1. Is Charlie Weis the right coach to turn around Notre Dame's plummeting football program?

	Charlie Weis' coaching style has been influenced by mentors Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick. Damian Strohmeyer/SI

First of all, at Notre Dame it's not just about the coach. (In truth, it's not just about the coach at any serious, D-I football program, it's about commitment, shorthand for money and a willingness to accept the vague hypocrisy involved in running a both an institution of higher learning and a competitive football team with the same bodies).

I wrote a story on the Weis-Irish marriage in this week's issue of SI, and during my visit to South Bend a couple of weeks ago I got a stronger vibe of cooperation than I've felt on that campus in a very long time. Quick story: When Lou Holtz left South Bend after the 1996 season, I wrote a piece on that changing of the guard. Holtz was a terrifically successful coach at Notre Dame: He won 100 games in 11 seasons, including a national title in 1988 (Notre Dame's last) and near-misses in '89 and '93. When Holtz was replaced by Bob Davie in '97, a person intimately familiar with the school's football program said to me: "You don't want to be the guy who replaces Lou. You want to be the guy who replaces the guy who replaces Lou.''

His point was that many people sensed Notre Dame had grown tired of Holtz and his persistent scuffles with the admissions office and that his successor was going to get a heavy dose of high horse academics. Whether that actually happened to Davie or not is subject to argument; he thinks it did, while ND insiders will argue that it didn't.

This much is certain: Davie only won 58 percent of his games and was gone. According to the above theory, Tyrone Willingham should have been in a perfect spot. He was taking over at a time when the Irish were struggling and desperate to get back on top. That didn't happen and Willingham got sacked in three years. Did either of these men get the commitment necessary for success from the Notre Dame administration? Nobody knows for certain. Some say the admissions office was brutal, others say admissions was just not on the same page with the coaching staff. The schedule was too tough, the facilities antiquated.

An ND insider said to me recently, "Bob Davie is a hell of a football coach and I have the highest regard for Tyrone Winningham.''

What does all that mean?

Again, we'll never really know. This much we do know: Weis is getting new facilities and a more realistic schedule. He appears to be on the same page as the admissions office. Coaching ability being equal, he'll have a better chance to win than Davie or Willingham. He is in the right place at the right time.

2. That's a loaded pharase: "Coaching ability being equal.'' Is Weis' coaching ability equal?

Who knows? Notre Dame was Davie's first head-coaching job and he was a little over .500 in five years. Willingham was a head coach at Stanford for seven years and at ND for three and he, too, was a little over .500. Those numbers would suggest that both are respectable football coaches, nothing more. (Although as the previous question demonstrates, there's a lot more to coaching success than coaching ability).

Weis hasn't been a head coach since he led Franklin Township High School to the New Jersey Group 3 state title in the fall of 1989. But he's spent the last 15 years in the NFL working under two lock-solid Hall of Fame mentors, Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick. He knows football and he knows coaching. (He also knows Notre Dame, having graduated from the school in 1978).

After spending time with Weis, and talking to people like Parcells and Belichick, I have no doubt that he possesses the football IQ to be successful. His Notre Dame teams will be "schematically'' (as Weis likes to say) prepared to win.

The other factors will ultimately decide his fate: Can he recruit? Can he deal with the myriad obligations required of the Notre Dame head coach? (Before he even moved into his office in South Bend, he was looking at more than 70 speaking engagements).

In many ways, coaching at a place like Notre Dame is a broader job than coaching in the NFL. The football is, as Weis told me, "a little less complex,'' but extracurriculars are onerous. Weis wants to control things like Parcells and Belichick. That's harder in an open, free-thinking environment like a college campus. You can't lock down a campus the way you can a pro facility.