Charlie met with the media yesterday for a quick ten-minute pit stop. Here’s what he said.
* Regarding the punting situation:
“Oh it was wonderful. It was a thing of beauty. I haven’t talked to Brian yet because we punted again today, but if I had to guess, I think he would start the game off with Turk. We punted twice this week, normally we punt one good time a week, but we punted again today. I’ll wait until I talk to Brian, but that’d be my guess.”
Sarcasm dripped from those first two sentences if you couldn’t tell. I broke down just how badly the punting was hurting us in last week’s Five Things, but it really is staggering.
* Weis was asked about the players taking over the leadership of the team this week.
“I haven’t been there so you’ll have to ask them. I know one thing, the attention to detail at practice has been very good. So if that’s a residual effect from these guys talking every day, that’s a good thing.”
The Irish have a bunch of good character guys that probably allowed Weis to let them put their fate in their own hands this week.
* CW was asked about the importance of playing with a lead.
“We’ve had so many games this year that have been nail biters, I think if you can get to where you are the ones sitting on top and not playing from behind, that would definitely have a positive residual effect. We try to do that every game, believe it or not. But we are going to do even more to try and just start that this week. Flat starts early in these last games of the year with these seniors, you have to keep on trying to do some things to jump start them because emotionally you’re already dealing with some circumstances.”
Weis went on to talk about how the loss to Syracuse last year was one of his biggest regrets as a coach, because it was gut-wrenching to send those seniors off the field with a loss. I’ll spare us all from the quote.
* Charlie was asked, ever so respectfully, if he’ll give any thought that Saturday could be his last trip down the tunnel at Notre Dame Stadium.
“Nope, not one bit. That would be very selfish for me to do to start off with. It would be very, very, very selfish for me to be thinking about anyone but those fourth and fifth year players. I promise you, as far as I could ever tell, I don’t think those thoughts would ever enter my mind. That would be purely selfish.”
Say what you want about Weis as a coach, but he’s certainly handling this situation with class.
