Daily Domer: Happy Misgivings

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- School's out. In so many ways.

It is a wet and raw and gray Thanksgiving eve day. Classes ended Tuesday for the holiday weekend. The Notre Dame campus is quiet except for the shuffling back and forth by various football players between the Gug and the athletic trainers' offices inside the Joyce Athletic and Convocation Center (the J.A.C.C.).

Tailback Armando Allen, his right arm in a soft cast and a sling, is one of many players who can be seen (but not spoken to) walking at what can only be described as a leisurely pace. Allen's sling-and-cast get-up, by the way, appears less cumbersome than the one Charlie Jr. was sporting at Tuesday's practice following the surgery he underwent Monday for a broken finger.

Darth Visor, to answer your question, was nowhere to be seen.

Lots of stuff to discuss. It has been a surreal few days at Notre Dame. For example, how could I have known, when I greeted Charlie Weis at 4:28 last Sunday morning that the biggest story of the day involving Notre Dame football had already occurred two hours earlier? Then there was Charlie Weis' "We're talking about Stanford" noon presser yesterday, followed by a release sent out just three hours later that all Irish players and assistant coaches would be off-limits this week, just four hours before we were scheduled to meet with them.

The release, issued by Notre Dame's sports information department, noted that the blackout was "somewhat out of the ordinary." No five words could better describe the previous four days.

I'll get to it all. Piece by piece.

Drinking It All In

As for what went down at C.J.'s (pictured here): the pub is not as popular with Notre Dame students and alums as Corby's (located about a half-mile east), which is one reason it has long been a favorite of gridders. Tom Zbikowski quaffed a brew or two there in his day.

More than a few eyewitnesses to what went down in the early Sunday morning hours were wearing gold helmets the day before, which is one reason that players are off-limits this week. The anecdotal evidence varies, but it appears that tight end Mike Ragone, a junior, and left tackle Sam Young and wide receiver George West, both seniors, were all either involved or close to the scene.

How did the story break, and why did it take nearly 36 hours to do so? Not sure as to the latter, although no arrests were made, no police report filed. On Sunday a student at St. Mary's College, the all-female school located just west of Notre Dame, sent out a tweet (which has since been taken down) lamenting Notre Dame's loss but adding that it was "semi-amusing watching Jimmy Clausen get punched in the face last night."

Because, you know, whatever you post on Twitter or Facebook always remains just between you and your followers/friends.

We will learn more in the coming days, most importantly the name of the person who gave Clausen that shiner. Is it fair to assume that this was not a "sucker punch"? If it were, here is what makes little sense: with all that scholarship brawn and speed around, why didn't any of Clausen's teammates apprehend the assailant and, if not wait for the police to arrive, at least exact a little vengeance?

Was the assailant a friend of one of Clausen's teammates? Was it not a "sucker punch" but instead a counterpunch? Was the assailant a teammate? All questions we will likely know the answer to soon, but probably not before Saturday.

Contemplating Darth Visor

As for the Darth Visor get-up and Clausen in general, I have conflicted feelings. On one hand, the wunderkind from Westlake Village, Calif., has always come off as something of a pigskin mercenary. Notre Dame was little more than a PhD football camp for him, and Charlie Weis his doctoral director. He has rarely appeared to be someone who truly loves Notre Dame and at this institution, like it or not, that's part of the recipe.

The most illuminating moment for me came a minute or two after Saturday's loss to UConn. Team captain Scott Smith, a backup linebacker and special teams leader, was squatting on the 25-yard line. His face was crimson and his eyes welled with tears. Smith was likely absorbing the fact that he will always be associated with one of the most, if not the most, miserable periods in Notre Dame football history.

Smith was not alone in his grief. Allen, who slumped on the bench during the alma mater, was also inconsolable. So was defensive tackle Ian Williams (who spent the previous week in Jon Tenuta's doghouse, if not his outhouse, for the "we were out-schemed" comment) and special teams stud Mike Anello (who earlier Wednesday was named a second-team Academic All-America).

Where was Clausen? He had walked over to the section where his family sits, and then had his siblings and mother ushered onto the turf so that all of them could pose for a photo. That moment told me that Clausen is gone (Brian Hamilton's story in today's Chicago Tribune offers even more evidence), but there was also something distasteful about it.

Family is important, no doubt. But in that moment, just a minute or two after the game ended, Clausen's "family" should have been his teammates. There were seniors who later went out onto the field with each other and their families to pose for photos. That would have been a more appropriate time.

On the other hand, has any college football player taken more grief, both verbal and visual, the past three seasons? Clausen is an excellent quarterback, and yet still to this day features about him have to mention the spiked hair and Hummer ride he took to the College Football Hall of Fame as a high school junior. C'mon, people.

Also, have you noticed how many times this image has popped up on websites the past few weeks? Seeing that, it's perfectly understandable why Clausen or the Notre Dame SID's office doesn't want anyone snapping a photo of Clausen's black eye. That shot would live forever and even the dimmest editors in the land can see the visual metaphor between Clausen's shiner and Notre Dame's 2009 season.

Celebrate Swarbrick

The best thing Notre Dame's athletic department has going for it is not Charlie, not Jimmy, not even my man Golden Tate, Warrior. No, it is athletic director Jack Swarbrick, whom Pete Thamel of the New York Times interviewed on Monday.

What I like best about Swarbrick, 55, is that he's wicked smart but incredibly normal. When we spoke last summer, Swarbrick, a class of '76 alum, fondly recalled how he and other students would drop their wallets over the rim of Notre Dame Stadium so that visiting friends who did not attend Notre Dame could use their student IDs to get into the game.

That's a funny story for anyone to share, but coming from the school's sitting director of athletics, it is even more refreshing. Swarbrick, by the way, started at safety on a Bloomington (Ind.) High School football team that never lost a game in his four seasons there.

Coming Back With The Team

On his radio show Tuesday, Swarbrick did allow that Charlie would fly back with the team to South Bend after Saturday's Stanford game. That revelation should have put to rest any questions concerning a coaching change.

First, the Irish under Weis have always played their final regular-season game in California, either at Stanford or USC. Then Weis remains in the Golden State to recruit. Now, here's the important part: a head coach only is allowed one in-home visit with a recruit.

Hence, if Charlie were to visit the Bay Area home of the parents of five-star defensive end Chris Martin ( a verbal commit), or if he were to visit Los Angeles-based running back Anthony Barr (son of former Irish tailback Tony Brooks), no successor to Weis could visit them if Swarbrick were to make a switch. Thus, Charlie does not do the in-home visit, quite literally leaving the door open for the next Irish coach to do so.

Simple Request

As for how I was able to get Charlie to sit down with me, it was simple: I asked.

A couple of months ago, in the week before the Purdue game when it appeared that Clausen may not play, someone asked Weis if he was putting in longer hours that week. Charlie chuckled and replied, "I'm here every morning at 4:35 a.m. You're welcome to join me for a cup of coffee if you want."

It was a throwaway line in a light moment. At the time, though, I remembered thinking, Why not take him up on the offer? Last week, I approached the school's football sports info people, Brian Hardin and Michael Bertsch, and made my request. A day later, Hardin told me that Charlie had given it the green light and that I should meet him on Sunday. The rest is history.

Special Delivery

Columnist Ray Ratto of CBSSports.com wrote a piece yesterday arguing that Notre Dame is no longer special. Ray, I'll believe that Notre Dame is no longer special when nationally syndicated columnists do not feel the need to waste a column informing me of such.


Cardinal Will Rule

Saturday in Palo Alto will be ugly. Not unlike Gerry Faust's final game at Miami (58-7, the worst loss in school history) or Ty Willingham's sayonora at USC (41-10). Jim Harbaugh has an opportunity to, in the same month, hang the most points ever scored against iconic programs USC (55) and Notre Dame. You think he will not leap at this opportunity?

Here's the good news for Irish fans. As exemplary as the play of Clausen and Tate have been, they can both be prima donnas. Not so the next wave. Quarterback Dayne Crist, tight end Kyle Rudolph, linebacker Manti Te'o (unless he chooses to go on his Mormon mission next year) and wideout John Goodman (whom I believe will start opposite Michael Floyd next year) are far less impressed with themselves as Clausen and Tate tend to be.

The Irish may not have BCS bowl talent next season, but they're actually, from an attitude and humility standpoint, much better off than you might imagine.

Weis' Choice

Personally, I don't blame Weis for sticking to his "We're talking about Stanford" line in the sand. What is he supposed to do? If we in the media ask him about a bowl, or about recruiting in California, or about statements he made five years ago ("6-5 is not good enough"), it's really all the same question: Are they going to can your ass?

Weis cannot answer that question in public, even if he does know the answer. That is not for him to say, but rather for his boss. Meanwhile, if he gives some disingenuous answer, we'll all crucify him next week for being dishonest.

In short, the media and ESPN, which I won't be surprised if it has Buster Olney weigh in on this saga before the week is out, has been poised to hoist Weis upon his own petard all week. He is choosing not to be an accessory. Why should he?

Talk, Talk, Talk

ESPN's 6 p.m. "SportsCenter" did two separate hits on Notre Dame in its first twenty minutes on Tuesday. This is a 6-5 football team with no bowl forthcoming (would they really attend the Little Caesars Bowl in Detroit on Dec. 26? Say it ain't so, Jack) and no player arrests all season.

Jason Smith, filling in for the eponymous host of "Rome Is Burning" two hours earlier, made Notre Dame his third topic of bloviation (while, of course, pointing out that Notre Dame is not special). "Outside the Lines" has already had guests Tim Brown and Tony Rice on this week. And correspondent George Smith, a sharp fellow, has become to South Bend what Richard Engel is to the Middle East.

So here's my question: Why?

On Sunday night, at a Big Ten campus located just 3 1/2 hours northeast of South Bend, at a school that has beaten Notre Dame three of the five times they've met during the Weis era, a group of men, some of them football players, allegedly stormed a dorm (Rather Hall) and assaulted half a dozen fellow students. Apparently, they were looking to settle a score with a student who happened not to be there, but that didn't stop them from going thug on the male and female students in the lobby.

That incident did not make the first half hour of "SportsCenter." It did not merit enough heat for a producer in Bristol to dispatch Smith to East Lansing, even though two Michigan State players, running back Glenn Winston and defensive back Roderick Jenrette, have since been kicked off the team.

We're all to blame here, but ESPN, the self-proclaimed "Worldwide Leader," is particularly culpable in attempting to turn Notre Dame into the Dallas Cowboys or Khloe Kardashian.

If the Irish, a non-factor in the BCS race as well as a team with zero off-field legal transgressions, are going to get this much glare when they don't provide soundbites, imagine how much more they would be prone to if they did. Nearly enough glare to, well, merit a tinted visor.

The Irish should have made their players and coaches accessible to the media. And they should have all stuck to Charlie's party line: We're only talking about Stanford. As a media member, do you really expect to land a sit-down interview with a player during Weis' potential final week at Notre Dame and have him reveal the entire episode of the C.J's J.C. punchout?

In fact the most intriguing figure in Bristol right now, as pertains to Notre Dame, is Mike Golic. Here's a guy who played football for Notre Dame and has two sons on the team. And who has, what, four hours of air-time on ESPN2 each morning (by the way, two other "Mike & Mike" staffers, both female, are Notre Dame alums)?

And yet not a word from Golic on this situation, even though you have to imagine he is aware of everthing that is occurring. Unless he never speaks with his sons. The question is, does he share information with ESPN producers and on-air talent as long as he is not asked to comment directly? Or does he simply inform his co-workers that Notre Dame football is a no-fly zone?

The Kelly Guy

All of this must be killing Regis. No? ... If a coaching switch does take place, here's hoping the new guy is not fond of hoodies. ... Finally, Brian Kelly of Cincinnati seems to be the popular choice to replace Charlie. There's a lot to recommend Kelly: he has won everywhere he has been, sure, and he is also a Catholic kid who attended a Catholic college (Assumption, in Massachusetts). Still, a source does not believe it will be him.

I actually think the better Kelly is Oregon's Chip Kelly, but I doubt he would leave Eugene.

Here's what I do know: the more big names who claim to have no interest in the job, the more revered the guy who does eventually take the gig will be if he in fact can turn it around. Let's just hope that if he points this ship in the right direction that Notre Dame's administration holds off on that 10-year contract extension this time.