This year, the curtain opens on two high-profile college coaches. Both Charlie Weis and Urban Meyer are headed into season three. This is the year to show what they have done with their respective programs.
Weis and Meyer have both excelled with someone else's players. Neither has shown he can build a program. Weis, because this is his first opportunity and the Meyer has never made it to year three.
Don't get me wrong, I think Meyer is a very good coach. He has shown a propensity to excel with the players someone else brings into the program. But can he construct a Gator dynasty?
He spent two stellar years each at Bowling Green, Utah and Florida. Ron Zook had recruited well and the cupboard was well prepared for Meyer's start. This year you should see him continue to build upon what he started. With Florida HS football talent, it's not like he doesn't have a pipeline to recruit a yearly, nationally relevent program.
Now on to Weis and my Irish hopes. I liked Ty Willingham and thought he had the program going in the right direction when he was canned so the ND administration could hire Meyer. After year three in fact. We got Weis instead and in my opinion, he can coach with anyone.
But can he build a program? This is the year we get a glimpse.
The third year is not everything. The Irish lost a lot of key players, especially on offense. If the Irish fall short of 10 wins, I'm not going to be ready to can him, but I want to see that the system is getting replentished. Year four and five should be solid steps forward.
In this day and age, it is hard for administrators to let coaches man the helm for enough time to put their stamp on a program. You need five or six years, a solid rotation of recruiting to get a true look at what a coach can do.
Willingham was only given three years. Claims were his recruiting was not up to par, but his recruiting took the Irish to back-toback BCS bids under Weis's on-the-field guidance. I just hope his off-the-field work is as strong as his on-field has been to this point.
Cheney Larschied
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