SOUTH BEND, Ind. - What is most remembered about Charlie Weis’ second chance at life is the malpractice lawsuit that arose from it, then fizzled in the summer of 2007 and the sour aftermath that still hangs in the air.

What is forgotten is how much the experience changed who he is today, how much sturdier the 52-year-old Notre Dame head football coach is mentally, how much alert he became at finding more of a balance and purpose in his life, how much more driven he is to steamroll any obstacles in his path.

The good and the bad residue from the coach’s 2002 near-death experience have defined him ever since. And now, just one year after a sweeping self-imposed coaching makeover for Weis, it’s time to recalibrate and redefine further.

This time, it not only comes from heart, it’s mandated. Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick said as much, though overly succinctly and vaguely, in discussions last month with the media following ND’s decision to bring Weis back for a fifth season.

So what will change look like, or more importantly, what should it look like?

The offseason goals for the 2009 Irish start with Weis. He is never to be confused with a mere figurehead. His thoughts, his influence, his presence pervades every corner of the football operation right down to what kind of questions the media can ask which players on the team.

So none of the goals have room to breathe, much less constellate, without these two questions being emphatically answered in the affirmative:

Can Weis identify and fix his coaching blind spots?

Is Weis a micromanager or has he evolved into a leader?

The rest of the goals for 2009 break down as follows:

X’s and O’s
In looking at the 10 teams that made the bowl system’s top tier – the BCS – the common thread among all 10 was a rushing defense that ranked among the nation’s top 20.

The 7-6 Irish finished 45th (out of 119) in that category this season, up from 96th the year before, but they were still not good enough to force teams to be one-dimensional offensively or to keep them from controlling the line of scrimmage and the clock at critical times in the games ND eventually lost.

The other three areas in which ND least looked like a BCS team were rushing offense (100th), passing efficiency (42nd) and turnover margin (73rd). Only Cincinnati, (95th) among the BCS bowl participants, was not among the top half nationally in rushing offense and much of that could be attributed to the injuries and instability at the quarterback position.

Only Virginia Tech (99th) and Alabama (65th) weren’t in the top 32 in passing efficiency and that came back to bite the Crimson Tide late in the season. And only Cincinnati (93rd) and Texas (49th) were not in the top 32 in turnover margin.

Notre Dame's running game woes and the run defense inadequacies are chronic problems during the Weis Era. These also happen to be areas that diverge significantly from the pro game. Weis must be willing to listen to his new offensive coordinator’s ideas about scheme because it’s not about talent or experience deficiencies anymore.

Coaching Chemistry
It’s not just who you hire in the new assistant coaching alignment for 2009, it’s who you allow them to be.

The first question Weis needs to answer is: Who will be calling the offensive plays?

The short-term and long-term answers may be different. The sense here is that it will be Weis, at least in 2009. And then that invites another question, will he be calling the plays from the sidelines -- or up in the press box, as he did in the Hawaii Bowl?

Weis’ recent knee-replacement surgery on his right knee and his impending surgery on his left knee give him “an excuse” to go think outside the box and coach inside the box for a season anyway. He already pooh-poohed the idea in his post-Hawaii Bowl press conference but that’s not necessarily the final word on the subject.

He wants to be able to antagonize the officials, talk to his quarterbacks face to face between offensive possessions, and choreograph and control at close range but he may reverse his field in the offseason and that bears watching.

The staff changes that started with offensive coordinator Mike Haywood’s jump to Miami of Ohio and continued with defensive line coach Jappy Oliver’s exit this week will mean little if there’s no real delegation of duties and no real exchange of ideas in coaching meetings.

Weis certainly was willing and able to change in a multitude of coaching areas last offseason. He needs to continue to do so if he is to truly evolve into an elite college head coach.

Player Relations
Weis’ biggest strides in 2008 were here. By allowing players to be freer to express themselves on and off the field, by showing up at weight-lifting sessions and showing off his “human” side at offseason get-togethers, Weis got a team that played loose and more confident.

Again, that was step one. There’s a difference between leading and controlling. When Weis was at his most effective in 2008 was when he showed genuine emotion rather than try to choreograph it through calculated methods such as good cop/bad cop routines.

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