Weis On Hand

When Charlie Weis receives the call coaches and parents dread – their player, their child has gotten in trouble – he immediately tries to step back.
He looks, gathers information and assesses the situation before coming to a decision.

Weis had to do that twice this summer, first with sophomore quarterback Demetrius Jones, who was pulled over and accused of having marijuana in a borrowed vehicle, a charge later dismissed. Then came last Thursday, when police arrested junior nose tackle Derrell Hand during an undercover sting for soliciting a prostitute.

While Weis took a wait-and-see approach after gathering facts about Jones, he suspended Hand indefinitely the following day.

“I can’t even do anything until after he takes care of business both legally and with the school,” Weis said. “When that happens, we’ll revisit it. I spent a lot of time with him and his mom and we’re all on the same page, so this is not like there are any hidden secrets.”

Weis said that even when his situation is dealt with in the courts – his arraignment is scheduled for Aug. 16 – Hand will still have to go through the Residence Life portion of the school, which has suspended point guard Kyle McAlarney and fullback Rashon Powers-Neal for a semester in previous years due to arrests.

“No disrespect to other colleges, but I can’t look just at if a guy is in trouble legally or not,” Weis said. “I think that I have to take the fact that this is Notre Dame and there is protocol here and there is Residence Life and I always have to factor that in when you’re going through decision-making.”

Weis talks with his team about staying out of trouble, including reading a week’s long police blotter of athletes nationwide that had gotten in trouble before sending his team off for a long weekend last year. He said in that weekend off, eight athletes at other schools made police blotters.

It is also something he addresses during recruiting.

“When things happen, I try to pull myself back and say ‘If Charlie (Jr., his son) were in this situation, what would I do,’” Weis said. “It is easy to act rashly if you’re not making a mature decision and I try to make it more as a dad than the head coach at Notre Dame.”
-By Michael Rothstein of The Journal Gazette