Most of the college football nation was shocked to see Notre Dame dominate Pitt on Saturday. We shouldn’t have been that surprised. Charlie Weis showed that he’s not just a great offensive coordinator. He just might become a great head coach as well. On the other side of the ball, Dave Wannstedt demonstrated again that he’s a mediocre head coach.
Weis is one of the reasons everyone is calling Bill Belichick a genius. Belichick let Weis run the New England offense, and Weis responded by helping the Patriots win three Super Bowls. He’s a brilliant play-caller, and his offense is much easier to implement than the complicated West Coast system favored by Tyrone Willingham. He aslo inherited some serious talent at quarterback and tailback, making the transition to college much easier. Pitt was supposed to have a good defense, but Notre Dame ran and passed the ball like they were playing a high school team.
We also saw a glimpse of how Weis runs a team. He does not tolerate mistakes, and he let one of his defensive players have it on the sidelines in the fourth quarter.
The question now is whether Notre Dame can do some damage to the heavyweights on its brutal schedule this season. I think they can. Michigan is up this week, and Weis must be licking his chops after seeing the Michigan defense give up over 400 yards to Northern Illinois in week one. I like this matchup for Notre Dame.
