Eric Hansen

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - They are out there today, the scathing columns and commentaries that Notre Dame made the wrong choice in forgiving a 6-6 blotch on Charlie Weis’ résumé and letting the Notre Dame head football coach play out at least one more of the seven remaining years on his contract.

They are the drive-by character assassinations, many from journalists and bloggers who have never met Weis, let alone showed up at one of his games or practices. Their credibility is as soft as their voices are loud. Yet fairly or unfairly, accurately or inaccurately, this is where life after near-career-death starts -- in a pool of strangers’ negativity and misperceptions and Weis’ own missteps.

ND’s soon-to-be fifth-year head coach has always had an admiration for those guys who can swim in those waters and eventually transcend them -- guys like his own starting left offensive tackle, Michael Turkovich.

Heading into his final collegiate season Turkovich had to battle back from injuries this spring and a position switch from guard after it was deemed his lack of adaptation to that position played far too prominently into ND’s NCAA-record 58 sacks in the lost 2007 season.

Playing with the passion of a guy with something to prove and absolutely no sense of entitlement, Turkovich competed for the starting left tackle job with the incumbent starter (Paul Duncan) and a sophomore (Matt Romine) who was way, way higher in the recruiting food chain when he was coming out of high school.

Turkovich, though, ended up overwhelming his coaches, won the job and was perhaps ND’s most consistent lineman this year. And every day he played hungry. He had something to prove.

Now Charlie Weis is that guy.

And that is largely what ND first-year athletic director Jack Swarbrick must have seen Tuesday when he and Weis met clandestinely in California to map out what the 2009 season and beyond should look like and whether Weis was the man to get them there.

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"It was really all about: Do my visions and expectations going forward, based on an analysis of this year, marry up with his?" Swarbrick said. "And they did.

"We had remarkably similar perspectives on what needed to change and how we thought we should go about it. And that’s what I was looking for. Are we on the same page? Do we have the same view as to what we have to do to get his team much better?"

And as Swarbrick went through the process, one of the things that resonated with him the most was Weis’ ability and willingness to change this past season.

"He is about as willing to consider alternative approaches as any big-time coach you could encounter," Swarbrick said. "It’s a little rare for guys in his profession to do that. I think it’s very unfair for people to read some indecisiveness into that."

There is certainly no room for indecision moving forward. And Swarbrick said Wednesday night that the two men discussed every dangling detail, though he declined to show and tell any of them with the media at this juncture. Here’s an artist rendering of what they likely sketched out.

The problems:

Taking the USC disaster out of the equation for a moment, there were four key issues that kept burping themselves up, more or less, in each of ND’s five losses and some of the wins:

1. The lack of a consistent/dependable running game.

2. A quarterback who undid flashes of brilliances with game-altering turnovers.

3. A defensive front that lacked size and octane to the point that it minimized assistant coach Jon Tenuta’s blitzing schemes.

4. Special teams meltdowns.

The solutions:

Weis has long prided himself on the two areas where he feels he brings the most expertise to a team: running the offense and coaching the starting quarterback. And if that’s indeed the case, then he should be spending most of his time in those two areas.

That’s not the end of that discussion, however. Weis has presided over the second-most prolific offensive improvement from one season to the next in ND history (81st to 10th in 2005), but he was also pulling the strings on the worst (23rd to 119th in 2007). So he does need someone to bounce ideas off of, someone to help tweak, someone to help him evolve when the defenses catch up to a certain aspect or wrinkle of his offensive identity. And someone he will listen to.

Right now, that person does not exist on Weis’ offensive staff.

John Latina is the one veteran on the offensive side with coordinator’s experience. By all accounts, he is well-respected across the college football landscape and could land another gig in a heartbeat. He is Joe Moore disciple, a really strong recruiter, a guy you like representing your university on and off the field. But for whatever reason, there has never been a comfortable meshing here between Weis and Latina, at least when it comes to results on the field. If this difference can’t be quickly and completely reconciled, there needs to be a parting of the ways here.

Tight ends coach Bernie Parmalee, a former college and NFL running back, might bring more to the table as a running backs coach. That leaves a vacancy at tight ends coach and one at offensive line. Why not hire two coaches with offensive line expertise, with philosophies that are consistent? After all, between them you are asking them to coach six of the 11 starters on your offense. Make one offensive coordinator, the other assistant head coach.

Wide receivers coach/recruiting coordinator Rob Ianello is a keeper, but the tough question is whether newbie Ron Powlus is the answer for quarterbacks coach. The Irish offense, the whole team setup, is so quarterback-centric, Powlus must be showing an impressive learning curve to stay the course here. His two predecessors, David Cutcliffe and Peter Vaas, were both former college head coaches when they landed at ND.

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