Quote of the Week: Resurrection

Try as I might to understand what's going on in Weis' head, sometimes I just inevitably end up falling short. The announcement of former O-Line coach John Latina's departure to make way for Frank Verducci surprises me; I'm not confused about the selection, but rather by the timing of this announcement.

Former Offensive Coordinator Mike Haywood was interviewing for head coaching jobs for awhile before he left, perhaps most notably when he was turned down by Houston last season. Keeping this in mind, I figured that Weis and Co. would be well ahead of the curve in selecting his replacement. In fact, I assumed that the candidate had already been chosen, but Charlie was waiting to introduce the new, revamped staff all at once.Now that Verducci's hire has been made public, it tells us that Notre Dame may not have a ready candidate to step into Haywood's role or into the D-Line coach vacancy left by Jappy Oliver. For all I know, contract negotiations may already be underway, but I'm still relatively surprised that this announcement came before we settled on an O-Coordinator.

Moving on to Verducci, though, it looks like he should be an improvement in the coaching staff. He seems to fit the classic definition of journeyman, working for four different NFL teams and taking two years off during a ten year stint, but you can't help but think that 30 years of coaching experience across D-1 and the NFL should serve him well. I like that he is reportedly an intense coach, and I like his excitement about his new job. Weis has always valued people that respect the tradition of the university, and that is where this week's quote comes from:

"I'm very excited for this opportunity and am grateful to Coach Weis," Verducci said. "Notre Dame is the one college job I pursued and is the only school I considered leaving the NFL for."

Welcome to Notre Dame, Frank. Now teach those hog mollies how to run block!