UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 1, 2005

Charlie Weis

COACH WEIS: All right. This will take a few minutes. I have a number of things to talk about, University of Tennessee. Tennessee is a team that notoriously has been a dominating force, especially in the month of November. As a matter of fact, over the last 20 years in the month of November, their record is 75-5. You're talking about a team that's got a .938 winning percentage in the month of November because they usually close out the season very strong. Everyone wants to talk about their 3-4 record. I'd like to talk a little bit about it myself before I get going into particulars, especially about their four losses. You know, in their four losses, their defense has given up a total of five touchdowns, given up 86 yards rushing in a game and a little over 200 yards passing per game. I think I had it down to 294 total yards a game they're giving up on defense. Let's talk about their four losses one by one. They lose to Florida 16-7. In that game, they had three miscues on special teams. They muffed a punt, which set up a field goal. They tried a fake punt that was unsuccessful that set up a field goal. Then they had an eight-yard punt that ended up leading to another field goal. There's nine points of the 16 points they give up in the game to lose 16-7. Georgia, they lose 27-14. Let's talk about the turning point in that game. They had three turnovers in that game, two fumbles and an interception. But the turning point in the game is Tennessee had just scored to make the score, they were down 13-7. They recovered a fumble on the ensuing possession and all the momentum was moving in their direction. Three plays later, they fumbled the ball right back. Georgia went on to beat them 27-14. Let's talk about the Alabama game. Alabama is undefeated, right? Well, we all saw they fumbled the ball. Two times they were inside the 10 yard line in the game, Tennessee fumbled the ball both times. And once with five minutes to go in the game, the score is 3-3, they just caught the screen pass, going in for a touchdown, they get hit, fumble the ball out of the end zone for a touchback. Alabama ends up getting the ball, going down the field, scoring, wins the game 6-3. Last week against South Carolina, they lose 16-15. Up 12-7. Right before half, going in to score again. I mean, to make the score 19-7. Unfortunately, they have an unfortunate stroke of bad luck again and they fumble the ball into the end zone for another touchback. I'm assuming the score would have been 19-7 at the time. Being the final score was 16-15, I think the right deduction would be they would have won that game. 3-4, I just went through all four of their losses, okay, showing you how very easily they could have won every game they played in. Coach Fulmer, he's been a head coach for 14 years. His record is 126-35. Out of all active coaches that have had 10 years' experience, he has the best winning percentage of .783. Their offense, averaging over 300 yards in offense, averaging over 200 yards throwing the ball, averaging over a hundred yards running the ball. Everyone says they have no offense. Any time you're throwing for over 200, running for over 100, I don't know what they're looking at. This week the intrigue of course will come with Coach Fulmer taking over the play-calling duties. Got to get ready for two totally different quarterbacks in Clausen and Ainge. You have a lefty and a righty. You have a 6'6" guy, 6'3" guy. All elements you have to be prepared for, because they obviously play them both. Everyone talks about the loss of Riggs. Foster steps in, in his first start he rushes the ball 25 times for 148 yards and a 5.9 average in the touchdown. Fullback, 6'3", 275, Anderson. You can't forget about Brown in the passing game either as their tight end possession. On top of that, you have to be concerned, before I even talk about the offensive linemen, everyone is telling me about this offense. They have five wide receivers that all have 16 catches or more, and they're all 6'1" or taller and all experienced. Meachem is 6'3", 205. (Indiscernible) 6'2", 205. Hannon is 6'4", 200. Swain 6'1", 218 and Smith is 6'3", 188. That's not to mention their offensive line which is massive. Three of their five starters are over 330 pounds. Sears at left tackle is 6'4", 338. Smith, left guard, 6'4", 306. Gandy is 6'5", 312, Douglas is 6'4", 330, Toeiana is 6'6", 355. Maybe I'm missing something. I look at their defense. Coach Chavis, he's done a great job for a long time. Fifth in the nation against the run. I mean, people are averaging 2.7 yards per run. All year long, they've given up three rushing plays for over 20 yards, and they've given up three touchdown passes all year long. Three rushes for over 20 yards, three touchdown passes all year long. (Indiscernible) runners rush for over a hundred yards. They've got 21 sacks. You have Haralson and Hall at the end. Haralson five and a half sacks, Hall has five has five sacks. 10 and a half sacks between the two of them. You get inside, have you Harrell and Mahelona. They wreak havoc in there. They're twisting all over the place. You have an athletic group of linebackers that have all started 18 games or more led by Simon at middle linebacker, then Gaither and Mitchell flanking them. Then you get to the secondary, all sorts of speeds. You have the two safeties, Hefney and Stewart. They can play run sport and can cover. They have Wade starting at one corner and Johnson has done a great job replacing Jason Allen who is out for the season with a hip injury. Then nickel, you know, Fellows pops in and then (indiscernible) and Morley pops in. Seems to me they really got it going on defense. It definitely is as challenging a group as you can possibly see on defense. To wrap it all up with special teams, Wilhoit, who handles both their kicking and kick-offs, in the last 13 kick-offs, he's had nine touchbacks. You don't even get a chance to return them for the last 13 times he's kicked them. Then you look at their punter, another cull quit. This is the fourth Colquitt that's punted there. His cousin Jimmy, his brother Dustin and his father Craig happen to be one, two and three all-time punters on Tennessee stats. Go check it out. I think I got it right, okay? He's probably trying to contend to see if he can take that over. Then their punt returner and kickoff returner, Taylor, happened to go to the same high school that Kevin Faulk went to. I have some familiarity with that, too. He was a quarterback there, in case they didn't know I knew that. He was a quarterback there. He's been handling all the return duties. He is fast and he's athletic. So don't talk to me about Tennessee being 3-4 because this team could be 6-1 or 7-0 real easy. We're definitely concerned.

COACH WEIS: When he I first got here, the first game I coached here, Travis had already been awarded to be the team captain on special teams right off the bat. So he had already won my respect because I thought that's the type of performance that he had put in in the off-season, getting ready to just get started when I first started coaching here. But the bottom line, you know, Travis has now put himself in the position to continue to get more reps offensively as a runningback. It's a definite change of pace between him and Darius. I have a lot of confidence in Travis both as a special teams player and as a runner.

COACH WEIS: There will be no difference, you know, who's calling the plays. It's just like if I turn the play calling over to somebody else. It would be the same list of plays. It's just, you know, the order in which you call them. It's not going to change. Game planning is game planning. It's just how you call the plays on game day, that's all. We won't know that till after we have played a game.

COACH WEIS: Well, I think he's a very bright young man. I'm hitting the latter first here. I think he's a very bright young man with football intelligence. Sometimes people can't transfer intelligence to football intelligence. You know, they might be a great interview, they might be a dumb football player. But he is not in that mould. He's a very bright football player. It's really fun to be around because usually you only have to tell him something once. Even when he makes a mistake, sometimes when a player makes a mistake, you correct them, they get defensive. Here when he makes a mistake, he understands as soon as you say it why you saw it different than the way he saw it. Obviously I have a lot of confidence in him because he really controls everything we do. He controls the identification of fronts. He has to read coverages. I mean, he's definitely got more pressure on him than even I do.

COACH WEIS: Well, first, when he's picked as an underclassmen, as a junior, to be captain of the offense, that makes a statement for the players. I didn't pick that. The players picked that. It was a landslide, which shows you what they think of him as a leader. But I think that he's taken that and he's run with it. He's kind of taken it to another level, where now they look at him, they look at his face in the huddle. When he steps in the huddle, they expect good things to happen. Usually when they expect good things to happen, there's a good chance they will.

COACH WEIS: I think it was more before we started playing than now because the fundamentals and techniques that I think that Brady really needed to work on, I think that he had a great resource, okay, of information because he had four years worth of Patriot tapes he could study. You talk about shuffling in the pocket, then you show him shuffling in the pocket. When you call a play and say, "Here is how he did it," you talk about identification of fronts, recognition of coverages. I think when you're talking about one of the best players in the NFL being as your visual resource, I think it's a great tool.

COACH WEIS: I wasn't here before the season. He's 5-2 as far as I'm concerned. That's what he is. I think he continues to want to be challenged mentally each week, which allows you to do that. Several people had talked to me when I came here about, "How much offense are you going to be able to put in?" I said, "As much as the quarterback can handle." Fortunately for me he can handle a lot. It makes it easier for me to game plan.

COACH WEIS: I think, you know, you're not trying to turn somebody into you. I mean, I think that you have to realize that each person has their own personality. I just want him, within his own realm, within what he's comfortable doing, I want him to show an air of confidence that things are going to work out and do not panic. He shows that very clearly.

COACH WEIS: Well, with not having a lefty quarterback in practice, that is a little bit of a problem because obviously there's plays designed for a righty quarterback and lefty quarterback that are different than just your regular drop-back passes. But I think you're counting on your scout team guys to do a good job. I think that our coaching staff really tries to identify, okay, here is the Clausen plays, here is the Ainge plays, or here are the plays that they'd call regardless of whether it was Clausen or Ainge. I think it forces you to break down Tennessee a little bit different because there are certain things that each one of those does better than the other.

COACH WEIS: No. We've done that in the past. We haven't here because if we had a lefty quarterback, we would do exactly that. But, you know, we haven't done that here.

COACH WEIS: I don't discuss players issues. He's out there practicing with a chance of playing in the game. He's out there practicing. He wasn't practicing, then I told you we were going to talk to him, then he was out there practicing. I think the next day we practiced after that was brought up, he was out there practicing.

COACH WEIS: He's not out there practicing.

COACH WEIS: Well, this certainly isn't one. All you have to do is watch the tape. When I sit there and give these facts and figures right there, it isn't just try to make myself look good to make it look like we know what we're doing here. This is the scariest 3-4 team that you're ever going to go against because they're capable of beating everybody every week, and they know it. Our guys know it, too. I mean, all you got to do is put on the tape. They see it. I mean, they see these things that I just talked about because I've shown them these same things I'm telling you about. They've seen it. There's no trap. You don't have to worry about a trap in a Tennessee game.

COACH WEIS: Well, the things that we set out to do I thought we did. I think some of them -- let me rephrase that because I wasn't happy with everything we did either. One of the things I was disappointed in, we had some line of scrimmage penalties in previous games, and in practice we continued to have some line of scrimmage penalties which we continue to work on. With that having been said, we worked on tackling, we worked on line of scrimmage penalties, snap counts, we worked on fundamentals and techniques. And we also got a lot of guys ready to go for the stretch drive. We're in November now. We got a four-game season, okay? Now there's no more bye weeks. It's a regular routine from here on out. It's game, game, game, game. We need everybody. We need them healthy. We need them ready to go. I think we were able to get some bumps and bruises healed up. I think that we were able to get some backups ready to go. In addition, from a coaching staff's perspective, we were able to do two things: one, spend a little extra time on our opponent this week, and two, do some serious work on recruiting last week.

COACH WEIS: Well, we don't take him off the field. He's on the field all the time. He's on the field in everything we do. Obviously, he's earned our trust as the most dependable guy we have in all situations. I mean, he can play the run. He's pretty decent in coverage. He's a good blitzer. He's dependable.

COACH WEIS: If he's here, I'll look him up. I don't know whether he's here or not. If he's here, I'll look him up.

COACH WEIS: I got to appreciate it more when I was a student, 'cause when you're a student, you're involved in all that. You're involved in that hoopla and everything like that. To be honest with you, I really don't notice too much on game days other than what's going on out on the field. I really don't. Excuse my ignorance, but I kind of become oblivious to all the other things that are going on and I'm really focused on what's going on on the field. I really don't notice.

COACH WEIS: That you never got to sit down. I never saw a place where you go to a game and you stand the whole game. I sit down on timeouts and you stand up when the play is going on. Think about that concept. It's usually just opposite, right? Usually you stand up and stretch. I remember for four years never sitting down. I think that's kind of a unique experience being part of the student body. If you want to see, you better plan on being standing.

COACH WEIS: You intentionally change snap counts to force discipline on both sides of the ball. Then people who have infractions are then penalized appropriately.

COACH WEIS: It all depends.

COACH WEIS: Well, let's start with the fact that they can get pressure on you with only rushing four. Not that they don't blitz, because they blitz plenty. Any time you can rush just four and get pressure on the quarterback, that already gives you an advantage. There's a lot of times when you got five offensive linemen to block four guys. Usually you have enough to where the quarterback can make something happen. But they are physical up front, both as pass-rushers and in the run game. They move around a lot. They have an experienced group of linebackers behind them that is there to make plays on top of it before you even get to the speed in the secondary. You got speed in the secondary, you got experienced, athletic linebackers and a front four that's pretty dominant. I think that's a very good combination.

COACH WEIS: I'd say this is as good a defense if not the best defense we've played this year. I have no problem saying that. I mean, this is as good a defense as we've ever -- as I've ever seen since I've been here.

COACH WEIS: Not really. I mean, we've had a couple plays in the past where you put somebody in to run an option or something like that. Usually it doesn't end up panning out. I mean, usually I've always believed you get one guy ready to go and get the backup ready to be the backup. If something happens, you put him in there. I've never been a big proponent of practicing two guys. You practice the guy that's going to play.

COACH WEIS: For me personally, I pick a guy and set the offense around that guy.

COACH WEIS: Several times I've had this issue where you got to prepare for more than one quarterback based on where you were. Are you going against -- you're in Buffalo. Are you going against Rob Johnson or Doug Flutie? They're two totally different quarterbacks. I'm citing that as one example. Two totally different guys. There's a lot of times when you're going against different guys that you have the first guy that's hurt, you're not really sure whether he's going to play or not, you're getting ready for the backup. It's quite a contrast usually between the first guy and the second guy.

COACH WEIS: Sometimes inconsistency can be different. I thought we were inconsistent, that's why I thought we were 6-6. I think they're 3-4 because they've been unfortunate in critical situations. I don't think that's inconsistent. I think no one wants to turn the ball over going into the end zone two weeks in a row. I mean, that's just almost a fluke. It just doesn't happen two weeks in a row. It's happened to them two weeks in a row and ended up costing them a game. I'm not making it up. We all saw it. There's a difference between that and being inconsistent. When you go out and lose by 30, it's different than when you lose on one critical play.

COACH WEIS: Well, let's hope so. But I'm certainly not counting on that. See, the problem with that is if you start feeling that way, then you're setting yourself up for the trap yourself because then you're starting to think it's going to happen again this week. Before you know it, it doesn't happen and you find yourself on the short end of the stick. As a coach, as a player, you can't fall into that belief that you're talking about right there.

COACH WEIS: Very clearly.

COACH WEIS: We'll see what they're doing.

COACH WEIS: I'd say yes. I think he's a very powerful, well-built player. Sometimes people look at height and they don't look at how they're put together. I'm not sure how tall it is. It's not very, but he's 230, 235, and he's very powerful. He has fun playing the game. Just like Brady is on offense, Brandon is a very good leader on defense. He's infectious.

COACH WEIS: Well, I'm cautious to answer that question because I could imply how things were done before I got here. I do things a little bit differently, okay? I think it all starts with how your organization is going to be run. In my case, when I hired Rob to coordinate the recruiting, we have Ron and Dave and Kristen and Tim in the personnel department, I think the most important thing for me was to get out there and pound the pavement myself because I had a message to sell as much as I had the program to sell. I think so far we've had fairly good response. That's not to imply that anyone before me, whether it was Tyrone or Bob or anyone before me did it any worse or any better, it's just different. My message has been different. I think we'll see on February 1st how it all pans out. This can't be a one-year -- I don't intend to be a one-year wonder in recruiting. I intend this to be an every-year passionate thing. I don't think you just set up one-year recruiting and then throw in the towel and say, That was pretty good. I think you need to earn your stripes.

COACH WEIS: Put on a tape. All you got to do is put on the tape. You can put on a tape of them on special teams. Just watch the South Carolina game last week, getting turnovers. There's plenty of plays on offense. You can see their speed, wide receivers. You can see the runner running through people. You can see the offensive line being dominant. There's plenty of evidence. On defense, I shouldn't even have to answer that question because I just told you all the things I thought about their defense. This is going to be a very challenging game. But it's good when you have tape because a lot of times if you hear 3-4, you say, This team is 3-4, coming into our place, no problem, we're 5-2. I mean, all you -- just as long as those players aren't oblivious to when the coaches put on tape, I think it will be a very easy sell.

COACH WEIS: Oh, no, I watch it. I watch it all. I watch it all. Normally what I'll try to do is I'll try, as the game goes on, after having studied it during the week, I'll try to give my insight of what I think they're going to do. Here comes this, here comes that. I'm not necessarily going to Rick and saying, "Run this defense, run that defense." I'll occasionally say to do this or that. I'll never give my insight on let's play two cover or get after them. I'll do that, too, but normally I'll try to watch the game to try to figure out what they're going to do. Usually sometime in the game I get a handle on what I think they're doing. I have an experienced defensive staff. I try not to think I know everything.

COACH WEIS: Yeah, I think there's a lot more. Tennessee doesn't fit this mould. There's a lot more grab bagging. There's some pretty wild stuff. For example, that BYU offense where they never huddle, guys are running on and off the field all the time. That looked like a fire drill to me sometimes during the game. I don't think I've ever seen anything like that. Of course, they put up big numbers. They're obviously doing something right. Just like 61 on Air Force this past week. I get kind of fascinated sometimes by some of the stuff that is out of the norm. We're getting back into a team this week that's a hard-nosed team that wants to pound the ball at you, take their shots at you, wants to wear you out, make some big plays in the passing game. That's more what I'm used to going against.

COACH WEIS: My wife dominates me. She'll be the first to tell you. I'll go home and she'll tell me, "Somebody's got to keep you in line." Two things. I mean, I'm not kidding when I say my family, because they are my biggest critics now. Way worse than you guys are, trust me. Both my wife and my son, they tell me all the time. But success, that's what motivates me. I want success for our program. I set a very high bar for what success is. I'll accept nothing less than that performance out of myself every week. I don't believe in ever having a letdown.

COACH WEIS: First of all, he looks bigger than 248 to me. He might be 248. I used to say the same thing about Michael Strahan with the Giants. He's I think listed at about 260 pounds. You sit there and say -- they play the same position, they're over at that left defensive end on our right. Why are they such good players? There's really two reasons when a guy is undersized. A, they're dynamic pass-rushers. B, they play with leverage. I think he does both. I think he's a very good pass-rusher and he plays with leverage. The only way a guy who is undersized can win out playing against bigger bodies is when they play with leverage.

COACH WEIS: There's a lot of guys playing like him. That guy who plays that right defensive end on my left for the Indianapolis group that the Patriots are getting ready to go, that 93 guy that they're playing against Monday night, I don't know how big he is, but he's not very big. I'll tell you what, he gets after it.

COACH WEIS: Well, it comes once again back to those athletic defensive linemen. It all starts there. Some of those balls are getting knocked down by the defensive tackle. There's one play I watched this morning. Their right defensive tackle and the left guard, he smells a three-step drop, jumps up, almost intercepts the ball. They're good and they're athletic.

COACH WEIS: I think I've faced a few. I think I've faced a few in case you're wondering. I think I've gone against some defenses that are pretty dominant. I can list you about 15 of them if you would want me to, but it would take me too long.

COACH WEIS: I think for this level, for the college level, I think they have a dynamic group of defensive players. I think you got to remember that next level there's many, many dynamic players that you go against. It isn't just one guy you have to worry about week in and week out. For a college level, I don't think there's a group you're going to go against much better than this one.

COACH WEIS: I think there's many elements involved in a successful organization. I think if you just look at this as your job just as a football coach, I think the way the structure is set up here, that would be a misnomer. I think there's a lot of different hats you have to be willing and accepting to wear. I think by making sure everyone's on the same page from the top all the way to the bottom in every facet, I think it leads for a lot less problems and much less miscommunication. I think usually it becomes a much more efficient operation.

COACH WEIS: I think it's been a very, very easy transition for me because everyone is so willing to work with you. There's been times in my lifetime where I've been places where you never felt like that. From the president to the trustees to the AD, to the AD staff with all the associate and assistant AD, sports information, to the trainers, to the equipment guys, I mean, to the video guys. Remember, everyone knows about the football players and the football coaches. The player development. I mean, you go through all these different elements. People forget about all these people. I think they all want the same thing, which is success for Notre Dame. I think it makes my job a heck of a lot easier.

COACH WEIS: I think I had pretty well figured out which direction I was going to go. I think you need to have thought about that before December. Now is not the time to think about that. I'm actually thinking about this December. I'm thinking about January, okay? As I look back, are there things I would have done differently? There's always things that you could second guess yourself on. I'm more of a guy who tries to learn from those experiences and live in the present and look towards the future.

COACH WEIS: That's a misnomer. Let's look at it this way. If I said yes, I'm either smart or a liar, okay? If I said no, what do I gain from saying that? Let's leave it ambiguous.

COACH WEIS: I'll tell you that when I retire. Accomplishments will be judged when I'm done, not what I've done to this point. I've only been here for seven games. I'm going to be here for a while. We'll see how it turns out when I'm all said and done.

COACH WEIS: My long-lost friends that want tickets to the games? Yeah. I've gotten all sorts of calls by, "By the way, can I get four tickets to the Tennessee game?" I've had several of them. No, I think I haven't been surprised by anything. I'm happy to be here. It's really important to me and my family to be here. It's really important to me personally that by the time I leave here for things to be favorable. The only ways they could be favorable is if you run a program with integrity and you win.

COACH WEIS: First of all, I don't schedule them. I'm not being a wiseguy when I say it. I don't schedule them. Whenever the bye weeks come, they come. You have to use them wisely. Bye weeks can break momentum. There's a lot of things that can happen if you don't use them wisely. In the future, when there's a 12-game schedule instead of an 11-game schedule, there will only be one bye week. If it's early in the year, you have to use it to push your system. If it's in the middle of the year, you got to use it to rest your guys. You just have to make sure whenever those bye weeks occur, use them to the greatest benefit.

COACH WEIS: Absolutely. I mean, there's -- there were some front-line quarterbacks out there that we just didn't fit. We just don't fit. There isn't a reason why. It's just that I'm a tough coach. The quarterback is not absolved from being given up in front of the team. In a lot of places you go to, quarterback is off limits when it comes to constructive criticism. You don't give the quarterback up, heaven forbid, you might hurt his feelings. That's not for me. Just like I'm going to say something to some runningback or offensive lineman, the quarterback has to be willing to take it, too. Not everyone is willing to do that.

COACH WEIS: That's not my way. That's right. If I don't feel that they want it to be them, they don't just want to come here, they want to be the guy. I want guys that want to be the guy, okay, but they're not going to be afraid when you give them up in front of everyone else because you're going to hurt their feelings. We're going to have a bad relationship if I'm going to hurt their feelings.

COACH WEIS: You have to be both a good cop and a bad cop. When you press 'em, you don't back off 'em at that time. You wait till a time later to back off of 'em. It's a mind game. It's never where you're going to stay on 'em the whole time. You have to find a time to get them out of the tank, too. You have to know when that moment is. That's a feel. You can't define when that is. It's just a feel.

COACH WEIS: I did not say that. Do not say I had 1600.

COACH WEIS: Let's not get into that. Let's not get into my academic -- let's not get into my academic background. Here is what I can tell you. I graduated from Notre Dame, and I got a masters degree from South Carolina. That's all I can tell you. Those are the facts. Those two things are true. There's been some people who have been questioned in the past. I'm not going to be one of them.

COACH WEIS: I'm going to run a program with integrity and win. That's what I told you the two key components were. That's what we're going to have to do then or else I'm going to be a failure.

COACH WEIS: I think there's a great support staff here now. I have a bunch of people around me. Between Chad and Karen and Tim, those people that surround me, my staff, the support staff, player development, I think Notre Dame does a great job of hiring enough people to cover all things. I don't do anything in public relations without talking to Doug and John. I don't go do things without heeding their advice and running things by them. I don't just arbitrarily do things. I think you have to use all the resources and make sure you realize they're professional in what they do and you have to utilize them or else you're missing the boat.

COACH WEIS: Aim to win every week. I said early when I got here one of the things that I believe the team had to do is believe that they were going to win every time they step on the field. Now we've lost twice. There have been two times we did not attain that goal. Every week we go out to play, I believe we're going to win. We have to go prove it, but that's what I believe. I think setting the standard anything less than that is just no good.

COACH WEIS: That comes back to running a program with integrity, making academics not just lip service, making that important. I can't tell you how many times I sit there in front of the team, the first thing we do is talk about academics. One of them was yesterday. I do it all the time. I support our academicians here. When we have problems, I don't have to worry about somebody else getting hold of them, I get hold of them first. When there's off-field problems, hey, we have kids who get in trouble like everywhere else. We just have less of them. I think it's important that you have players with character. If you have players with character, you have players who go to class and graduate, you practice when you preach about having integrity, you're usually doing okay.