Lane Kiffin hires Charlie Weis as new offensive coordinator at FAU

As opposed to the old man, who just devoured everything at the local Shoney's.

 

Even people who hated his dad were impressed by Junior. I wouldn't be shocked if he winds up having a nice coaching career. Wouldn't be surprised if his ego eventually swells to unmanageable levels either.

 

Maybe he is a prodigy. But are players really going to listen to a kid their age who's never touched a football? I'd think getting players to buy in to someone who is not only unproven, bit also ridiculously young and has no reputation, would be the issue.

 

If he stands between them and playing time, they will.

 

Todd Haley and Mike Leach never played football. I don’t think it’s as uncommon as you’d expect.

 

I could absolutely see Kansas saying "fuck it" and hiring a 26-year-old Charlie Weis Jr.

 

They already said fuck it this offseason, so who knows?

 

It's much more common in the NFL than in college, but yeah, it's not unheard of. Hugh Freeze, Chad Morris, Paul Johnson, David Cutcliffe and Sonny Dykes never played past high school either.

 

True. Charlie Weis Sr. didn't play, either, but none of them were the top offensive coach at 24- years old. Maybe it won't be an issue, but from my experience college players respect either reputation or guys who've played the game, and this kid doesn't tick either box.

 

I get the edge having a connection gets you. I don't doubt the several head coaches with dads/brothers in the business helped them get gigs, but they had to show something to get to some of the places they've landed. Belichick, Shanahan, McVay, Gruden, John Harbaugh, even Kiffin. The weird thing is I kind of think the sport is kind of weird - an OC gets hired has an HC, brings in an OC the team wins and the OC gets an HC job - is the the OC or the original HC? Is Andy Reid the guru or the various OCs he's had?
The NFL is also kind of weird because almost half of the head coaches have never been on an NFL roster (even in camp or in the off-season). I'm not saying you HAVE to have done so to qualify to be an NFL coach, only that it is kind of surprising how many have landed HC gigs without even playing D-1. I give them a lot of credit working their way up from the bottom - it has to be tough for a DII scrub to have to instruct former All-Americans how to block on an extra point.

 

Last year the only NFL coaches at the start of last season college football who played below the Division 1-AA level were Belichick, Quinn, McCarthy and McAdoo. The first three college football at lower levels. I don't think McAdoo did. His Wikipedia entry said he was a volunteer high school coach in college.

I don't think Charlie Weis Sr. played after ninth grade. He worked at the radio station at Notre Dame. He could not find a medi jobs o he got ajob as a high school English teacher and somehow landed on the Giants staff pretty quickly.

I think it is getting harder to be a coach without having played in college. Not many guys work their way up from high school anymore. You need to land a graduate assistant gig and then a college job. Unless you played college ball or have a prominent father that is a tough slot to find. I think McAdoo was the only head coach in the NFL coach at the beginning of last year who coached in high school.

 

https://deadspin.com/the-fau-offensive-coordinator-job-explains-college-foot-1822160602