Weis or Rodriguez? Is the lesser of two evils really any better?

First appeared on September 16th, 2009
in The Lebanon Reporter

Willing and able football coach in his prime seeks BCS school looking for impressive resume. Must be willing to overlook mixed results. Qualifications include 14 years of coaching experience at the NFL level with four Super Bowl rings. References include two Hall of Fame coaches. Call the Notre Dame Athletic office and leave a message for Jose.
With his team’s loss to Michigan, Notre Dame Head Coach Charlie Weis (Tuna Jr.) may have sealed his fate; again. Saturday was more than a game. It was a moment in which the beleaguered coach sought to snatch his career from the jowls of termination. And just when it appeared his talented receivers and silky smooth quarterback with the west coast hair would pull through, there was Michigan’s Rich Rodriguez (Rich-Rod) bungling things in the same awkward and familiar way only Rich-Rod can.
Two once proud men. Both with hooks firmly in their mouths as their fan base and boosters reel them in. Both fighting for their coaching lives and reputations as 100,000 strong in the Brick House Saturday tried their best to do the loyal fan gig, but all along failing in masking their confusion. Most were surely unsure of what they wanted more- their own coach to fail so the fire-him-now drama would continue, or Weis to have another nail driven into his coffin.
I mean seriously, when your own players are complaining they’re working too hard, it goes a long way in saying Rich-Rod has problems of his own. And still, despite this, he somehow found a way to wriggle away from the hungry jaws of Tuna Jr. It’s no surprise really, we’ve seen Rich-Rod wriggle his way out of tight places before. It might actually do more to explain just how bad things have gotten for Weis. In the end it was Rich Rod who was able to snap his line and live to fight another week while Tuna Jr. appears to be one game closer to finding himself on the stringer.
Since Charlie Weis came to South Bend the phrase “the once proud program” has passed over the tongues of commentators and fans alike far more than “Luck of the Irish” or anything else the Golden Domers of old cling to. Whether you point to the most losses in a single season in Notre Dame history (9 in 2007), the billboard funded by former players heckling Weis or the two passes called late in the game against Michigan, slowly but surely the boosters and the University are beginning to find more and more line on their reels.
Who knows why these things happen. With only a handful of games each season and a postseason system so illogical it appears to have been organized by three chickens and a Black Headed Spider Monkey, college football can be brutal on coaches. Somewhere along the way Weis failed at endearing himself to the media (or winning enough games whichever works). He doesn’t say the right things and he doesn’t use the same tired catch phrases the press expects to hear regularly.
Weis doesn’t even attempt the painted smile; you know the same painted on smile every coach musters whether he’s won, lost or just had a house burn down. Most likely this is a byproduct of spending so much time with two of his mentors, Bill Belichick and Bill Parcells (the Tuna). For this, Weis may be one step closer to paying the ultimate price. The point is Weis is out of favor, he’s out of excuses and he’s one week closer to being out of both time and chances.