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UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 30, 2009Rob IanelloROB IANELLO: As we start here, I'm just going to make one brief remark and then I'll take any questions that we might have. Certainly I'd like to express my appreciation to Charlie Weis for bringing me to the University of Notre Dame. Without him I wouldn't have had the opportunity to spend these past five years with these student athletes at this great school. So to him, all of our players and all of our coaches are certainly appreciative of that opportunity. With that being said, I'll take any questions that we might have. Q. I'm sure you've been talking to recruits throughout this whole process. Kind of what's the reaction that you've been getting from them? ROB IANELLO: Well, I think you have a group of guys that have already verbally committed to come to school here. They see the great virtues of coming to the University of Notre Dame and have picked it for all the right reasons. And I think during this interim process, I feel confident that there's a large group of that young men that will still stay and come to the University of Notre Dame. Anybody that might be wavering I think as recruiting goes might have wavering no matter what the circumstances might have been. I think we're prepared for that, prepared to move forward to try to secure those commitments first and foremost and then move forward to some guys that we're still recruiting that are uncommitted at this time. Q. Is your role primarily a recruiting role, or is there a chance you would coach a Bowl game? ROB IANELLO: Well, I think that would be up to Jack. If we do in a sense take the opportunity to go to a Bowl game, I would then oversee the team during that time. Q. What is the nuts and bolts of what you're going to be doing right now? ROB IANELLO: Well, it's a threefold thing right now. First of all, to supply the support to our current student athletes that they need during this transition; to make sure that academically they're taking care of their responsibilities; to make sure they are acting with the great pride that comes with being a Notre Dame football player and conducting themselves accordingly, so making sure that kind of stays on pace with our team. We're going to be back in the weight room tomorrow morning. We're going to be in the weight room a couple times this week and a couple times next week with the whole team until a Bowl game situation is sorted out, so to make sure that those things stay status quo and more forward in a proper way. So that's the first order of business I have. The second thing is to help secure the recruiting that we have so far. We're going to have seven coaches on the road recruiting as of tomorrow afternoon and Wednesday and Thursday for this University. Coaches are going to go out and contact first and foremost all our committed players and see some guys that are uncommitted that we're still involved with. And the third thing is to supply any support that I have for our coaches and our support staff and our administrative staff during this time this transition. So that's how I see this breaking down. Q. Maybe you couldn't see this moment coming. There was certainly some speculation this moment might come for Charlie. What's it been like now in retrospect over the past three or four weeks with all this going on? ROB IANELLO: Well, I think the hardest part about going through everything that was kind of swirling around our program is more for the families of the coaches, Charlie's family, assistant coaches' families and the players themselves. An assistant coach and myself can come to work early in the morning, go home late at night and insulate yourself from this. If you don't get on the internet and don't turn the TV on and you don't read the papers, you just forge ahead with preparing to do your job every day. So as an assistant coach, I was kind of sheltered from that. Now, our families, in that case, they're not sheltered from that. That's the hardest thing going through this is the coaches' families and our players are not sheltered from that. When you go to class and students want to know about your performance Saturday, and it's disparaging, some of the remarks, that's unfortunate, and that's not why guys chose to come to school here. They came to school here for all the right reasons that you choose a University, and we're proud of those guys for that reason. But I think during these past couple weeks that's been the hardest thing on certainly Charlie's family and the coaches' families and our players. Q. When you're out talking to these kids, what is your message, and how difficult is it to, I guess, represent a school where there's uncertainty whether you will be the coach? ROB IANELLO: I think the message is very clear, that this is a great University that is about all the right things in college athletics, and that is why you should come to school here. I would say this: Charlie after we played UConn at home met with two recruits on that Sunday morning and gave them that message in as eloquent and clear way as you can give a young man that message on that Sunday morning. So that will be the same message we go out there and give the recruits around the country. This is a great University with a lot of great virtues, and you choose this for the right reasons. And for the guys that have already made verbal commitments to come to school here, they chose it for the right reasons, and those reasons are going to stay. Now, there will be new leadership here, and there will be some new coaches here, but they will be picked for the right reasons to be here, also, which will then transcend into why guys want to come to school here. Q. You've been at a few different stops in your career. Do you find that kids choose Notre Dame for the uniqueness of it more than some other places, and Jack Swarbrick said there's somewhat of a self-selection involved with these kids? ROB IANELLO: Yeah, I think when you come down, too, and young men narrow their field, you narrow your field to Notre Dame for some of the things hopefully you're looking for. You come to school here because everybody that comes here is going to get a degree. We graduate everyone that stays here. You're going to play on college football's biggest stage. You're going to be on television 32 guaranteed times in your career before you ever set on campus here. Those are great resources that this University has, and those things won't change. I think that message is clear to the guys that we're dealing with at this time, and that will be what we go out throughout the country and continue to be on the forefront here in the next few weeks. Q. Just the difficulty for you guys not knowing where you're going to be in another month, searching for a job yourself, the other coaches when they're out recruiting. Will you be actively looking for jobs, as well? ROB IANELLO: Well, I've committed to Jack to do all I can during this transition for the University, and I'm going to devote my time and efforts to that. I think you'd be naïve to think that if I didn't reach out to some other people to make sure to secure my future, also, that that would be naïve for you to think that. But I'm going to give all my energies to Notre Dame, and if other opportunities come along the way, then we'll deal with them as they come. But this coaching staff is a very professional coaching staff, a very committed coaching staff, and they will certainly do the University right during this transition. Q. Has Coach Weis talked to any of the recruits since he's been let go? ROB IANELLO: Not to my knowledge. Q. I'm wondering when your last conversation was with Charlie and what his spirits were like. ROB IANELLO: Well, I sat next to him on the airplane coming home Saturday night, and we talked about a whole range of issues. We texted with each other yesterday, and I do plan on calling him tonight to visit with him some tonight. Q. What advice did he have for you? ROB IANELLO: Well, all through, Charlie and I have had great conversations. We've had a very great relationship since the time I've been here. I'm very grateful to him. I've learned a great deal from him during my time here, so it's kind of been on ongoing advice, but just to take care of your family is the No. 1 thing he's told me during that transition, and I certainly appreciate that. Q. Just talk about what -- you've talked about coaching on the rode, but are any practices planned, or do you have to wait for the Bowl, just what the schedule is going to be. ROB IANELLO: Well, at this time we are going to certainly be on the road. I think we'll have some guys in some homes tomorrow night and we'll be out on Wednesday and Thursday. Our coaching staff will come back to campus on Friday, we'll regroup as a staff Friday afternoon in preparation for our team banquet on Friday evening, and then during that time there will be discussions about if and when we're in a Bowl. If we decide to go in a Bowl, we will set a practice schedule accordingly. If we decide not to go to a Bowl we will set a recruiting schedule accordingly. End of FastScripts |
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