Never Forget The Family

Whilst imbibing Sam Adams Lights and enjoying the living heck out of my HDTV broadcast of Super Bowl XXXIX (which was in and of itself, drama), it occured to me that several members of our Notre Dame Family were involved in rather high-profile roles last night:

The Weis-man himself, Charlie Weis, who made critical adjustments during the extended halftime which resulted in the Patriots moving the ball with greater success in the second half

WR David Givens, who was sorely under-developed under the hapless Davie regime, proved his mettle by scoring the first TD of the night for the Patriots

Weis was forced to match wits all night with Eagles' Defensive Coordinator Jim Johnson, who coached the 1977 Irish Defense under Dan Devine to a National Championship. Other Irish family members who played a part of Super Bowl XXXIX included Eagle defensive lineman Paul Grasmanis (1992-95), Patriot linebackers coach Dean Pees (Irish secondary coach in 1994) and Eagles secondary coach Trent Walters (Irish secondary coach from 2002-03).


With his halftime recalculations, Weis once again proved his genius in the world of X's and O's. If he can translate his professional precision into success in the NCAA arena, then a new golden-era for Notre Dame football may be just around the corner.


The Daily Herald has a nice piece telling all the ND faithful what lies in store for Weis during this much-anticipated off-season:

Weis isn't naïve. He understands Notre Dame football is broken and he's eager to begin fixing it.


He has already gone through part of a recruiting cycle, the one that culminated in Wednesday's signing day. He tried to stay in contact with prospects while scheming to play the Colts, the Steelers and now the Eagles during the NFL postseason.


"Every hour I'm not spending on this game," Weis said of how much time he devoted to Notre Dame. "I carried two cell phones and made calls on buses, after practice ...
"Recruiting is selling. You have a product, you have yourself and you try to sell it. Having gone to Notre Dame, it's an easier sell for me. The only thing is, I had a shorter time frame (this year). Now I'll have a full year. I'll have no excuses, will I?"

Nor will Weis make any. He isn't complaining about having had only two months with recruits this time around while other coaches had two years wooing them.

"The first thing we have to do is get the off-season program going with the entire coaching staff," Weis said. "I have to get my philosophy over to the defensive staff and get my special-teams coaches on the same page because I have two of them."
But not until today's Super Bowl is history.

"I've got a lot of adrenaline flowing right now," Weis said. "This game can't get here fast enough."

Once it ends, he can store his New England hat in the closet and plant his Notre Dame hat firmly on his head.