Dear Charlie, Good afternoon. How are you feeling? I know that your weekend was exciting, what with McDonald's special 50 pack McNugget special running for three days you must have lived like a KING. I hope your tummy feels fine and, may I say, you do look a little slimmer. Are you wearing vertical stripes? You devil! Anyways, I just want to commend you on your amazing job at Notre Dame. As a Michigan fan, I should probably not be writing you, what with our coach's ability to produce the same season as you did in 2006 but, you know what, I just drank a Red Bull in my room at the Holiday Inn Express so it's either Extreme Sports or write you. I digress. You have Jimmy Clausen, a player that Rivals claims is the best pro-style quarterback in the past five recruiting classes, and somehow made him look not just like an Emu but an Emu who shit himself. You somehow didn't get Brady Quinn killed in your first year at Notre Dame so if I were Clausen, I would know that the countdown has to be getting close before the pocket collapses around me and I find myself shanked by a guy named Bubba. It's been incredibly amusing to watch Clausen come on the field as a freshman, young and full of pep and then see him now. He is so terrified of the predicament you place him into almost every down that if he could have the ball hiked to him next to the sideline, he would. He made Michigan's historically awful defense look decent last year. It took MICHIGAN to put a cocky swagger into his gait. I'm shocked he didn't go pro just to go undrafted and escape you. Btw congrats on that big Hawaii win. It's a shame you didn't get to play against Colt Brennan... you know, the kid who'd been in jail and that you could improve your team with if only you recruited hoodlums and thugs... oh well. Let's sum it up this way: you somehow are able to make Clausen look MORE like an idiot on the field than he does off. I think that's the issue: you fail to acknowledge your own failure so the rest of the world feeds off of it. See, with your losses to military schools so rampant, players are beginning to play Battleship more. They're slimming down, eating salad and watching you go to the buffet more. You see, Charlie, you're self-destructing. You walk into schools and show off your rings and expect people to come to you. You expect your legend to be big and impressive enough that you don't have to get into the trenches and earn your way. And people are hearing more about it. How else can you explain the fact Notre Dame has the 23rd best recruiting class in the nation? Parents DREAM of sending their kids to Notre Dame. For God's sake (literally) you have JESUS in an ENDZONE. Your helmets are GOLD. But, see, you don't really care about the land of Rockne and Rudy... The Four Horsemen and green jerseys. You must have looked at Lou Holtz and laughed an inch off of your waist thinking how easy it must be to do what he did. Your class was #2 in the nation in 2008. #2! Perhaps it helped your team went 3-9 the year before and recruits saw an opportunity to impact (a la Michigan). But to slip 20 spots Charlie? Something changed. It wasn't just that you went 3-9 in 2007, when you had four players on pre-season watch lists for six national awards. It was that you refused to acknowledge it as a rebuilding year. You drove off your starting quarterback and buried Sharpley. You refused to even accept the horror that was. At least Rodriguez was frank about it. You just seemed to act like it wasn't happening. It almost came off as... arrogant. And I think it's that people began to see that as long as you were at Notre Dame, the school would be in the background. You're a big figure and you're proud of it but it seems the organization and institution can't be seen around you. You got negative and got caught saying some ridiculous stuff about Michigan and thugs and tactical advantages. The Patriots got caught videotaping in a manner that was widely scrutinized but overlooked while you were at New England. You sued your doctors over a stomach staple surgery that, honestly, nobody can believe you even had and that got thrown out rather embarassingly. You barely scraped yourself to a bowl game that you, loudly, declared you deserved over anyone else. You ripped on other coaches in the country to recruit when, in fact, all people had to do to show maybe ND wasn't a good idea is point at the headlines. Tell us Charlie: how much did your schematic advantage come from video cameras? You search Google for 'charlie weis recruiting' - this is what you get: Charlie Weis thinks recruiting is nasty Charlie Weis alienates Irish supporters Weis denies accusations of negative recruiting Notre Dame's Charlie Weis, the worst football coach in the universe Charlie Weis wrong face to represent Notre Dame Google returns 10 results on the first page. Ignoring your YouTube video, an article about you barely keeping your job, a speculative article written in November about the ND class looking good (fyi, it's not), an article cautioning people from encouraging your firing and an article flat out saying the recruiting class could save your job is all there is. One encouraging article and another that says if you do well, which it looks like you didn't, you might keep your job. Let's ignore the article about you decrying the recruiting process that you're supposed to act like you like a la "OHMYGOD MRS. JOHNSON THESE ARE THE BEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES EVER, YOUR SON SHOULD BRING THEM WITH HIM TO NOTRE DAME" and dive into the negative recruiting article. You're infamous for walking into high schools and plunking your rings down without a word, even going so far as to ask people if they want to see them. But when you have Clemson of all schools pointing out that their recruit had you ripping on their education, noting your school's television exposure and being the only school who ignored his commitment, it looks bad. Almost like you look down on anyone that's not you or your school. Which is true. In the end, Charlie, your time is wrapping up at Notre Dame. Hell you might beat Michigan again this year but odds are it won't save your job. Because people in South Bend do care about their institution. They do care about its legend and place in the lore of college football and elsewhere. And the fact is, Charles, your shadow is too big for such a place. As a Michigan fan even I can say it: Notre Dame deserves better. Notre Dame Recruiting Class By Year (per Rivals) 2009: #23 (subject to change) 2008: #2 2007: #8 2006: #8 2005: #40 2004: #32 2003: #12 2002: #24