The Notre Dame rebuilding project was set back a year when the Irish hired a coach who was involved with a Super Bowl team.
Charlie Weis might be the long-term answer as the coach of the Irish football program.
But Notre Dame is still suffering some short-term pain from when the administration agreed to let Weis stay on as offensive coordinator for the Patriots during their 2005 Super Bowl run.
That pain was felt most intensely last year and it will be felt again this year.
The problem involves recruiting.
The fundamental building block for any great program involves getting the very best players possible.
That concession cost Weis valuable recruiting time and it delayed some inevitable mistakes that a rookie head coach -- a guy who hadn't coached in college football for 17 years --was bound to make when it came to evaluating and attracting high school talent.
It was an unusual move to fire Tyrone Willingham, hire Weis in mid-December and then let him continue on as a Patriots coach.
It's doubtful the result of Weis' first class would've been much better had he arrived on campus immediately.
Willingham already had a lousy start on securing players for the 2005 season. That wasn't going to improve instantly no matter who was coaching the team. Of the 15 players Weis recruited that year, only six true seniors are listed on the current depth chart as starters. That's not the type of contributions you want from your upper class.
The biggest issue, though, involves the junior class. Hailed as a top-10 class, it has so far just panned out to be pretty good but not great. Only 20 of the 28 players from that class remain on the team.
Quarterbacks Demetrius Jones and Zach Frazier transferred, as did tight end Konrad Reuland.
James Aldridge hasn't yet turned into the five-star running back that was touted as when he left Merrillville High School. There are no great wide receivers in the class. Frankly, it's not the kind of class that is going to elevate a program to an elite level.
That class is devoid basically of great players.
You need at least one or two players at the skill positions --quarterback, wide receiver or running back -- to be exceptional every year to be among the best teams in the country.
Lou Holtz says that a team needs eight or nine great players to win a national championship. The other contributors are role players.
The Irish still aren't there. Robert Hughes could be great. David Bruton is great. Sam Young, a junior, has potential to be a great tackle.
Weis' last two classes are the types of classes that could bring the program back to national prominence.
Dayne Crist, Michael Floyd and Kyle Rudolph are all potentially great freshman players.
Ditto for Robert Blanton, Ethan Johnson, Steve Filer and Darius Fleming on defense.
The sophomore class has Jimmy Clausen, Armando Allen, Hughes, Kerry Neal and Brian Smith to hang its hat on.
It's ridiculous to suggest, as some have already, that Weis' job is on the line this season. Barring some sort of disaster this year, Weis will return. He did everything well last year except win and he knows how to do the most important thing in college football well: recruit.
Weis appears to have figured out, after a bit of a false start, how to get the necessary talent to make Notre Dame into a top ten team.
I wonder though if those few extra months on the job with the Patriots cost him with this junior class?
I believe it did.
