They insist they have nothing but respect for each other. They readily recount tales of the other’s success.
“As a new coach can do, he had an enormous, significant [impact] on how they can perform,” Southern California coach Pete Carroll said about first-year Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis.
“They have different voices talking to them, different teachers, and it shows. They’re a terrific football team right now, and they’re going to continue to get better.”
Weis, whose ninth-ranked Irish (4-1) will face Carroll’s No. 1 Trojans (5-0) Saturday at Notre Dame Stadium, was equally generous in returning the praise.
“They have a great head coach, Pete Carroll,” Weis said. “He has been there for five years now. His record is 47-9. That’s an 84 percent winning percentage.”
Carroll was effusive in describing the improvement Irish quarterback Brady Quinn has made under Weis, known as an offensive mastermind.
“The vast difference shows up in the execution of the quarterback and the throwing game to go along with the running game,” Carroll said. “He’s doing all the things that a good quarterback does.
“His execution is exceptional. He has been quick to take off [running] at the right times, done it well. . . . Protecting the football–three interceptions on the season. He has done beautiful things.
“He’s playing the best that he has played, and I know he owes it to the system and the coaches.”
Carroll, long hailed as a defensive genius, has had a similar impact on his players, Weis said.
“Pete has notoriously always had good safeties play for him. He has always been strong up the middle,” said Weis, pointing out that the Trojans’ leading tackler is middle linebacker Oscar Lua.
But beneath the compliments, a long-standing competitive fire burns between Carroll and Weis.
On Feb. 14, Weis’ first full day as the Irish’s coach after juggling his Notre Dame responsibilities with his job as offensive coordinator for the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots, he told a group of more than 200 students at a welcome-to-campus rally: “Right now, Southern Cal is a much better football team than Notre Dame is.”
But, he added, “Pete Carroll, he’s a friend of mine, but he’s never really done great against me.”
While they never have coached on the same staff, their paths crossed several times during their years in the NFL. Teams for which Carroll has coached enjoy a 6-5 edge in head-to-head competition against teams for which Weis has coached.
Their closest encounter came after the 1996 NFL season, when Carroll was brought in to replace Bill Parcells as the Patriots’ coach. Weis, a Patriots assistant, talked briefly with Carroll about joining his staff and staying in New England.
But Carroll wound up hiring his own guys. Weis said he harbored no ill will toward Carroll for not offering him a job.
“When Pete came in, usually when you come in–especially on that level–you try to surround yourself with guys you are familiar with,” said Weis, who soon landed with the Jets.
While rumors about Weis and Carroll disliking each other continue to swirl, neither man responds to them.
“All I know is Pete has been a head coach for a lot of years, and I have been a head coach for five games,” Weis said. “I think I have a long way to go. Pete has set the bar in college football over the last several years.”
It is a bar Weis and his team will be aiming for Saturday.
Crossing patterns
Charlie Weis and Pete Carroll danced between the New York Jets and New England Patriots in the 1990s but never were on the same staff. Their time in New England is highlighted:
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CARROLL YR WEIS
NYJ def. coord. 1993 NE TE coach
NYJ head coach 1994 NE TE coach
SF def. coord. 1995 NE RB coach
SF def. coord. 1996 NE WR coach
NE head coach 1997 NYJ off. coord.
NE head coach 1998 NYJ off. coord.
NE head coach 1999 NYJ off. coord.
starts USC in ’01 2000 NE off. coord.
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apatel@tribune.com
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