MORGANTOWN — Perhaps the most intriguing story in the Big 12 this season is not how West Virginia University and TCU will do as newcomers into what is a league that is a large step up from both the Big East and the Mountain West, but instead a coaching change that screams out for attention.

Charlie Weis has taken over at Kansas, which has found a way to go from the Gale Sayers glory days to the bottom of the Big 12.

Weis, of course, is a lightning rod of a coach, outspoken and controversial, a man whose career includes Super Bowl success as an offensive coordinator but whose efforts to rebuild Notre Dame back into its exalted place in college football failed miserably.

Men who fail at Notre Dame have slid into something of a graveyard of coaches — Gerry Faust, Bob Davie and Ty Willingham. Faust was the first, a long-time Cincinnati high school coach who had won the job with not only an unblemished coaching record but a strong set of morals and ethics.

Instead of being the next Rockne, he because the first Faust, finishing with just a 30-26-1 record. His final game was a humiliating 58-7 loss to a Jimmy Johnson-coached Miami team in the Orange Bowl. He never returned to big-time coaching, finishing out his career as coach then athletic director at Akron.

His record at Akron was 43-53-3.

Bob Davie was no different. Taking over the job after Lou Holtz, Davie went 35-25 in five seasons, including a 41-9 loss to Oregon State in the 2001 Fiesta Bowl, the first BCS game in Notre Dame history.

His college career seemed to end there, as he went into broadcasting, coming out this year to coach a far lower-profile team in New Mexico.

And there was Ty Willingham who was willing to try his hand at coaching Notre Dame, who left Stanford for Notre Dame in 2004. He lasted almost three years, ending with a third straight loss to USC, this by 20 points.

He came back at Washington, where he coached four years, the final team staggering through an 0-12 season.

Now there is Weis, who takes over a complete mess at Kansas after having spent a year with the Kansas City Chiefs as offensive coordinator as that team went from one of the worst offenses in the NFL to one of the most prolific.

At Big 12 media day, the natural question for Weis was why Kansas, of all places, what kind of timetable does he have to build the school’s football fortunes to the point that it is competitive in one of the nation’s toughest conferences?

“Thanks for reminding me,” Weis quipped, as he began his answer.

“I think that I have two different issues. One issue, the one that everyone sees, is the fact that we’re 2-10 and 3-9 over the last two years, having won one conference game in that time frame. The other one, which I think is maybe even more important, were not the losses last year but how badly they lost so often.”

In other words, folks, we have a lot of work to do.

Weis has a plan.

“I think that the first thing you better do is get your team to be more competitive on a weekly basis. Because once you get your team more competitive on a weekly basis, more wins will naturally follow.

“I think that that’s the No. 1 job for me and my staff. I think that we have to permeate all the way down to our players and let them know we expect them to know what to do and go out and do it hard for 60 minutes,” he explained. “That, at least, gives you a chance.”

This is fine at a football school like Notre Dame was, but coming to Kansas brings Weis into a totally different culture.

Kansas is a basketball school. It competes for national titles in basketball and has legendary players like Wilt Chamberlain and coaches like Phog Allen in its history. Even Dean Smith, who turned North Carolina into the basketball power it is, is a Kansas graduate.

How does that affect a football program trying to build itself into a winner?

“First of all, I love college hoops, so let’s start there. And I get great seats, too,” Weis said, only half joking. “But let’s think about this: Recruiting is the lifeline of every program. Right? All right. So it’s a Saturday afternoon in January. And you’re going out on the field house with about 20 recruits you’re bringing in. The place is rocking and rolling. The decibel level is well over 100. You’ve got one of the best basketball teams in the country with arguably the best coach on an annual basis and the fans are going bananas.

“And what you’re saying to these players coming in is ‘That’s what we want — that’s what we want Memorial Stadium to become like. You’ve got to come here and give them a reason to be that way.’ I mean, they’re already seeing evidence of what the people are willing to do. But you have to help become part of it.

“It’s a wonderful recruiting tool,” Weis continued. “So what if most people would look at (football) as second-class citizens? I play right into that. I mean, you couldn’t have a better recruiting tool than our basketball team.”

We all shall see, for the lingering question is if you can’t coach successfully at Notre Dame, where can you coach?

Email Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com. Follow on Twitter @bhertzel.