SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis heard the critics this year as the Fighting Irish struggled through a 3-9 season and plans to answer them by doing better next season.

"If you sit there and try to be a vengeful person and be worried about every negative thing that people said, that really doesn't get you anywhere. So rather than worry about every negative thing that's been said publicly or even written or anything else, then you're just going to have to go in and go do something about it," he said Monday during a news conference to wrap up the season.

"You don't do something about it by going to a public forum and going tit for tat with somebody. What you have to do is go win more football games. Really, it's the only way of answering it," he said.

A year ago, Weis was being compared to some of Notre Dame coaching greats after becoming the first Irish coach to win 19 games in his first two seasons. This year he matched Bob Davie's school record of 16 losses in his first three seasons. Weis' three-year record is 22-15, one win better than his predecessor, Tyrone Willingham, who was fired after three seasons.

There are two big differences, though, between Weis' three years and Willingham's. Weis had two good years, bringing the Irish to back-to-back Bowl Championship berths, and one terrible year. Willingham had one good year and two bad. Weis also is expected to bring in a top-rated recruiting class this year while Willingham was having a second straight down year recruiting when he was fired.

Weis said the disappointment of the past season has made him more driven. He says he knows he needs to make changes, but wasn't willing to go into specifics Monday. He said he's written down thoughts about possible changes, but doesn't plan to fully begin dissecting the season until he comes off the road recruiting in two weeks and meets with his staff.

"But you don't answer all the questions in a couple hours. You don't answer them in a couple days. It's going to take weeks to make sure you do a proper analysis," he said.

Replacing players such as Brady Quinn, Jeff Samardzija, Darius Walker and Rhema McKnight was a challenge, but not a primary factor in this year's struggles, Weis said.

"There's a whole litany of things that you can place blame on, but I really have a tough time placing blame just on graduation of players. Did we lose a whole bunch of key players? You bet we did. But that still shouldn't lead to going 3-9 for a season," Weis said.

Weis also said too much was made of the fact he said two weeks ago he plans to meet with his former colleagues on the New England Patriots coaching staff to analyze Notre Dame's offense and defense.

"Who better to sit there and look at things and say, 'I wouldn't have done that', or 'What were you doing here, than guys that are friends of yours," he said.

Some critics have said Weis has taken too much of an NFL approach to practices, focusing more on technique rather than hitting and other basics, and seeking advice from the pros may not be the answer. But Weis said he and his staff also will be talking with other college coaches to try to improve.

So just how quickly can the Irish turn things around?

"Not fast enough. That's probably as fair an answer as I can say," Weis said. "I think that the arrow is definitely pointing up. You already know what my goal is every time we play, and every time we play my expectation is to win that game. But we can't get good enough fast enough as far as I'm concerned."

Notes: Four Irish players have been invited to play in the Senior Bowl, tight end John Carlson, center John Sullivan, defensive end Trevor Laws and safety Tom Zbikowski. All four are fifth-year seniors. ... Notre Dame has had three early enrollees each of the past two seasons. Weis said the Irish will have at least one high school senior enroll in January and could have two.