At Notre Dame, a Day of Resignation

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Scott Smith, a Notre Dame team captain, crouched at the 25-yard line in mortal sadness, his face a shade of crimson, his eyes welling with tears. Zach Frazer, a former classmate of Smith's who had just taken the snap that ended the game and, effectively, Charlie Weis' Notre Dame career, accepted hugs from teammates past and present. A dispassionate Jimmy Clausen jogged over to the edge of the stands to pose for a photo with his two brothers and his mom.

Connecticut 33, Notre Dame 30. Fire away, Jack Swarbrick. Fire away.

Even Charlie Weis, who begins every press conference with that two-word salutation to the media, would concede that it is time.

In the wake of yet another A.) defeat in B.) overtime to C.) an unranked opponent at D.) home, Irish fans are E.) exasperated. Notre Dame has reached the fifth stage of Dr. Elizabeth Kübler-Ross' five stages of terminal Illness: acceptance. The other four stages are denial (Michigan), anger (USC), bargaining (Navy) and depression (Pitt).

"I really feel absolutely miserable for those 33 [seniors]. I'll worry about me tomorrow. But I think today I should be worrying about them."
-- Charlie Weis, Notre Dame Head Coach In the aftermath of Saturday's 33-30 double overtime loss to Connecticut, the only pertinent emotion was acceptance. Resignation. As in a sense of resignation, as opposed to a resignation imminently forthcoming from Weis.

"I really feel absolutely miserable for those 33 [seniors]," Weis said. "I'll worry about me tomorrow. But I think today I should be worrying about them."

Nearly five years ago, Charlie Weis was introduced as the Notre Dame head coach. He told the assembled media that upon meeting the team he had told them, "You're 6-5. Guess what? That's not good enough."

Guess what? Notre Dame is 6-5. For the second season in a row. It's time to go, and Weis, whose career winning percentage now sits below that .583 Davie/Willingham mark, realizes as much.

The most damning, and most significant remark of Saturday was made not by anyone from Notre Dame, but rather from Huskies head coach Randy Edsall. "Just to come out here to Notre Dame, and to play in this stadium -- which I can remember, our kids don't really remember, but the history, the tradition that goes with this place..."

Notre Dame is no longer a college gridiron leviathan. It is a field trip ("Knute Rockne slept here"). Part of that is Charlie Weis's fault and part of it is on the shoulders of his players. It's like kissing Sophia Loren. In the 1960s, it was the highlight of a lifetime. In 2009, it's almost macabre.

The symptoms of Saturday's game were reminiscent of the '08 Irish failings (come-from-ahead losses) as opposed to this season's. Notre Dame jumped out to a 14-0 lead and Connecticut had just misfired on a third-and-long pass early in the second quarter. Alas, senior safety Sergio Brown delivered a late hit after the pass had already sailed past the wideout and out of bounds.

Five plays later, Connecticut's Jordan Todman rumbled 43 yards for a score.

Thus it was all afternoon. Michael Floyd fumbles in the red zone. The kickoff team allows a 96-yard runback for a touchdown.
"When our coaches get in front of you guys, they take the brunt of it," said special teams dynamo Mike Anello. "But it's our fault."

Then Anello lapsed into imagery quite redolent to anyone familiar with the school's Catholic background. "[The coaches] are getting nailed to the cross," said Anello. "I feel just really disappointed in all of us players. We let those guys down."

Before the game Weis marched into Notre Dame Stadium literally arm-in-arm with his team, at the request of his players. "I looked at [center Eric] Olsen, had a couple of choice words for him," Weis said with a smile. "Because it was probably his idea. But it was nice that they wanted to do that."

You cannot place scholarship athletes on waivers. You can only fire the head coach, and that is imminent. Unconfirmed reports have a well-heeled alum whose son is a former Notre Dame football player on the hook to buy out Weis' contract. The two favorites in the search are reportedly Cincinnati's Brian Kelly and Northwestern's Pat Fitzgerald. The latter is on record as saying that he is quite content coaching at his alma mater. On the other hand, Notre Dame did quite well by itself the last time it hired a coach from the Evanston institution (Ara Parseghian).

The confusion of the Bush Push, the disbelief at the loss -- excuse me, losses -- to Navy, the enmity at the numerous underwhelming efforts, all is in the past. Weis, if you take the players at their word, has never lost his team. Only games. Exhaustion envelops this program as it seems to battle each Saturday, for what feels like forever now, to justify the massive attention that it receives, to return to the place of prominence it once deserved, but no longer does.

For all the hostility and ire that Weis has aroused ("He's doing it with Ty Willingham's players"), picture being him for a moment. You return to your alma mater as a savior and for awhile you more than meet expectations. You sell yourself as an offensive guru and indeed you develop a passing attack the likes of which this storied program has never before seen. You graduate players at a higher rate than anyone else in the FBS, your off-field problems are minimal, you get your knee blown out on national television -- and barely miss a play, much less a game -- you open a foundation [Hannah and Friends] for the developmentally disabled ...

You do everything but produce a winner. And, really, it can at least be argued that no Notre Dame coaching regime experienced as much abject failure. Which is bizarre, because Charlie Weis is not a guy who doesn't have a clue. He just has not led this team to victory.

A telling statistic of the Weis era? On Saturday both Michael Floyd and Golden Tate eclipsed 100 yards receiving for the fourth time this season. The Irish have lost all four games.

That 3-9 season two years ago might have just been an unsightly aberration on an otherwise successful career, but instead it was the harbinger of Weis' end. Too many close losses to too many pedestrian opponents (North Carolina, Pittsburgh and Syracuse last season; Michigan, Navy and now Connecticut this season) over the past two seasons provide too much forensic evidence.

Simply put, Weis is not fit to be the head coach at a school that aspires to be the type of program it was when its head coach was sitting in the student section.

And so, Notre Dame journeys to Stanford next week, and those with long enough memories cannot help but think that this is 58-7, Miami, 1985, all over again. And that Jim Harbaugh is Jimmy Johnson incarnate. That next week the Irish will go from upset to abject.



A period of darkness is upon this program. Weis is gone, and likely Clausen, too. It's going to get worse before it gets better. In one final ironic flourish, it was the Huskies' Frazer who was the winning quarterback in what was likely Weis's final home game. Four years ago Frazer arrived in South Bend, but when he found himself fourth on the depth chart in the spring of 2007, he transferred to Connecticut.

Weis, the quarterback guru, beaten by the first quarterback he recruited to come and join him at Notre Dame. Just another bitter pill to swallow.