“One of the teams [Tennessee] that jumped us had the same game we had. They’re down, they’re playing at home and they win by a field goal. Another team [Florida] that jumped us wasn’t even playing. They were at home eating cheeseburgers, and they end up jumping us. That befuddles me.”
What befuddles me is how Charlie Weis, at a university press conference, can continue to tout the strength and superiority of his team and his coaching ability while the rest of the nation wakes up to the realization that Notre Dame is no longer the epitome of college football perfection. This $40-million-dollar man, who started his career 5-2 without a single win against a team that finished in the Top-25, has the audacity to complain about the polls that so obviously favored Fighting Irish teams of the past.
Since Weis took the helm, Notre Dame has played three tough teams: USC and Ohio State last season and Michigan five weeks ago. With the exception of Matt Leinart’s heroics in the USC win last year, Notre Dame has had their golden domes pummeled right out of the stadium in their other two games against top-flight programs. This season Weis is trying unsuccessfully to lobby the media and distract the public from his team’s dismal play and patsy schedule. The Irish finish the season with Navy, North Carolina, Air Force and Army, who have a combined 12-15 record, before a Nov. 25 showdown at Southern Cal. That’s a brutal schedule if I’ve ever seen one.
Last week, against a 4-3 UCLA squad from the weak Pac-10, Notre Dame had to win in “thrilling” fashion, according to Weis. The Irish head coach believes that this mistakenly hurt the Irish in the eyes of the voters. Well of course it did, Charlie. You can’t expect to eke out wins against inferior competition and claim be a Top-10 team. National Championship contenders like Michigan, for example, come into your building and beat you by 26 and do not struggle with .500 teams like you do. After beating you, the Wolverines clobbered 4-4 Michigan State 31-13 while you only beat the Spartans in another one of your “thrilling,” come-from-behind wins by a score of 40-37. Good teams dominate their opposition, not just beat them.
Tennessee, on the other hand, beat Alabama, a quality team in the difficult SEC and a huge rival. The Vols have also already beaten three teams this season who are currently ranked while the Irish have just one such win (a 14-10 win over No. 21 Georgia Tech). Tennessee’s only loss was by one point to a very good Florida Gators squad while yours was by 26 at home! And while you failed to dominate inferior competition last Saturday, at least Florida made some progress by dominating those cheeseburgers.
Wake up, Charlie. These aren’t like the days in New England when everyone knelt before you. The voters don’t care about your image or your whining. They care about how you play, and unfortunately for you, your pretty-boy quarterback, baseball-playing wideout and porous defense are lacking a little in that department.
