Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Regina Quondam. Regina Futura.

From behind the firewall of ESPN Insider comes a scoop off of Ivan Maisel's blog:
Weis Fixed On The Prize

He may be loud and he may be big, but even Charlie Weis can be inconspicuous. On the night that Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn did not win the Heisman Trophy, the Fighting Irish coach stood behind a pillar at the far end of the lobby outside the Nokia Theater. If you came down the stairs into the lobby and craned your neck to the left, you might have seen Weis, which is how he liked it.

When public figures like Weis are in a public setting -- that is, one they don't control, complete with civilians -- they lurk on the edge of it. To dive in would be to surrender their time and their shield. Speaking of which, I can remember being in South Bend some years ago for a banquet at which then-coach Lou Holtz would speak. He stood in the second-floor lobby of the athletic building, self-pinned against a trophy case, sipping a diet Coke and girding himself to go on stage.

So Weis is off to one side, and I walk up and re-introduce myself and congratulate him on going 10-2. And here, from memory, is what he said:

"Listen, it's a polite thing to say, and politically correct, but if I'm happy with a 10-2 record, I'm going to get fired," Weis said. "The two losses were not close. We're not where we want to be. But I'm telling you, with the players we have coming in, including a couple of recruits that nobody knows are going to commit to us, we're going to be a lot better. A couple of years from now, you are going to remember that we had this conversation tonight."

"All right," I said. "I'll remind you. No, you remind me."

"I won't have to," Weis said. "We'll just look at each other, and you'll know."

You can't hear tone of voice online. On the screen, Weis might sound arrogant in that exchange. He didn't in person. He is fixed on a prize, and he intends to claim it.

One other thing: that's why journalists love unscripted moments. That's the real Charlie Weis

I believe something about the obliteration of the unbelievers and perhaps a chariot of fire and a thousand trumpets are in order. Or we could just go for head-butting the nearest dog. Whatever suits you best.

On a more practical level, just whom did he mean? The Heisman banquet was December 11, so Maisel's been sitting on this information for a while, the bastard. Since the banquet, Ian Williams (Dec. 12), Golden Tate (Dec. 12), and Taylor Dever (Dec. 16) have all publicly committed. Of the three, only Williams came as a surprise. Everyone and his grandmother knew that Tate and Dever would commit as soon as they were offered. Since Charlie said "a couple," I have to assume he meant more than just Williams, if he was even referring Williams at all. Chris Little is another possibility, going from enigma to nearly-certain Irish commit in very short order; however, since Weis was talking about rectifying the blowouts by Michigan and USC, the optimist in me would like to think that Charlie alluding to some silent commits on the defensive side of the ball, i.e. Martin, Donald, Wright, or Griffen.

February can't come soon enough.

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