Ron Zook hauls in greatest recruiting class in Illinois history.

He has turned it around. Before Weis, ND was spiraling into irrelevancy. Not even the most optomitisic experts could have predicted the turnaround in ND's first year. They were widely expected to lose probably 5 out of their first 6 games. Instead, under Weis, ND ended up only losing two regular season games, including a thriller against the defending champions. Players that were floundering before like Quinn and The Shark were suddenly revitalized with Weis as coach.