The Failing Irish

Really? Syracuse? After leading by 13 in the second half? In South Bend?

Up to this point as a Notre Dame fan and a Patriots fan I have defended Charlie Weis. He inherited a terrible program that was in decline. He was instituting a pro-style, complicated offense. He made the most of talent that Willingham couldn't do anything with, and I fully believed that as his recruits started to filter in and mature that he would bring Notre Dame back into the national spotlight. When things didn't go well I was prepared to give more time because South Bend isn't the easiest place to recruit to, and let's face it, a buyout of his contract seemed insane at a rumored 21 million dollars.

Now though, even I am having trouble convincing myself that Weis isn't in over his head. Weis had way more talent on the field today and despite playing incredibly inconsistently on the offensive side of the ball the Irish had a 13 point lead, at home in the second half against a 2-8 team who's coach had just been fired. But the Irish couldn't get out of their own way and managed to let the Orange score two 4th quarter TDs to claim a one point victory over a stunned Irish team.

This loss to teh Orange isn't just embarassing, its historic. This moves the Irish to 6-5. Combine that with their 3-9 record last year and they have lost 14 in the last two years, the most in any two consecutive Irish seasons. It also is the second straight week in which the Irish blew seemingly iron clad leads. Last week they managed to barely hold on against Navy, but the win was certainly less than satisfying.

Perhaps most troubling is that despite Weis having had time for his recruits to reach the playing field the team does not appear to be any faster or more talented than they were under Willingham. The defense is inconsistent and rarely appears to be talented enough to hang with upper echelon programs and Weis is far from a defensive genius. The offensive players, while certainly showing more promise, have yet to show that they can play consistently. Jimmy Clausen showed quite a bit of promise early in the season, but over the last few weeks has shown that he has a tendency to float balls and turn it over.

The bottom line is the last few weeks have made me realize that this team isn't a year or two away from really living up to their expectations, it's a team that seems to have fulfilled its less than exciting potential. With this as the case it may be time for ND to cut their losses and move on in a new direction. Of course, I don't think there is anyone else out there that can turn this train wreck around. I Think its time for the Notre Dame alumni and fans to accept what the rest of the country realized years ago, it's unlikely that Notre Dame will ever be the powerhouse it was. The sooner ND realizes this, the sooner they can make the moves they need to be a strong and consistent second tier team. A sad day indeed.