Carpenter: Weis struggling with consistent message

Where are Bill Belichick and Tom Brady when you need them?

The glory days of Super Bowl victories in New England have to seem like decades ago for Charlie Weis, who instead is busy commenting about the student paper’s coverage on Twitter and flip-flopping as well as any politician in Washington.

The Twitter rant wasn’t all that big of a deal, even though it did draw attention everywhere from the Los Angeles Times to USA Today. Weis probably used it as motivation heading into a game this paper called “Road Kill Ahead.”

Never mind that the prediction was more spot-on than guessing Bill Self will win another Big 12 basketball title this season. Forget that Kansas hasn’t won a Big 12 road game in more than four calendar years and has one conference victory since then. Weis was simply sticking up for his players before leading them to slaughter against Kansas State, a 56-16 loss.

Good for him.

Then came Sunday, when Weis held practice without seniors. On Monday’s conference call, he mentioned the word “development” multiple times.

“There’s only so much developing you can do with the seniors because they’re already five games into their last year,” Weis said. “They’ve got seven games to go. It is what it is.”

OK, that’s not indefensible. Anyone can see this season is a lost cause, and Weis’ tenure in Lawrence won’t be altered either way by an extra victory in 2012. You might as well build for 2013 and beyond.

So why the need for the 180 degree turn on Tuesday?

“Sunday was not a penalty to the seniors,” Weis said. “It was the juniors, sophomores and freshmen that played a whole bunch. They were the ones that came up on the short end of the stick.”

Excuse me, but what?

Tell us you need to see which players are worth keeping next year. Reiterate what you said on Monday, that you’re building for the future.

But don’t sit on the fence and say you punishing the players who “played a whole bunch” while 60 percent of the starting lineup is seniors, and you trot out a senior quarterback each week who can’t make two great passes in a row. Three-fifths of the starting offensive line is seniors as well, the same offensive line that has had Dayne Crist running for his life most games. They sure have “played a whole bunch” too.

Weis sounds like a coach caught somewhere in the middle. He wants to win immediately but doesn’t have the talent. He wants to build for the future but doesn’t want to stick with his reasoning for more than a day. With this season already in the toilet, he’d be best off turning the dial to hot or cold.
There’s no room for lukewarm.

Just ask Coach Belichick.

Contact at kcarpenter@kansan.com .
  • Updated Oct. 10, 2012 at 7:48 pm
  • Edited by Ryan McCarthy
  • steve04KU

    Wow, the Kansan just keeps on piling it on…. As an alum, this is getting embarrassing.

    • Kevin

      That’s the problem, the UDK doesn’t see that THEY are humiliating the university. I really feel bad for supporting the UDK as MY SCHOOL’s NEWSPAPER before when others called it a gutter. At this point, if it didn’t belong to KU, I would ignore it. Much like the football team.
      Either way this is MY school, and I will support people that represent school with the exception of the “bullies” at the UDK whom apparently do not want to be a part of this university’s school spirit

      • Calvin

        As a long time poster on this website I have had my problems with the Kansan and it’s staff but I have to point out the obvious, the UDK owes nothing to the football team, basketball team, or tiddleywinks team. They are training to be journalists. Some of them may yet end up in the press/PR office of a major sports franchise but now they are expected to tell the truth without excuse or embellishment.
        Now as to the people posting on this issue…where have you all been? It takes a problem with your sports program to get you to express your opinion but social, fiscal, and military issues that concern this country (and, yes, you) don’t get you to sit down to a keyboard. Your priorities are very messed up.

  • Kugrad2010

    The UDK has turned into such a joke.

  • KUGrad2012

    Can we get Gill back so we can at least win double the games?

    • http://www.facebook.com/bbieker Benjamin J Bieker

      I hope this is a joke. Gill is the worst coach in football.

      • steve04KU

        Why didn’t the UDK throw Gill under the bus like they are repeatedly doing with Weis?

        • Kevin

          I think the UDK has been taken over by Vegans who have an aversion to anyone not anorexic.

  • Mattski

    Just an outsider view (if anyone is interested) from a University of Michigan alum, because sometimes being faithful to your school can blind you to the perceptions of almost everyone else (see PSU), and before you know it your school is a laughing stock: banning the seniors from practice is a terrible thing to do–on the face of it–to people who have given their all for your school for three and a half years, and a terrible, terrible PR move. It just suggests that all the stuff about school spirit, doing your best, enjoying the game win or lose is so much garbage and that winning is the only thing. That’s the pros, folks, not college, or at least the admin needs to at least do something to preserve the fiction/

    Now, it may make every kind of sense to concentrate on your young players, get them ready. But you do it quietly. Weis has always come off as very inept in the press, IMO; your AD needs to read him the riot act, get him in line. The comments I’m seeing in the press, on TV, from people I talk to are not improving KU’s image.

  • wyandottejayhawk

    Good for the UDK…..it is not the newspapers job to put a bow on a pile of crap. This football team sucks and Weiss has been less then impressive as the head man. Sorry folks, it is what it is.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OEIWCXNW7JWTU6XUKWPBSNKXAI whiffer

    Many, many, many followers of college football recognized this as a horrible, desperate hire that would only set back the Kansas program. Well, guess what? We were right. When the entire country is telling not to do something, and you do it anyway, then you live with the outcome. As a fan of the Big 12, and the Big 8 many years prior, I suggest that Kansas can do much better, and the students and alumni should demand nothing less than a completely professional coach and staff when the next turnover occurs.

  • rje

    Keep at it, UDK. In 4 years this team has gone from winning the Orange Bowl, to being the worst team in Division1. This is a repeat (4 peat, actually) performance for my school, from the day Pepper Rodgers left, to the present mess. Rodgers, Bud Moore, Glen Mason, Mark Mangino. A ton of $ has been put into the football program. The press should continue to do their job and keep the fire on this bunch of losers. If this type of coverage was going on before the previous “coach” was hired, perhaps we wouldn’t be in such a fix. I love my alma mater, but I’m not going to have blind faith in the nitwits who created this mess while getting paid alot of treasure.