“With the forty-eighth pick in the 2010 NFL Draft, the Carolina Panthers select….Jimmy Clausen, quarterback from Notre Dame.”

With this one statement, the Charlie Weis era at Notre Dame is now officially over. Charlie Weis may have been fired months ago from the University of Notre Dame, but with the selection of his prized recruit Jimmy Clausen in the second round of the NFL draft, his era came to a fitting end.

When Charlie Weis was hired by Notre Dame in December 2004, he came into the program with a NFL pedigree and the label as an offensive genius. He brought the hope of rebuilding a program that had taken quite a fall from its perch as the premier college football program of all time. His appeal was that he not only could recruit top talent, but with his ‘genius’, he would mold these athletes into players that NFL will be drooling over when draft time comes around. On paper, it looked like he could. What was not to like about his resume? He had three Super Bowl rings and the main example of his work in the NFL was none other than arguably the best quarterback in the NFL, Tom Brady. All the promise was there, but the results did not follow at Notre Dame. Not only did he produce an unacceptable win/loss record (35 wins, 27 losses in five years), but he did not produce players ready for the NFL.

In the five drafts in which players Charlie Weis coached entered the NFL draft (2006-2010), he produced exactly one first round draft choice. That was Brady Quinn, who was selected twenty second overall in 2007. Quinn was projected to go much higher and had to agonize and wait until his name was finally called. Quinn having to sit and slide down the draft board has become the classic example of disappointment in the NFL draft…until Jimmy Clausen.

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Jimmy Clausen was one of the most highly recruited high school players in recent history. He came from a strong football background. His brothers played quarterback at LSU and Tennessee respectively. His arrival at Notre Dame brought excitement. And surely with Weis teaching him, Clausen and a highly ranked recruiting class would become sure fire first round picks. And as Jimmy Clausen prepared for the draft, some experts had him going as high as number four. But questions about his attitude, his leadership, among other things caused his slide. But it wasn’t just a small slide down a few spots or out of the top ten. Clausen started sliding and kept sliding all the way into the middle of the second round at number forty eight. Once again, there was no first round pick for Weis.

The number of his players drafted by NFL teams is very similar to his predecessors. Tyrone Willingham and Bob Davie, each produced the same number of first round picks during their tenures at Notre Dame as Weis which was exactly one (Jeff Faine in 2003; Luke Petitgout in 1999). Neither Tyrone Willingham or Bob Davie exited Notre Dame as legends. Both produced similar results as Weis. Result that are not acceptable at Notre Dame. But while Willingham and Davie were not expected to turn out NFL caliber talent each year, Weis was. Compared to Willingham and Davie, Weis was average. In Bob Davie’s five years, twenty-one players were drafted. Tyrone Willingham had fourteen players drafted in three years. In Charlie Weis’ five years, nineteen players were drafted. Just nineteen when it was supposed to be so many more. Nineteen, another disappointing number in the tenure of Charlie Weis.

And with the selection of Clausen, the disappointment on his face symbolized the disappointment of the entire Weis era at Notre dame. A tenure that held loads of promise, but one that was a lot of talk and little action.

By David Hyland
Pro Football Fans Staff Writer