Eric Hansen

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - In a year when most of Charlie Weis’ coaching growing pains felt like some exotic form of torture, this one hurt so good.

The Notre Dame head football coach, whose tumultuous third season at his alma mater came to an end with a sparsely attended appreciation banquet, has been schooled throughout his career that one voice, one message, one singular dose of spin is part of the formula for success. And when you’re mentors have been successful with this (maybe in some cases in spite of the policy rather than because of it), there seemingly is no need to question it.

At the banquet Weis came up against a situation in which there was absolutely no way to control it. He had long ago invited former Irish All-America offensive lineman Aaron Taylor to be the banquet’s featured speaker. Now this is a guy, as ND’s 3-9 nightmare unfolded, who had been unabashedly critical of Weis at times during the season in Taylor's blog on his legendsofsouthbend.com Web site.

Even seemingly scarier, Taylor decided not to prepare a speech, but instead shoot for the hip.

"I'll tell you what, I've found that when you speak from your heart, especially about a place like this, you can't go wrong," he told a small gathering of media. "And I think especially in light of the way the season's gone and all those things, the tendency is to focus on the negative.

"But at Notre Dame the reality is it's so much bigger and so much more than a 3-9 season or what a football team did for one year... I can't wait to have kids to send them here, to be able to experience the things I got to experience. I learned how to learn. I learned how to be tough. I learned how to be accountable. I learned how to have integrity. I learned how to make myself part of the greater whole and that together we could accomplish tremendous and wonderful things. Notre Dame is a place of opportunity."

It's also a place that is preoccupied, perhaps to a fault, with how things appear from the outside looking in. Taylor showed the banquet audience what the Notre Dame experience looked like from the inside out -- uncut and unedited. That audience included 14 recruits -- one of them uncommitted: 6-foot-6, 300-pound elite offensive lineman Trevor Robinson of Elkhorn, Neb.

Taylor stirred the crowd with stories of his own days at ND, warts included, and his vision of Notre Dame's football future, caveats included.

"Adversity," he said, "not only builds character, it reveals it.”

The audience, some of whom were subjected to a long, winding oratory from Gerry Faust in 2006, was blown away this time. Weis, clearly awestruck, gave Taylor a bear hug then stumbled a bit when trying to figure how to follow it up. Upstaging Taylor proved to be impossible -- and unnecessary.

Slide show   Week in Sports Tennis swings, cattle wrestlers, a family golf celebration, and more more photos

What is necessary, or perhaps worth chewing on, is for Weis to unchain the thoughts and words of his players. When someone like Tom Zbikowski sounds robotic and choreographed, you don’t believe the words coming out of his mouth. You think, “What are they hiding? What’s really going on behind closed doors?”

When 11 freshmen can play extended minutes but you’re afraid to put them on stage after the game, it sends a mixed message. But for anyone who has ever interviewed the likes of Robert Hughes, Kerry Neal, Brian Smith, Brandon Walker, or Ian Williams during their two or three allowed windows this season, you can clearly see that Notre Dame’s people are its best ambassadors, even if they’re too supposedly too young to know better.

Granted, there are issues that should stay in-house, delicate situations that require some injected media savvy, but no other coach on campus feels the need to so carefully craft an image. Notre Dame is bigger than that. Bigger than Weis. Bigger than football. And everyone in the room already knew that. Taylor simply reminded them of it.

"Football, the farther I get away from it, becomes a smaller and smaller part of my Notre Dame experience,” he said. “It's a significant portion and it allowed me to do other things, but it's the people of this place, it's the spirit of this place, it's the message of this place that keeps me coming back and will always keep me coming back."

Awards recap:

Notre Dame Monogram Club MVP: Defensive end Trevor Laws.

Notre Dame Club of St. Joseph Valley Rockne Student-Athlete Award: Laws.

Westwood One/State Farm Student-Athlete of the Year: Tight end John Carlson.

Nick Pietrosante Award: Carlson.

Lineman of the Year: Nose tackle Pat Kuntz.

Guardian Life Guardian of the Year: Center John Sullivan.

MORE FROM NOTRE DAME CENTRAL

Notre Dame Central Section Front

Cubs call up Samardzija Walters: Ten suggestions for Notre Dame's new AD Swarbrick hired as AD Opinion: Swarbrick doesn't have absolute power? So? Cornerback Walls won’t play in ’08 Rivals.com: Four-star CB jumps from UCLA to ND Walters: Weis must discuss Spygate Opinion: You hate Weis, but do you know him? Notre Dame, NBC renew TV contract Notre Dame seniors ready to take on NFL Notre Dame Central Section Front   Add Notre Dame Central headlines to your news reader: