THE BROO VIEW with Ken Broo

Good Monday Morning!

I watched the Notre Dame-Connecticut game Saturday. The Notre Dame defense is pathetically bad. Bad angles to tackles, bad tackling, poor pass coverage. It’s amazing, really, how awful that team is defensively. The Irish lost. They got a life line at the end of regulation when the Uconn kicker missed a very makeable field goal. But you know it was just a matter of time.

But what struck me more than the game itself, is how NBC laid out the sad saga of Charlie Weiss.. I think it was late fourth quarter when they ran a piece of tape…sound btie we call it in the biz, of Weiss on the day he was named the Notre Dame head coach. He said the reason why he was standing there, that day, was because the team went 6-5 that season. And if they were looking to go 6-5, he was the wrong man for the job.

Notre Dame of course, is now 6-5 with a game to play. There’s always bad news for UC fans when Notre Dame loses, but here’s a piece of good news. If the Bearcats don’t beat Pitt and don’t get to play in the Sugar Bowl or some other BCS bowl, the Gator Bowl just came into the picture. I don’t care how well Notre Dame fans travel, would you want a 10-1 UC team or a possible (but improbale) 7-6 Notre Dame team representing the Big East in Jacksonville?

But that’s a story for another day.

I don’t know whether or not Brian Kelly is on Notre Dame’s radar. There are reports this week he’s not the first choice, that he’s not on their short list. Reportedly, the Irish will make a full scale charge at Urban Meyer or Bob Stoops. As much as we like Kelly, Meyer and Stoops are bigger names. And the only thing Notre Dame likes more than firing a head football coach is hiring one with a big name.

But what any coach who’s approached by Notre Dame needs to do is this: play the tape from the news conference introducing Weiss on that December day in 2005. And then, play the tape of him crying his eyes out after Uconn beat Notre Dame in overtime Saturday. Or the tape of his post game news conference Saturday night.

Then make sure you get as much money as you can going in….and even more going out. You’ll need it, because you won’t have your dignity when you depart from Touchdown Jesus. Like Weiss in 2005, the new coach will come in roaring. Like Weiss today, the next coach will leave sounding like a squeaking gerbil, ground to a ‘nub’. Notre Dame’s problems go far deeper than a head coach. It is a bad football paradigm. Buyer beware. Wake up the echoes? Better to let ‘em sleep.