Weis Busy Working Two Jobs

Charlie Weis was in South Bend one day and in Foxboro the next. In between, he probably was in bed, for a few hours anyway.

He might even have squeezed in some time to see his wife and two children.

That’s the hectic life Weis chose when he accepted the challenge of rebuilding the once mighty Notre Dame football program after he finishes his job as offensive coordinator of the defending NFL champion New England Patriots.

At least the man working with two of football’s highest-profile teams has help -- his wife Maura dealt with such matters as selling or buying a house. The couple also started a foundation in 2003 called Hannah and Friends, inspired by daughter Hannah, who suffers from autism. The group assists children with autism and slow development.

“(Maura) has always been in charge,” Weis said. “That has never changed. Unlike most other guys who think they are in charge, I understand where I fit.”

On the football field, though, he’s the boss of two programs -- the Patriots offense and Notre Dame -- and spent last week preparing New England to face the Indianapolis Colts in today’s playoff game.

He succeeded the fired Tyrone Willingham on Dec. 12 at Notre Dame, which last won a national title in 1988. Since then, Weis hired assistants, recruited and even spoke at halftime of a men’s basketball game last weekend at South Bend.

But he’s concentrated on preparing the Patriots for the playoff run he hopes will last until the Super Bowl on Feb. 6.

Weis has done his work “as close to normal as it can be from our side. I’m sure some of his other time has been spent doing other things,” coach Bill Belichick said. “But as far as what he has been asked to do here, he has done a good job of it.”

Weis was so committed to finishing the season with the Patriots that he issued an ultimatum.

“It is important enough that I told Notre Dame that if I couldn’t do that, I didn’t want the job,” he said.

The bye the Patriots received in the first round of the playoffs allowed Weis to rush off to the South Bend campus on Jan. 7 for two days. He met with recruits and spoke at halftime of a basketball game on Jan. 8.

“Hopefully, in a short, a very short period of time, we’ll get back to where everyone wants to be, because I don’t like losing,” he told 11,014 fans at the Irish’s 78-72 win over Villanova. He received three standing ovations during his four-minute talk.

Then he headed for the airport and was back in Foxboro that night.

That’s a huge workload for a 48-year-old man who underwent weight-loss surgery two years ago that nearly cost him his life. He was in a coma for two weeks and was given last rites when complications developed after the stomach-stapling procedure.

When he first returned to work, he rode around practice at training camp in a motorized cart. Now he shows few outward signs of the operation -- other than his slimmer figure.

But there’s at least one reminder of training camp now that he’s handling two jobs.

“In training camp we go on about three hours of sleep a night,” Weis said. “So we just felt that until February we would view it as a training camp mentality and this way you can do the right thing by the Patriots and, at the same time, not neglect Notre Dame.”

Tight end Christian Fauria has seen no difference in the way Weis has done his job since he was hired by Notre Dame.

“He hasn’t shown any signs of dozing off,” Fauria said. “He hasn’t asked me to call any recruits.”

It wasn’t so long ago, 1989, that Weis was head coach at Franklin Township High School in New Jersey after spending four years in his only college job as an assistant coach at South Carolina.

The next year he broke down film for the New York Giants where Belichick was defensive coordinator. He switched to offense as running backs coach for the Giants in 1991 and has been offensive coordinator for the Patriots since Belichick took over in 2000.

Weis had a major role in developing Tom Brady from a sixth-round draft choice into a two-time Super Bowl MVP.

“We have a great relationship and we have since the day I got here” after the 2000 draft, Brady said.

And if Weis calls his Notre Dame quarterback Brady, he isn’t confusing his two jobs. Brady Quinn plays that position for the Irish.

“Any time you get to work with someone like coach Weis, as a quarterback you’ve got to be excited by what he’s done in the past and what he’s doing right now and his success,” Quinn said.

Weis feels he and his Notre Dame staff have done a decent job of recruiting despite his late start. That’s critical to turning around the football program which has come up short in getting top high school players during recent years.

“Just give me until next recruiting season,” Weis said.

But he admits he’ll miss the NFL, even if it doesn’t sink in until next fall.

“I think the first time it will really slap me in the face is when I am sitting in my office on a Sunday after we have just played on Saturday,” he said. “All of a sudden (watching) on DirecTV I am saying, ‘What was Brady thinking of?”’

Tom Brady, not Brady Quinn.