The New Gold Standard: Charlie Weis and Notre Dame's Rise to Glory

From the most storied school in college football history . . .

The Gold Standard -- abandoned by most of the world in the 1930s -- has been an article of faith in South Bend, Indiana, for almost a century. Mere winning records and second-tier bowl games Not good enough for Fighting Irish fans. No college football program has produced more national championships, more All-Americans, and more Heisman Trophy winners than Notre Dame. But recently, not so much: no national championship since 1988, only one All-American since 1994, and a combined 1112 record in the 2003-2004 seasons. So out went Tyrone Willingham, fired just three years into a five-year contract, the first Irish coach ever to be dismissed before the end of his deal. In came Charlie Weis, a forty-nine-year-old Notre Dame grad with no head coaching experience but four Super Bowl rings as an assistant coach. Weis proved, in the space of a single season, to be a football maestro with a hard edge, a brilliant mind, an affinity for detail, and an uncanny sense of how to motivate people. He returned a program mired in the blahs to its rightful (and historic) place among college football's elite. This book takes you inside a season unlike any other in Fighting Irish history -- and inside Weis's master plan for restoring the Gold Standard in South Bend.

One of the foremost authorities on Notre Dame football, Tim Prister, forty-six, has been writing about the Fighting Irish since 1980. He served as editor of "Blue& Gold Illustrated" for twenty seasons before being named senior writer for the publication in 2003. He also covers Notre Dame football and basketball for "The Indianapolis Star" and "Athlon" magazine. He joined IrishIllustrated.com of the Rivals network in July 2006. Prister authored the book What It Means to Be Fighting Irish in 2004. He co-authored The Best of Blue & Gold Illustrated in 1990 with another longtime Notre Dame football historian, Lou Somogyi.