Oct. 29, 2006
Charlie Weis: Big Man On Campus
Steve Kroft Profiles Notre Dame's Head Coach
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Big Man On Campus
Steve Kroft profiles Notre Dame's head football coach, Charlie Weis, whose expletive-laced tirades seem to be putting the fight back into the Fighting Irish.
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Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis, seen here giving instructions to his team during a home game against Stanford on Oct, 7, 2006. (GETTY IMAGES)
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At 6'1" and 300 pounds, Weis has become the biggest man on campus, with a girth exceeded only by his oversized personality, which seems out of place at a school run by the Holy Cross Fathers.
Listen to Weis on the field and you'll hear expletives left and right. "Hey Brian, get the (expletive) off the field. You get off the field. You stay off the field," he yells.
"I consider myself brutally honest," Weis tells Kroft. "Whatever you have to do to get your point across, I make sure that I get my point across."
"I mean when I am not happy I make sure everyone around me feels the pressure," he explains.
Whoever it was that came up with the seven holy virtues obviously never coached football and certainly never spent a Saturday afternoon in Notre Dame Stadium.
So if Charlie Weis comes up a little bit short on self control, patience and humility, he's forgiven by the faithful – the fans.
In less than two years he has won 16 games and lost four, restoring credibility to the Notre Dame fight song and returning the team to the top ten. But it required a few adjustments.
"I mean you get some, you know, some obnoxious sarcastic guy from New Jersey coming in. And so it was quite a culture shock for the players," Weis says.
Asked how he changed the climate, Weis says, "I had to spend a good portion of time, you know, breaking 'em down before you could build 'em back up."
"How did you break 'em down? What do you mean break 'em down?" Kroft asks.
"I was unbearable," Weis replies. "And I was not a very, very nice guy."
What Weis saw was complacency: about winning, about going to class, and about living up to their potential. And no one was spared, not even all American quarterback Brady Quinn, who has blossomed under Weis and is one of this year's favorites to win the Heisman trophy.
Weis has called himself a jerk. When Kroft asks Quinn whether the coach is a jerk, Quinn says, "He could be a jerk – you know, I wouldn't say it to his face, but he could definitely be a jerk."
"What was his language like?" Kroft asks.
"I guess from what I understand it's New Jersey language, so I don’t think that's necessarily something you could put on the air," he says.
And Weis has a special look that he gives to his players. "Yeah, I don’t necessarily get as I think scared as other guys do, but he definitely can give a pretty devastating look," Quinn acknowledges.
Produced By Ira Rosen
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See all 87 CommentsIf a player did that he would punish them with no problem. Why not punish his fat butt.
To those of you who are pouting because CBS did not do a special on your favorite coach, suck it up. Coach Weis and the University of Notre Dame is something truly special. Our fans here are the most polite in the entire country. I have been to many other stadiums and have been treated like garbage. You would be very hard pressed to find yourself in a situation at the University of Notre Dame.
The moral of the story is that Charlie Weis is a good kind hearted man. If swearing is what it takes to light a fire under his players butts than that is what he will do. I don't believe there is one Notre Dame fan, Student, or even priest at the school that will persecute him for his vocabulary.
To those of you who are pouting because CBS did not do a special on your favorite coach, suck it up. Coach Weis and the University of Notre Dame is something truly special. Our fans here are the most polite in the entire country. I have been to many other stadiums and have been treated like garbage. You would be very hard pressed to find yourself in a situation at the University of Notre Dame.
The moral of the story is that Charlie Weis is a good kind hearted man. If swearing is what it takes to light a fire under his players butts than that is what he will do. I don't believe there is one Notre Dame fan, Student, or even priest at the school that will persecute him for his vocabulary.
God Bless Charlie
And God Bless Our Lady and The University
What about the men like Greg Sherwood, who coached in the Panhandle of Texas, who respected, loved and honored each and every player, coach and individual that came into his program.
It's sad that we accept this type of coaching and teaching for our children and young adults, when there are other individuals with such integrity that we should be honoring.
should really see the big pciture of what Charlie and other coach's are all about on teaching Kids and adults --
My Motto is to learn something NEW everday I am on this earth . Today I learned is how some people ae judgemental about a sport they have No idea what it is about ..It is ok Toi learn about something !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don't believe that people actually have the nerve to badmouth anything Weis does as headcoach. It's not the most well known thing that Weis walked into the USC locker room after ND's loss to them last year and praised the team on their victory and hard work. Or that Weis visited a young cancer patient who was a lifelong fan of ND and had the child call a play that Weis actually followed through on. That shows more character than most any coach in NCAA Football.
To end off, d12engers clearly doesn't know anything about ND Football since they already do play Michigan, every single year....
Go Irish !
The story is not about Charlie Weis' language, that was the 'pitch'. See in order to enitce people to watch the story you have present something that will do so. Thus when the story ABOUT Charlie Weis was reviewed the advertising team for 60 minutes decided that the best angle they would be to comment on the irony of his profane language on a Catholic school's campus.
Next I believe there are going to be many people who will always find something negative to say about Notre Dame. If you like them then this was a warm and fuzzy story that will leave you smiling(which is why it was the last story, and yes 60 minutes is aware of the problems with Iran AND North Korea AND the Iraq War AND the descrimnation against Gay Marriage AND the list goes on, BUT in order to do an in depth story it takes time. If you want brief updates then watch your evening world news. Don't jump 60 minutes b/c they decided to air the Charlie Weis story. Freak'n Idots, GOSH!) And if you don't like Notre Dame you will just make some random ignorant comment that the rest of us will just laugh at. la'er~adam
Notre Dame stadium is a nice environment - no riff raff....
People had a choice this week end, either watch ND football or go to the movie house and watch some awful scary movie......Myself, I'm glad I watched the IRISH and GO CHARLIE WEIS ! you and your boys are headed for # 1
Charlie Weis is an asset to Notre Dame and to the community. He has brought Notre Dame football back to the way it was when I was growing up. Exciting,fun and spirit filled and being a season ticket holder, I have seen the stadium fill up every week and there are even more people tailgaiting since Charlie came to town. Charlie will go down in history with names like Leahy, Rockne, Parseghian and Holtz. Thank You Charlie for bringing REAL FOOTBALL back to Notre Dame! WE LOVE YOU!
WE-IS ND
Hair-brained comments referenced by the poster (above) gives creedence to the fact that ND is truly a dynamic team you either love or hate, with a fan base that spans across the nation.
GO ND!
Ohio State is a good university and has an excellent football team this year (which I never saw anything within the story that was bashing of ANY other college). But that does not mean that everything has to be about your team. I am glad to have seen something about my team, but if they had done a story on Jim Tressel, then good for him. And don't try to play a numbers/stats game. There are plenty of coaches in college football who teach and lead their athletes that could of had stories done about them. I can think of one Big Ten conference coach who has a fairly long history that I would have watched (though I probably would not have enjoyed as much) by the name of Joe Paterno.
Oh Woodyhayes7, I know what it is, you are just upset that Notre Dame gave up last year in the Fiesta Bowl, so now you are haunted by the fact that maybe Ohio State would not have won if Notre Dame played all four quarters. Heres on shoulder to cry...and now it is gone. Next time don't bother to watch something if you are not going to enjoy it. la'er~adam ***********
MB
Ty had one really bad season and gets ousted. Why hire a Black coach if all you are going to do is fire him after a few years? Did you just want to say that you hired a Black coach? You kept Gerry Faust all those losing years.
You can run that "ND is a special place that wins the right way" line all you want, but everyone who hasn't drunk the Kool-Aid knows different. Just like forgiving Weis his cursing and firing the school's first Black coach for not winning everything immediately, ND is just like every other school. Money talks. If you weren't ND, the national media might have the guts to criticize you as opposed to celebrate you.
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