(UHND.com) – As the final seconds ticked away in the Coliseum Saturday night, I couldn’t help but wonder just how did we get here? Three years ago Notre Dame played one of the most epic and thrilling games in the storied history of the USC rivalry. Three years later the Irish were licking their wounds from a 38-3 beating at the hands of USC to cap off a two season span which saw the Irish record just a 9-15 record and get outscored 76-3 by the Men of Troy.
Three years ago at this time Charlie Weis was capping off his first season as Notre Dame head coach with just six points separating the Irish from a perfect record. Two three point losses to Michigan State and USC were the only blemishes on what was a rather impressive first season on the sidelines in Notre Dame Stadium.
Fast forward to Saturday night six losses, not six points, separates the Irish from a perfect season. And again, I ask myself, how did we get here?
Honestly, I wish I had an answer. I can pretty much guarantee you that Charlie Weis wishes he had an answer for that question as well. Unfortunately, I don’t have an answer and based on Weis’s post game comment Saturday night, he didn’t seem to have a whole lot of answers either.
Answers are on short order these days for Notre Dame football. Questions, however, are in surplus. Where do the Irish stand? How close is Notre Dame to being a national power once again? Is Charlie Weis the right man to lead them back to prominence? Will Weis be back next season?
The answer to that last question is sure to be a hot topic for the next week since Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick has been quoted in multiple published reports that he will not meet with Weis to evaluate the season until next Monday.
The fact that the fate of Charlie Weis is even in question at this point in his tenure at Notre Dame would come as a complete shock to anyone who three years ago. Weis looked like a can’t miss coach back in 2005 and an attitude and bravado that Notre Dame fans were eating up like Thanksgiving dinner.
Three years later that same attitude and bravado is now coming back to haunt Weis. The “decided schematic advantage”, the “nasty” football team, the “9-3 isn’t good enough”, the right now you’re a 6-5 football team, and so on is now being used against Weis as the Irish limped to the finish line this season with a 2-4 record over the final 6 games.
I still can’t get my head wrapped around this though. What happened between 2005 and Saturday night that Notre Dame went from a Reggie Bush push away from an epic upset against USC to failing to pass the century mark in total yards Saturday night?
Maybe the question we should be asking ourselves instead of how did we get here, is how do we get there? There being where USC is – a perennial top 5 program competing for the national championship every year. If the 80,000 people exiting Notre Dame Stadium on October 15, 2005 had been asked that question, the vast majority would have said the Irish were almost already there.
Did Charlie Weis forget how to coach in the last three years? Not likely. Did his assistant coaches forget how to develop players in that time? Probably not. Something, however, has gone wrong along the way and it cannot all be blamed on youth and inexperience.
Washington State and Washington, two of the worst teams in college football both were able to muster up more offense against the Trojans than the Irish were able to. No one can argue that either team has more talent than the Irish especially since Notre Dame dismantled the Huskies in much the same way USC dismantled Notre Dame Saturday night.
While everyone can agree that something is definitely “amiss” as Joe Theismann told the Chicago Sun Times even before Saturday’s game, good luck trying to find anyone who agrees on how to fix the mess the Notre Dame football team finds itself in right now.
Does fixing the program involve bringing Charlie Weis back or making another coaching change? A case can certainly be made for both retaining Weis as well as making a change. Three top 10 recruiting classes and two BCS Bowl bids didn’t happen by accident. At the same time a nine loss season in 2007 with the first loss to Navy in 43 yards and an embarrassing loss to a 2-8 Syracuse team last weekend didn’t happen by accident either.
If fixing the problems facing the Irish involve bringing Weis back, does it also involve making changes amongst the assistants? If so, which ones will be back and which ones won’t? After 15 losses in two seasons and failing to put up 100 yards against USC certainly Weis couldn’t take the same approach he did a year ago when he took all of the blame for Notre Dame’s failures on the field and refused to make any scapegoats of any of the assistants if he is back in 2009.
These are all questions that Jack Swarbrick and the Notre Dame administration will have to answer in the immediate future as they attempt to find an answer for how we got here and what we need to do to get there.
