For any new college football coach, we hear the familiar refrain, Wait until he gets his guys in there, then we'll see what he can really do.""
The logic works. It's probably not fair to judge a coach without seeing him work for more than a few seasons. The problem comes when recruiting turns into a crutch for coaches whose jobs are on tenuous ground.
These circumstances feed into the troubling situation in South Bend, Ind., where one of the greatest programs in college football history has been brought to its knees by its own hubris. The Fighting Irish were basically forced to retain head coach Charlie Weis, dubbed the ""Great Weis Hope"" by at least one prominent columnist.
Weis came to Notre Dame in the midst of a tumultuous period. After the retirement of successful coach Lou Holtz, defensive coordinator Bob Davie was promoted to the top job. He recruited well, but went only 35-25 and missed two bowls in five seasons.
Next came Tyrone Willingham, who led the team to three mediocre seasons and was fired before his players could even get established.
And finally we come to Weis. With Willingham's first recruiting classes, Weis found success.
His team burst out to a 5-2 record, and after a close loss to USC at home, Weis was handed a 10-year contract worth an obscene amount of money.
Since then, problems have arisen.
Weis' teams lost a pair of BCS bowls and then during a down season, Weis' third, Notre Dame fans blamed Willingham. They said the coach who had been given only three seasons on the job had just not recruited enough high-character athletes for Weis to win with.
Instead, they pointed to Weis' highly rated recruiting class as proof that their beloved Domers were on the path back to the top.
Well, it didn't work out.
The Irish beat the teams they should have early, were destroyed by the good teams they faced and were witness to an act so pompous it probably merited Weis' firing on the spot. After a difficult stretch, Weis decided to take over play calling duties before facing two of the worst defenses on their schedule.
In some form of cosmic justice, Weis' team struggled against Navy and ran for just 41 yards in a loss to Syracuse, one of the worst defensive teams in the country.
Notre Dame is stuck because they cannot fire their third coach in the last decade.
The recruits that helped power so much Irish optimism have now been exposed as overrated. It turns out that being recruited by Notre Dame make recruits highly rated, so the top classes don't mean much (Davie and Willingham had wellrated recruits, too).
Getting your guys is one of the most overrated aspects of college coaching.
Bob Stoops won with another coach's players. So did Jim Tressel. Since then, neither has a single title despite ridiculous arrays of talent.
Michigan fans, enduring their worst season ever, are similarly smug over recruiting rankings. We hear that their players simply do not fit Rich Rodriguez's system and that when the best recruits get there, he'll be running the Big Ten.
Well, his players were already from top-10 recruiting classes. All of them.
Maybe someday fans will judge coaches by how their teams play rather than their ability to recruit 17-year-olds.
Then again, if the braintrust at Notre Dame can't figure it out, there's not much hope for the rest of us.
Do you think college coaches should be able to win games with players they did not recruit? E-mail your thoughts to Ben at breiner@wisc.edu.
