was only for one game.

But Weis didn't say that. He said he would be calling the plays for at least one game - an indication that he could be doing it for the remainder of the season.

Having Weis call the plays won't inspire much confidence from Notre Dame fans. With Weis running the show last season, the Fighting Irish ranked last in total offense out of 119 teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision.

While Weis will be calling the plays Saturday, he wouldn't categorize the game as being more important than any other. It's only important in the sense that it could be the difference between a 7-5 and 6-6 season for the Irish, currently 5-4.

Notre Dame may have difficulty losing to an awful Syracuse team next week - even it tries - then heads to Los Angeles for its annual beating by USC on November 29.

As he nears the end of his fourth season at Notre Dame, Weis is one again coming under fire. He also continues to alienate fans and alumni alike with an abrasive personality not befitting a man with a pedestrian record of 27-19.

If you win 10 or 11 games, you can get away with being a bully, being Woody Hayes or Bob Knight. But Weis is in charge of a mediocre program that is largely irrelevant on the national landscape.

The biggest indictment against him is that he has managed to win a grand total of one game against a team that was ranked at the end of the season. That was a 41-17 over Penn State in Week Two of the 2006 campaign, and the Nittany Lions barely finished in the rankings that season at No. 25.

With Notre Dame coming off the worst season in the program's storied history, some will view this year as progress. But how much progress have the Irish really made?

Two weeks ago, Notre Dame squandered a two-touchdown lead at halftime in an inexcusable 36-33 four-overtime loss at home to Pittsburgh. Last week, the Irish seemed woefully ill-prepared in a 17-0 loss at Boston College.

Weis doesn't seem to be able inspire his troops. No one is afraid of Notre Dame anymore - certainly not Navy.

Last season, Navy snapped Notre Dame's 43-game winning streak in the series, the longest over one opponent in NCAA history.

A second straight loss to the Midshipmen - Notre Dame hasn't dropped two in a row to Navy since 1960-61 - would be grounds for instant dismissal.

That is perhaps a slight exaggeration, but Weis' record at Notre Dame is getting increasingly difficult to defend.