There is no one reason for the Irish looking as bad as they have. Starting in the beginning you can blame two woeful recruiting classes on Willingham. Next you have Charlie sticking with the Patriots during their Super Bowl run rather than leaving for Notre Dame immediately. This decision cost us both in the recruiting class of that year, and in the coaching hires Weis had to make over the phone, on a truncated timetable, with little more than word-of-mouth to go on. I think Weis gets a pass on all that. He had no control over Willingham’s crap recruiting and he did what was right by the Patriots (his current employers at the time). Really the fact of the matter is that for all the reasons, there are simply no excuses for how bad the Irish have been.