Charlie Weiss vs. Tyrone Willingham

I haven't really bagged on Notre Dame and its struggling football team this year - kinda tough to beat a dead horse. But I came across an interesting blog this week comparing the 2 most recent coaches in South Bend. Some of the stats may surprise you - not me.

A few of the notable statistics:

Winning %
Fatty: 60%
Willingham: 58%

Record vs. Top 25
Fatty: 4-8 (33%)
Willingham: 7-8 (46%)

Record vs. USC
Fatty: 0-3
Willingham: 0-3

Record vs. Michigan
Fatty: 1-2
Willingham: 2-1

What do these stats mean? Thoughts abound that this particular author believes the Irish's current coach is an overrated, overfed, overhyped cousin of Jabba the Hut. These accusations are true - Charlie Weiss is an overrated, overfed, overhyped cousin of Jabba the Hut. However, let's not allow my hatred of Charlie Weiss to confound the issue at hand. The University of Notre Dame is a racist institution. They fired a black coach who displayed the same level of ability in numerous major areas as his predecessor. Logic dictates that ND officials should pull the carpet out from under Weiss, but we all know this won't happen. What makes it all the more maddenning is the fact that the only reason Fatty McWeiss gets to keep his fat pooch rolling up and down the South Bend sidelines is his team ALMOST beat an overrated USC team in 2005. Almost. His entire coaching legacy at Notre Dame is based on a loss. Unless you want to count the current records he holds based on the last 9 games:

* Worst opening-day loss ever (33-3 to Georgia Tech)

* Worst start ever (0-5)

* Worst loss to USC (38-0)

* Worst home loss in 51 year (38-0 to USC)

Not to mention the 7 consecutive losses dating back to last year of over 20 points per game...

Willingham may not have been better. His inability to turn the University of Washington around over the past 3 years indicates as much. Weiss may be the better recruiter - if you believe the rankings of 18 year high schoolers and their potential at the collegiate level, Weiss has brought in 2 top 10 recruiting classes over the past two seasons. But numbers rarely lie - Weiss has done no better on the field than Willingham in similar amounts of time. To border sounding like Al Sharpton, "Where's the justice" in this?

And they say we in the south are the racists...