More Thoughts on Notre Dame

This is getting a little away from the Charlie Weis on the hot seat post...so I'll reiterate my position on that again for those of you who might have missed it. Burn his ass. Get him gone, the sooner the better.

On to other thoughts...

Let me preface this by saying I DON'T LIKE THE NOTRE DAME FIGHTING IRISH. I don't like Fat Charlie. I don't like Jimmy Clausen. Going back, I didn't like Brady Quinn. Or Rick Mirer. Or the Bus. I couldn't stand Michael Stonebreaker, or the Rocket. I didn't care for Joe Theisman. And I never liked Paul Hornung. And Lou Holtz? Hate is not strong enough a word.

But I will argue this. Like them or hate them, Notre Dame is the most popular team in college football, both pro and con. No team, not Florida, not Texas, not USC, not Bama, inspires the feelings Notre Dame does. You ask people in, for example, OKC what they think of Texas, and you might get an 'I hate the Horns. Pokes Rule.' response. Ask them what they think about Penn State, and you probably will get some equivalent of 'I really don't give a rats ass'. Ask someone in State College what they think of Texas and you'll likely get, again, the who gives a rats ass response, followed by a 'JoePa RULES!'. But in both places, you ask someone, what they think of Notre Dame, and you'll get a definite response, either positive or negative. And the same is likely true all across the country.

People will have many reasons why they hate Notre Dame, from their allegedly weak schedule, to their special treatment by the BCS, from their independent status to the Saturday afternoon telecast on N(otredame)BC. Do they have their own television contract? Yes. Why? Because people watch. And NBC makes money off them. They can pull ratings nationwide like no other school can week in week out. Sure, Texas can pull ratings for the Red River Shootout. But no one outside of Texas wants to see them play Baylor. As for their schedule, they played 10 games this season against BCS opponents. Few teams do that. Bama doesn't. Florida doesn't. Texas doesn't. SC did this year. Neither did Oklahoma or OK State did. They also played Nevada who have gone to bowls four years in a row. And Navy. Who they will play because the Mids scheduling games against the Irish during the War kept the school from going under. It's tradition.

As for the difficulty of their schedule, Jeff Sagarin rates them having the 20th toughest schedule in the country, tougher than every team in the top 12 of the BCS other than Georgia Tech and Oregon. They've also NEVER scheduled a 1-AA or D-2 opponent. Ever. It's them, SC, and UCLA. That's it.

And yes, they are given special consideration for BCS bowl bids. Because the bowls are about selling tickets. And Notre Dame puts asses in the seats, pure and simple. In the stadium or in front of the TV, Notre Dame puts asses down to watch better than anyone. You want an example? 60,000 people came to see Notre Dame vs. Washington State. In a regular season game. IN SAN ANTONIO.

Finally, yes, the Irish are an independent. But why should Notre Dame WANT to join a conference? What's in it for the Irish? If they win 9 games and finish in the top 8 of the BCS they go to a game automatically. They go to a conference, they lose that exception. Of course the Big East and the Big 10 would want them. So would any conference in their right mind. They'd bring media, fans, tv ratings, sponsors, and MONEY. So if they get all this on their own, why bother joining a conference and having to share?

So why should we care if the Irish are good? Because it's tough to hate a team thats mediocre. Ask Gator fans if the games against Free Shoes U have lost some of their lustre now that the 'Noles stink. Ask a Duck fan (like me) if the Civil War means more now that Moo U. doesn't suck. (Hell yeah, it does). Even if you hate the team, its tough to hate a team that loses 7 games a year. And one more reason...Notre Dame is about tradition. It's about the Golden Dome. And Touchdown Jesus. And the Rock. And 'Win One for the Gipper'. It's about the Green Jerseys against USC, and Montana in the Ice in the Cotton Bowl. It's about 7 heisman winners, and 11 national championships. It's about the fight song, and it's about 'Outlined against a blue-gray October sky, the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore their names are Death, Destruction, Pestilence, and Famine. But those are aliases. Their real names are: Stuhldreher, Crowley, Miller and Layden.' Notre Dame is everyone's rival. Seeing them on your schedule is special because of the tradition and the history. Beating them should be too. And I want Notre Dame to be as good as they can be. If only so that kicking the crap out of them will mean something again.

And they should fire Charlie. Because they'll suck until they do.

Charlie Weis on the Hot Seat?

I'm not an Irish fan by a longshot. But college football is better when Notre Dame is better. And Charlie isn't making the Irish better.

Charlie Weis has been given everything that Ty Willingham wasn't given at Notre Dame. He wanted a lighter schedule...and he's got a lighter schedule. He wanted academic standards lessened for incoming recruits, and he got it. And he's failed miserably. He's never beaten USC. EVER. (Hell, John Cooper even beat Michigan a couple times). He has (I think I'm getting this right) never beaten a team that finished the season with fewer than 4 losses. He's lost to Navy. TWICE. He lost to Syracuse.

Just as it takes a very special coach to be able to make the transition from successful college coach to successful pro coach, it takes just as special a coach to make the transition the other way. Pete Carroll is the exception, not the rule. And I think Fat Charlie is falling more into the Bill Callahan mode than anything resembling a success.

The hue and cry when Ty Willingham was let go was that Notre Dame had ALWAYS given their coaches five years. Gerry Faust got five years. Bob Davie got 5 years. They didn't win. They were fired .Charlie's had his 5. He's 35-25. And right now, they stink. And there is one common denominator in their Stinkitude. And that's Charlie. He can't blame Ty for leaving the cupboard bare (although it was Ty's players that got him to his 2 BCS games). His players. His coaches. His record. His failures.

There is one thing that is keeping Charlie at ND right now, and it isn't the money. It's Notre Dame not wanting a repeat of the fiasco that went on when they hired Weis. They won't put themselves in the position (again) of getting shined by their number 1 guy (Urban Meyer). Or their #2 guy (Mike Bellotti). If there's a search going on, it's going on now; they'll have the new coach signed, sealed, and delivered before they pull the trigger on Weis. Charlie's done. We know it. He knows it. ND is just waiting until they've gone to Home Depot to get the New Head Shovel before they start throwing dirt on his coffin.