It was the same for Weis. But his personality has sold well in South Bend. Players, boosters, everyone is buying. And to think, he hardly said a word during his NFL career as an assistant.
"It's, `Well, he has no personality,'" Weis said. "How would they know? I never talked the whole time I was in New England. Now, I'm here. And I think my personality meshes well with this school. It might not fit in every school. It might not be the best fit in a lot of places. I just think I'm a good fit here."
The right interlocking of personality and program is the same for Carroll. All energy all the time, he breathes the college scene. Once mocked for taking the Jets bowling during the 1994 season, his kumbaya style goes down easy at USC. Every program wants their own Carroll, sparking a spike in the collegiate hiring spree of NFL coaches.
"Pete is the bar, and everyone knows that," Weis said.
Carroll is true to himself. And so is Weis. It was just hard to get to know him behind the wall established by Belichick and Parcells.
"People were always in your ear saying you're being held back because people don't know who you are," Weis said. "You're not out there. The flipside of that -- especially now that I'm a head coach -- I understand more why they did what they did. The flipside is, it kept the staff more unified because there was that one-voice approach."
He might have to share stage space with the Irish's lucky charm, Regis Philbin, but Weis is the voice of the Notre Dame program. Who knew he had just the right touch of rah-rah?
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