Weis wants Irish playing with emotion in opener

By TOM COYNE, AP Sports Writer

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Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis greets his team before the start of a college football game against Boston College in South Bend, Ind., in this Oct. 13, 2007 file photo. The last time Notre Dame claimed a national championship, this year's freshman class ... wasn't alive. Such a statement once was unimaginable to Irish players and their fans. But it's true, for the first time since Knute Rockne roamed the sidelines. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings, File)

By Beth Boehne

Story Created: Sep 2, 2008 at 3:53 PM EST

Story Updated: Sep 2, 2008 at 3:53 PM EST

SOUTH BEND (AP) — Coach Charlie Weis wants Notre Dame playing with emotion and his coaches staying calm, no matter what happens in the season opener against San Diego State on Saturday.

I'm counting on the team to play with a lot of enthusiasm and emotion," Weis said Tuesday. "That's been one of my main deals in this whole off season was you can't have any fun if you're not playing with any emotion, and you can't fake emotion."

Weis has been pressing his team to be more emotional to the point of having the players practice it. At the team's only practice open to reporters, Weis lectured the team on the need for enthusiasm after he felt they didn't show enough emotion after a play.

"It's got to be something that just becomes part of your personality," Weis said.

It's all part of a new team chemistry Weis has been working on since December. After last season's dismal 3-9 finish, Weis had a lot of time to look at how things run at Notre Dame.

He's made some subtle changes. He's switched the team's day off from Monday to Sunday so players would have one day they could sleep in. He changed the orders of where players sit in the locker room, so offensive players and defensive players aren't segregated. The idea was that by sitting in numerical order it would help eliminate cliques and promote the offense and defense working together.

Weis also made some more obvious changes.

Weis changed how he did his job, giving up the play-calling so he could get involved more on special teams and defense. He also worked to try to become more approachable to players — especially younger players who were intimidated by him.

Weis also realized early last season that the Irish weren't ready for the speed of their opponents on game days because they had been practicing too much against show teams, so this preseason he's had the No. 1 offense going against the No. 2 defense more often and he's made practices more physical.

Weis talked to his assistants Tuesday about the need for them to remain calm if things go wrong on Saturday.

"We've been this camaraderie group this whole spring and this training camp. What you can't do is all of a sudden flip the switch and turn into a raving maniac after you've built on this team and picking up for everyone else right there," he said. "So I talked about it this morning in our staff meeting about making sure we keep our composure and make sure we keep with the same mantra, like something bad happens, don't worry about it, we'll go ahead and fix it and move forward."

The Irish are 22-point favorites against San Diego State, the most they've been favored by in a season-opener since they were 28-point favorites against Northwestern in 1995. The Irish lost that game 17-15. But that Northwestern team finished the season ranked No. 8, so it doesn't appear as big an upset in hindsight.

The Aztecs lost their season-opener Saturday 29-27 to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo — a Football Championship Subdivision team — and hasn't posted a winning season since 1998. Weis knows how devastating a loss Saturday could be, which is why he's been harping on the theme of the Irish needing a good start.

"I think that this game has more importance than a lot of other first games for us," he said, "because we need to get out of the gate fast."

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