By John Feinstein
Special to washingtonpost.com
Monday, September 17, 2007; 12:36 PM

It is a simple fact of life in sports that there are certain teams that are both loved and despised.

Those that love them are completely rabid, will do anything to get close to their heroes and consider winning to be a birthright rather than a privilege.

No one in baseball is neutral on the subject of the New York Yankees. They are Gods in mortal form to some; the Devil in pinstripes to others. To one degree or another -- depending often on how well they are playing -- teams like the Dallas Cowboys, the Boston Celtics, the Montreal Canadiens and, in the last 20 years, Duke basketball -- fit this description. The Canadiens and Celtics have fallen on serious hard times in recent years, but whenever they get good again, they will be in the same love/hate category very quickly once again.

And then there is Notre Dame football.

The Fighting Irish are the only college football team with their own TV network. They are the only college football program that can thrive as an independent. They are the only school that has a true national following that isn't a military academy. Notre Dame can play in any city in the country and sellout the stadium.

There is no question that Notre Dame is unique.

Except that right now the Fighting Irish can't score a touchdown. They've been outscored 102-13 in three games this season. The 13 points have come on a pair of field goals and an interception returned for a touchdown. Head Coach Charlie Weis, who has done everything but declare himself the greatest offensive mastermind in the history of the game since arriving at Notre Dame, has yet to produce a touchdown.

It is worth pointing out, some will note, that the offense is being run by a freshman quarterback. Good thought, except that Michigan, which hammered the Irish 38-0 on Saturday, also started a freshman quarterback. That's the same Michigan team that opened its season by losing to Division 1-AA Appalachian State (at home) and then getting crushed by Oregon, 39-7 (at home). Michigan plays on the road about as often as the Harlem Globetrotters lost a game.

A lot of people are enjoying Notre Dame's current futility. Others are stunned and angry. Some of it is fueled by the so-called Notre Dame mystique. If you cried during 'Rudy,' because you were moved by the fight song and the story about the gritty little guy who wanted to step on the field for the Irish just once, then you fall into the stunned and shocked category. If you couldn't believe how corny the movie was -- or if you learned after it came out that about 75 percent of the movie was pure fiction and that almost everyone at Notre Dame considered Rudy a pain-in-the-neck -- then your most ardent hope right now is that this is the year Navy finally beats the Irish.

There is little doubt that those who don't get goose bumps whenever they hear the fight song (okay, love or hate Notre Dame, it is THE best fight song ever written with the POSSIBLE exception of 'On Brave Old Army Team,') are reveling in what is going on right now because of the personality of Charlie "Knute," Weis.

Few coaches in history have ever arrived on a job with more swagger than Weis did in the winter of 2005. He hadn't been on campus for 15 minutes before he began lecturing the media on how it was to do its job -- or, preferably, not do its job. He talked about his offense and his system and how his program was going to be different than it was under the two men who had preceded him -- Bob Davie and Tyrone Willingham.

Neither Davie nor Willingham won enough to satisfy the cravings of Notre Dame fans. Willingham was jettisoned after only three seasons. He won 10 games his first year, but struggled the next two and was gone before his first class of recruits reached their senior seasons.

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.