LAWRENCE | Charlie Weis said he woke up Thursday morning feeling content with his life.
He was the offensive coordinator at the University of Florida, working each day with some of the most talented football players in the country. His wife, Maura, had her very own horse farm in Ocala. His son, Charlie Jr., was a freshman at Florida who was pursuing his dream of coaching football as a student assistant for the Gators. Most importantly, his 16-year-old daughter, Hannah, had found a school for special-needs children that made her as happy as she’d ever been.Florida, Weis felt, was a place he could retire — for many reasons. The story of how Weis ended up Friday night speaking behind a lectern 1,200 miles away in Lawrence, wearing a suit and a Jayhawk pin below his left shoulder, is improbable.But at some point in those 36 hours, Weis discovered that maybe he didn’t have everything a successful 55-year-old football coach could want. Weis, two years after being fired after five seasons at Notre Dame, still hungers to steer a program to winning at the highest level — a desire that suddenly had him reevaluating his retirement plan and tossing out Wizard of Oz references in front of a packed room of total strangers at the Anderson Family Football Complex.“The best part for the Weis family now is we see the end of the rainbow,” Weis said. “We see how we’re going to be here at the University of Kansas until I’m done coaching.”Kansas athletic director Sheahon Zenger, who made one of the biggest coaching hires in school history less than a year after taking over an athletic department in turmoil, hopes that won’t happen for a while. Zenger has agreed to a memorandum of understanding that will pay Weis a guaranteed $2.5 million a year over five years — and that eye-popping number does not include incentives. “That’s the commitment it’s going to take to get the type of individual we wanted,” Zenger said. What did Zenger want when he fired Turner Gill on Nov. 27 after Gill went 5-19 in two seasons? The bare minimum was a coach who valued discipline, attention to detail and a work ethic that a western Kansan such as Zenger could appreciate. The ceiling was a coach who had been a coordinator (preferably offensive), a head coach at a Bowl Championship Series automatic-qualifying school and, if he could find it, a guy with NFL experience. Weis was on Zenger’s initial list of 12 coaches that were on his radar. Zenger spoke with some of those coaches over the phone before leaving to begin his search on Nov. 30. During the next week, he would meet in person with eight to 10 of those candidates, all the while buzzing cell phones of football minds all over the country for their input.Zenger spoke with five to 10 people about Weis — including someone Zenger wouldn’t reveal that truly triggered his interest — and finally went through the official channels of requesting an in-person interview through Florida. Gators coach Will Muschamp called Weis at 7 Thursday morning, letting him know that Zenger wanted to meet him at 11:45. For the next four hours, Weis discussed every angle of the KU job with his wife and son. “We’re a very, very tight family,” Weis said. Weis had quit as the Chiefs offensive coordinator in January, saying it was in the best interest of his family, and his instincts were right. Hannah was happy, and seeing her that way was a major relief. How could they move her again this soon? Well, that wasn’t an option. The only way that Weis could coach KU would be if Maura stayed in Florida with Hannah. No, it was far from perfect, but Weis promised Maura that he would buy her unlimited private flights between Ocala and Lawrence. And Charlie Jr. decided he would transfer to KU to continue learning to coach under his father. Then came the interview with Zenger, who had executed such a stealth search that rumors of Weis being a candidate only began to surface Wednesday. Weis had known that he might have a shot at the KU job, but he and Zenger did not know each other well. Zenger went into the meeting with the preconceived notions that anybody would have about Weis. The man was obviously a gifted football mind, having coached Tom Brady to three Super Bowl rings in New England, and he’d taken Notre Dame to two BCS appearances before things went awry in South Bend. But Zenger had heard about Weis’ perceived arrogance and the way that he could rub folks at a university the wrong way, too.Still, if Zenger liked what he heard from Weis during their five-hour meeting, he was prepared to offer him the job. “Why meet with a guy like this,” Zenger said, “if you weren’t going to go for it?”Weis started their meeting in the same way that he would begin his introductory news conference the next day, by telling Zenger a little bit about himself. As Weis discussed his family and his coaching philosophy, Zenger was put at ease.“He has an ability to recruit,” Zenger said. “He recruited me. I don’t know who he was five or 10 years ago, but I really like who he is now.”Zenger and Weis, two men raised in football, tested each other. Weis called the session “grueling.” Zenger sold Weis on KU’s commitment to football, and Weis thought the idea of taking over a bottom-rung team was appealing. “It was too good of an opportunity to pass up,” Weis said, “being able to go into a place that was down low and being able to see it through, the rise back up top. Who wants to be 2-10? I’m glad that’s where the bar is to start, by the way. They won two too many as far as I’m concerned.”The expectations in Lawrence won’t come close to mirroring Notre Dame’s, which is a comforting thought to the Weis family. But the excitement level is already starting to pick up. KU officials said 300 new season-ticket packages for next season were sold on Friday. And former Notre Dame quarterback Dayne Crist, one of the top prospects in the country out of high school, will be on campus today for an official visit. Charlie Weis is here, and his hope is that he’ll find that last bit of career fulfillment at Kansas.“I’ve learned a lot of things,” Weis said, “made a lot of mistakes. I learned how to show humility, learned how to be more humble in my approach. But I’ve never lost my passion or drive to win. I want to win.”
Plenty of work ahead for KU
New football coach Charlie Weis tells his team to enjoy the holidays because things will change in January. | B5•Go to KansasCity.com for video and a photo gallery.
New football coach Charlie Weis tells his team to enjoy the holidays because things will change in January. | B5•Go to KansasCity.com for video and a photo gallery.
