Recruiting just the beginning for Weis at Notre Dame

Anticipation is building at Notre Dame this week over a little black box. That, or something like it, will be the only tangible existence of Charlie Weis on Wednesday when he announces his first recruiting class.

Weis' disembodied voice over a speakerphone is further proof that only part of the coach's mind has been able to focus on his first class. The rest of the man's body, soul and spirit will be in Jacksonville at a little thing called the Super Bowl.

Charlie Weis will get right back on a plane after the Super Bowl to head to South Bend. (AP)

In one way, it is the Domers' worst nightmare. Their savior coach is spoken for on signing day during the second-most important week on the Notre Dame football calendar next to Southern California week.

(Pregnant pause)

OK, so considering recent history make it the most important week on the calendar. In years.

That's why it has to hurt that Weis isn't there. Since Dec. 12 when Weis was hired, the conditions seemed weird. The Patriots came first with the potential for another run to the Super Bowl further cutting into Weis' time.

Meanwhile, anxiety built over whether his NFL assistant coaching prowess really will translate to a first-time head coach resurrecting a fallen power. The positive spin says that Weis' energy, smarts and determination will carry him through. If he can assemble the nation's 36th-best recruiting class (as of Tuesday) while coaching the Pats' offense, and assembling a staff as an absentee coach, think what he'll do in a year.

"It's tough to turn a great class around when you have a coach who comes in once a month and you're still trying to assemble your staff," said recruiting guru Jeremy Crabtree of rivals.com. "My honest appraisal (of the recruiting class) is: Not bad, but probably not where we're going to see Notre Dame here in the future.

"They're doing a much better job, already, in selling Notre Dame to the kids instead of letting Notre Dame sell itself. They're out there selling the positives, (such as), 'You need to come be part of this tradition. The previous staff said, 'We're Notre Dame you need to come here.'"

But the program having to wait another year for Weis to go through his first full recruiting season is a huge point. It's probably not what the Notre Dame administration was expecting when it figured No. 1 overall choice Urban Meyer was a lock.

Any fallout will be felt years from now. Notre Dame's 2001 recruiting class was ranked 16th nationally and included three Parade high school All-Americans. That class just finished their careers 26-21 under three coaches.

That means the annual disclaimer applies for Notre Dame and its 116 I-A peers: Getting too worked up over signing day can be hazardous to your mental health.

Still, it's a legit reason to get pumped up in South Bend. Weis' motivational skills are his best current selling points considering there isn't a Tom Brady or Corey Dillon on the roster. Weis understands offensive football, organization, work ethic and love of his alma mater.

What he doesn't understand -- at least not yet -- is that, in general, we want to write good things about him and his program.

It goes with the territory. Unless your school cheats or you are Rick Neuheisel, college football media tends to skew positive. For one, the writers can relate. Most of us have been to college so we know a little about the experience compared to, say, the cloistered NFL.

In theory, the players are still kids, still amateurs, still refreshingly naive, sometimes, to the ways of the world. There are few inflated egos and no salary cap. That's why a lot of our jaws are still agape trying to grasp Weis' comments from Jan. 7.

"I don't want anyone any more contacting a player or a coach on your own, OK?" he told reporters during a weekend visit to South Bend. "They're all off limits. You want to interview a player or a coach, I'll be more than happy to give you permission to talk them."

Permission? Being talked down to as if we were school children looking for a hall pass is insulting enough. What happened to the days when Notre Dame wanted to promote its players? Isn't that kind of the point, that the players are an extension of the university -- or did Kim Dunbar ruin it for everyone?

Weis wants to know the questions in advance, which might be mandatory in Castro's Cuba but ludicrous at a program that has little leverage to pull such a stunt. With a coach who has a 0-0 record.

For some reason, questions comparing him to Tyrone Willingham are especially touchy.

"Guess what?" he said. "That interview is going to be rejected, declined."

Notre Dame needs to sell itself to a generation of incoming freshmen that were toddlers the last time the school won a national championship. Identity would be a nice thing to establish for a school that has had four coaches since December 2001.

Instead, we get these confrontational ground rules for the media.

"If I start reading those anonymous quotes now, you're shut down," Weis said. "I will never say another word to you."

Is that a promise or a threat? Let's just say, at this point, Notre Dame needs the media more than the media needs Notre Dame. Call this another whiny rant from the media if you want. Why, you ask, should the public care?

This is why: College is supposed to be the time of these players' lives. Some of them will never be as famous as they are on a magic Saturday afternoon when they score the winning touchdown.

This is why: When USC and Oklahoma land top-10 classes they seem to mean something. All those five-star recruits in recent years have contributed to national championships.

When Notre Dame landed a top-16 class four years ago it meant a 6-6 Insight Bowl season for seniors in 2004.

Legitimate questions need to be asked.

Rivals.com's Bobby Burton weighed in this week on what separates Notre Dame's big-time classes from other schools'.

"Player development," Burton said. "You can get the greatest player in the country to come to your campus, but if you can't get them to play ..."

The program recruits good players but doesn't have consistently good teams. All that's on Weis, starting Wednesday.

The eight million feel-good dollars per year NBC pays the school to put a happy face on the program is fine. But limiting the rest of us who don't pay for access is not fair.

And to be totally fair, early indications are that Weis' Notre Dame is going to be more accessible than Willingham's Golden Dome. Sunday press conferences are back in. Even from afar, Weis hasn't exactly hid out. Assistants have been chummy toward beat reporters.

But it's still all very Belichickian. That's fine for the NFL. It's a business. The Patriots coach can do whatever he wants. The networks are still going to televise. The fans are still going to keep rolling in.

At this stage, Notre Dame needs to go the extra mile.

Yeah, yeah, none of it matters unless Weis wins. When Ty won 10 his first year, he was a hero. When he finished 11-13, he was bum. Either way, the man had the personality of a toaster.

The new guy is full of fire -- part Rockne, part genius at this point. We'd love to tell you his story, if he'd only let us.