Winless Notre Dame Is Falling Fast

Weis arrived at Notre Dame amidst great fanfare. He had been the offensive coordinator for the New England Patriots during their three-Super-Bowl victories. The school was so eager to have him that it allowed him to remain with the Patriots through the Super Bowl even though his absence virtually wiped out recruiting that winter.

It didn't take Weis long to convince the faithful that he was the real deal. Notre Dame -- anchored by players recruited by Willingham -- was a very good team that fall, coming within a couple of miraculous plays by Matt Leinart of upsetting then No. 1 USC in October of 2005. Riding that wave, Weis managed to let it be known that a couple of NFL teams had expressed interest in him and was given a 10-year contract extension midway through his first season while coaching players recruited by another coach. That season ended with a one-sided loss to Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl.

A year ago, the Irish were still very good, led by Willingham-recruited quarterback Brady Quinn, but finished the season with a thud: pounded by USC in the regular season finale and then embarrassed by LSU in The Sugar Bowl. There has been a lot of talk this fall about the 15 seniors who graduated off of last year's team. It is worth remembering that all were still around for the two embarrassing losses that ended the season.

Now, Notre Dame is very young at a lot of positions. Most of Willingham's players are gone and that missed year in recruiting is hurting. After Saturday's loss to Michigan, Weis talked about the "failures of our organization." All of a sudden "I," isn't in his vocabulary anymore, but "we" is. He said he was going back to square one, that Notre Dame would be conducting "training camp," again this week before the game at home against Michigan State on Saturday.

All of a sudden the offensive genius of the 21st century is coaching an offense that CAN'T SCORE A TOUCHDOWN. A few people have wondered -- half-jokingly -- if perhaps Weis's genius at New England might have been aided by someone taping defensive signals for him.

The chances are that Notre Dame will get good again fairly soon. The school is always going to be able to recruit -- it's Notre Dame for goodness sake -- and, while Weis isn't nearly as good a coach as he thinks he is (no one in history has ever been that good) chances are he is pretty good. Let's hang on to that thought though: he's pretty good. He isn't great. Great coaches get their players to perform above their talent level. Weis gets good players to play good football and, as we have seen the last three weeks, he gets not-so-good players to play awful football.

Georgia Tech, which dominated the Irish in South Bend in week one, lost at home Saturday to Boston College. Penn State, which won 31-10 against Notre Dame and didn't look great doing it, gave up 24 points to Buffalo on Saturday. And we all know about Michigan.

Maybe Notre Dame will win this week. If nothing else, Weis has certainly lowered expectations. Heck, his team might be an underdog against Navy, a team it has beaten 43 straight seasons. Maybe the Irish can win that game and then Weis can go back to talking about, "his," offense and "his," players and act like he just pulled the biggest football upset since the Jets beat the Colts in Super Bowl III.

In the meantime though, his organization is 0-3. His organization has been outscored 102-13 in three games. Let's face it, if Charlie Weis was coaching Charlie Brown's team he'd find a way to take bows for every win and blame his players -- or his organization -- for the losses.

Cheer, cheer for Old Notre Dame all you like. It is a great school. But Charlie Weis can't lose enough.

Of course he's not really losing. His organization is.