The Tuna mentality swims upstream in college: Charlie Weis says he's the focal point of the Notre Dame program. He doesn't need to shut everyday else up to show that

Sporting News, The, Jan 28, 2005 by Matt Hayes

Bill Parcells would've been proud. In a Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon sort of way. There was Charlie Weis, in one of his first press conferences as coach of Notre Dame, telling it like it is. With one voice, by God.

Instead of a stimulating and stirring speech to shake the masses and rattle the rust off of a stagnant program, Weis took the program a few more steps back. He announced, so there would be no doubt, that he would be its voice. Not assistant coaches, not administrators and certainly not players. He stated that although he would consent to media access with his players, such conversations would take place only if he approved the story lines.

If you close your eyes, you might as well be listening to Parcells. Or Parcells' former assistants Bill Belichick and Tom Coughlin. And now, with a second degree of Parcells separation, we give you Weis.

"The head coach needs to be the focal point of the program," Weis says. "He's got to be willing to be the dartboard."

In this case, the head coach is providing the darts, too.

Notre Dame has just finished three dull years under Tyrone Willingham, a closed-mouthed and cryptic coach whose odd and introverted demeanor simply didn't cut it in a program rich with passion and pageantry. A team is a reflection of its coach, and the Irish were a mirror image of Willingham: full of potential, with flashes of brilliance and, in the end, not enough style and substance when it mattered most.

So now there is Weis, whose "one voice" mantra might sound nice for a team desperate for direction. His style might work for a team of professionals getting paid to play the game. But it won't work in college football. At least, it hasn't yet.

Let us present Exhibit A: Virginia coach Al Groh, another Parcells disciple. The Cavaliers were desperate for a change not long ago, and drill sergeant Groh knocked everyone sideways. It looked good early on because the Cavs played with discipline and worked hard, and Groh put together a string of strong recruiting classes. Virginia began its fourth season under Groh last fall with one of the nation's best defenses and a slew of talented skill players--and lost four games, the last to the third-place WAC team in a useless bowl game.

For a coach, college and pro football are completely different animals. Motivation for pro players is the next contract; motivation for college kids is the coach. There are players coaches and there are disciplinarians, and the only way to survive as a college coach is to be a delicate mix of both. There is Groh on one end and Ron Zook on the other--lean too much either way, and you're losing to Fresno State in a bowl game in the middle of nowhere.

Weis says he wants to take pressure off his players, who have enough to worry about trying to go to school and play football. Check me if I'm wrong here. Chuck, but there's a group of players who attend a fairly prestigious private university in Southern California whose coach is flexible, who are allowed to be accessible and whose team has won 33 of its past 34 games and two consecutive national titles.

If a coach is tight, a team plays tight. If a coach is controlling, a team plays not to lose. Especially if it's a team of 18-, 19- and 20-year-old kids. And you better believe other coaches will use Weis' one-voice policy against him while recruiting. High schoolers grow up watching ESPN and reading magazines and newspapers and, yeah, what teenager doesn't like rubbing shoulders with Lee Corso?

I can see it now, after Notre Dame's Week 1 loss at Pittsburgh ...

Weis: Lee, you picked us to lose to Pitt. I don "t like your style. You're out.

Corso: Yo! Not so fast! Throw it over the top!

OK, maybe there is some redeeming quality to this one-voice world.

INSIDE DISH

This offseason could shape college football for years to come. It starts with the looming reformation of the BCS and will include new NCAA academic standards and penalties. Plus, a 12th game likely will be approved this spring. What coaches want in return: a fifth season of eligibility. The NCAA might not have a choice but to agree after recently passing new academic standards that would levy penalties on about 30 percent of the Division I-A teams if it were in place today. "It's going to be really hard to go to our players and tell them they're going to play another game, academic standards will increase significantly and the BCS isn't getting any better, and then not bend in any way on the fifth year," says one SEC coach. One possible compromise: If a player is in good academic standing at the end of his first four years, he gets a fifth year of eligibility. > The nation's coaches still are

adamantly against revealing their votes in their weekly poll, although a compromise could include the release of names with only the final poll of the season. The coaches actually have a decent argument. In a sport dominated by emotion and motivation, revealing those votes would not be a good thing. And you better believe coaches would be answering questions about their votes on a weekly basis, which means many--if not all--eventually would opt out altogether. > New BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall took the first step in restructuring the Cougars' offense, hiring former BYU QB Brandon Doman to coach quarter-backs. It's a coup of sorts for Mendenhall, considering Doman is well thought of in NFL coaching circles and could have landed a spot as an assistant with numerous teams.

Derek Shaw of Oceanside, Calif., one of the nation's top quarterback recruits, has backed out of a verbal commitment to Miami and says he wants to play closer to home. Arizona State and Oregon State were at the top of his list before he committed to Miami. Look for Miami to start working Jonathan Garner of Daytona Beach, Fla., an Elite 11 quarterback who backed out of his verbal commitment to the Gators when Ron Zook was fired as coach.

With all the talk in Los Angeles centering on underclassmen at Southern California flirting with the NFL, UCLA's best two players-LB Spencer Havner and TE Marcedes Lewis-quietly decided to stay for another season. But if the Bruins don't get better quarterback play, that might not matter. QB Brew Olson struggled with consistency much of the season and suffered a serious knee injury in the first half of the Las Vegas Bowl. He won't return until August and might not play at all in 2005. That leaves senior David Koral, redshirt freshman Patrick Cowan and BYU transfer Ben Bison (no relation)--who missed the past two seasons while on a Mormon mission--to compete for the job.