Bunch of Clogged Arteries:

Game time 3:30 EST, agony over at 7:00 EST. Gee, what the hell has happened to a 1:00 EST game start? Sold to the devil (NBC). Year after year, we put up with his crap.

I refuse to stand in line to sign up to be G. Price’s NFL agent.

JC is thinking right now he should have committed to USC.

Call the Indiana State Police, the Notre Dame Special Teams has gone missing. The hell with clogged arteries

MSU adjusted, ND did not.

There is a 125 pound, pimply faced freshman in Zahm Hall who would like to try-out as a walk-on offensive lineman, I support him. Go for it.

Give credit to the fans, I did not see one white towel thrown on the field even when ES was thrown to the wolves.

Once again, I ran out of beer, but found the mute button early. Arteries are fine, but I’m brain dead.

I’d cry but ran out of tears when the Skunkbears ran us into the ground.

0-4 and the next three games look real ugly. God I hate BC. May their cholesterol levels be 300.

Could not bear to listen/watch Charlie’s after game press conference, not this one.

See you on the practice field Sunday lads.

Guess this means after next week (0-4) we will be at the bottom of the Big Eleven standings?

Just a slow dumb-a**, but I’m beginning to think this is a rebuilding year. What say Charlie?

Any of those white towels on E-bay yet?

Saw nothing out there today that would convince me that ND can beat Navy.

Well anyway, Mark May can’t use the words Weiss and arrogant in the same sentence anymore.

Some positives: We didn’t miss any FG’s and no one tripped running out of the tunnel.
Subway Alumni | Email | Homepage | 09.23.07 - 12:01 pm | #

A rebuilding year is several orders of magnitude LESS painful.

This is a teardown year. Coaches have to find the attitude that it takes to win. So far, only a few takers.
ThE LoSt BoY | Email | Homepage | 09.23.07 - 1:01 pm | #

It was nice for MSU's band to continue playing all the way through Officer's McCarthy's public address announcement. That was a first for me.
Don E. Brook | Email | Homepage | 09.23.07 - 1:51 pm | #

I've got one for you:

It's hard to coach, with pudding in your pants.

Drive carefully. And remember, "rebuilding" is a dirty word.
Fat Charlie | Email | Homepage | 09.23.07 - 2:27 pm | #

Do you guys still think Sam Young is any good?
VAMAN | Email | Homepage | 09.23.07 - 2:36 pm | #

What's the television outlook for these next away games?
Judge60 | Email | Homepage | 09.23.07 - 2:48 pm | #

I wish you other fans could have noticed this in weis's first two years, but you got caught up in the media praise and smoke as you did with Ty. Charlie is going to bring this program to a collapse - if the higher powers don't step in. Then the next coach will actually have to rebuild the program.
Weis is a genius | Email | Homepage | 09.23.07 - 3:19 pm | #

Why do you think he'll bring the program to a collapse? Recruiting? Game planning? Play calling? What is the thing he is doing wrong? Just curious, since you sound like you have an idea.
Shadow Hawkins | Email | Homepage | 09.23.07 - 3:24 pm | #

Is there Division I precedent for a pre-game forfeit? I cringe when I think what the BC and USC games are going to look like, the way this team is playing. Thanks, Ty, for decimating two full years of OL recruiting. Many predicted this would happen in 07 and 08, with no junior/senior depth on the OL. Ty, by gentlemen's rules, you should have at least yelled, "Fore!", don't ya think?
JMinSC | Email | Homepage | 09.23.07 - 3:32 pm | #

More lurkers than fans today - thanks for making us one of the most important teams in CFB, guys.

We're bad, no doubt. My feeling is a lot of it can be lain at the feet of the coaching staff, and that there's nobody better than Chuck Weis to get us where we need to be. Gut check time.

This week I saw improvement, albeit against a relatively weak opponent. There's room for it. Like Charlie said, his job is to make this team better. I believe he will.

I love the Fighting Irish!
indy | Email | Homepage | 09.23.07 - 4:18 pm | #

Don... they also kept playing through the singing of the Almas Mater.

If they're not planting a flag, they'll find something else to do.

classless assholes.
domer03inbmore | Email | Homepage | 09.23.07 - 4:24 pm | #

Playing through the Alma Mater was annoying, but from where I was standing it looked and sounded like MSU's band started playing first. So eh; it's not like they should be expected to stop.
Anonymous | Email | Homepage | 09.23.07 - 4:41 pm | #

Since none of the freshmen, sophmores, juniors or redshirt sophmores can apparantly play at this point it would seem that the rebuilding will start with the recruit class of '08, so the Irish have the ability to be competitive in '11. I know the '08 class is going to be good, but if we lose no one and add that class, the team doesn't look to be much better for next year. If CW was all that as a coach he would have recognized long before last week that the team didn't have the fundamentals down. I have to question whether he will be able to teach those skills. Maybe he can, but the evidence to this point is that he cannot do so.

At this point hope for the best, but it looks like a long road for the next few years.
Rebuildathon | Email | Homepage | 09.23.07 - 5:36 pm | #

Notre Dame, our mother, pray for us.
JT | Email | Homepage | 09.23.07 - 5:53 pm | #

Coach Weis' pressconference transcript is up on und.com. He seems more optermistic. Kudos to Laws, Kunz, the physical running game. Talks about the evolution of a freshman QB. Interesting read. Also disappointed in the play of his special teams.
Happy with the devolpment of Neal, Smith, Allen, Hughes. Good read.
jim masterson | Email | Homepage | 09.23.07 - 5:54 pm | #

Haven't read the gameday comments, but what might be lost in defeat is that Aldridge had 100 yards rushing yesterday. O-Line looked downright decent *at times*. A couple of great runs. A couple of good pockets but no receivers open (which will continue to be a huge problem for us). The future is bright, but it's not close.
Erik '04 | Email | Homepage | 09.23.07 - 6:01 pm | #

Oh, and it literally took me a minute to figure out the pun in the safety tip. The punchline is usually easier to understand if you have the lead up to it.
Erik '04 | Email | Homepage | 09.23.07 - 6:02 pm | #

Said it before and I'll say it again:

FIRE CHARLIE.

Don't give me this crap about how he has to stay because of "2 BCS bids." Last year's team was an absolute fraud and had no business playing in the Sugar, as LSU proved to us. The longer Weis has been here, the worse we've gotten. And if you think we're receiving bad publicity now, just wait 'til we're 0-8!
Bob | Email | Homepage | 09.23.07 - 6:49 pm | #

"Why do you think he'll bring the program to a collapse? Recruiting? Game planning? Play calling? What is the thing he is doing wrong? Just curious, since you sound like you have an idea."

What team have you been watching the past four weeks? Weis is a glorified OC masquerading as a head coach. We look horribly coached everywhere on the field. I dare you to find a counterexample. We NEVER looked this bad under Davieham.
Bob | Email | Homepage | 09.23.07 - 6:52 pm | #

Bob-

you are a fucking complete idiot. Yeah, lets fire Charlie Weis. That comment is so outrageously stupid I dont know what to even say. Everyone knew we were going to have a rebuilding year, except for you I guess. Are you supposed to go 12-0 in a REBUILDING year? NO...are you supposed to go 0-4...0-8 in a rebuilding year...NO, but thats not the point. It takes time for talent to develop. Yeah, lets fire Charlie, and lets also throw away the #1 recruiting class for next year, and probably kiss goodbye a bulk of the team who may transfer because of this firing you are calling upon. Real smart. I do believe Golden Tate, Jimmy Clausen, Dayne Crist, Armando Allen, and Duvall Kamara all included Charlie Weis as being a reason to coming to Notre Dame. You really think someone else could come in and do the job any better? You are a dipshit
bmg | Email | Homepage | 09.23.07 - 7:23 pm | #

counterexample: Jimmy Clausen has played balls to the wall with what he has to work with.
bmg | Email | Homepage | 09.23.07 - 7:24 pm | #

Perhaps there is another way to look
at all of this.
Check out http://inlandechoes.blogspot.com...notre- dame.html
krane7 | Email | Homepage | 09.23.07 - 8:04 pm | #

Weis is a fraud. Weis is tearing down the program. These statements are as idiotic as saying the earth is flat. Okay smart asses. Name two coaches who would have this team 3-0 or 2-1 right now with the current personnel. Name two. How about one? Anyone care to take a look at, say, Pete Carroll's record in his first three years before he got his recruits in. How about Frank Beamer? Anyone care to look at JoePa's record over the last 10 years? How about this little stat--since 1960, how many Big Ten teams (when in the Big Ten) have won the NC outright? Answer: One (OSU did in twice--in 1968 and in 2003 with a felon.
Lush | Email | Homepage | 09.23.07 - 8:23 pm | #

I don't want to be a troll, but I'll name Pete Carroll's record in his first three years:

2001: 6-6, lost Las Vegas bowl to Utah
2002: 10-2, won Orange Bowl in a blowout
2003: 11-1, won Rose Bowl and national championship

Sounds like he did pretty well with Paul Hackett's guys, who had gone 4-7 I think in his last year. Carroll also had plenty of his guys playing on that 2003 team.

Frank Beamer is no comparison to Charlie Weis - Beamer took over a dead-on-its-arse program (unless you're ready to admit Notre Dame's been mediocre ever since Holtz left).

What does Joe Paterno's record over the last 10 years have to do with whether Weis can coach?
Topher | Email | Homepage | 09.24.07 - 2:57 am | #

Sounds like he did pretty well with Paul Hackett's guys, who had gone 4-7 I think in his last year. Carroll also had plenty of his guys playing on that 2003 team.

How many junior college transfers did Carroll bring into USC?
DJ | Email | Homepage | 09.24.07 - 8:33 am | #

Our best comparison is Butch Davis, who went 5-7 (with a couple of horrific losses) in his third season in dealing with the aftereffects of probation.

With only something like 77 scholarship athletes right now, we are virtually on probation, no thanks to Ty.

BTW, if you fire Charlie now, you kill this program. You nuke the best of his three recruiting classes and you announce to the world that the job is a coach-killer.
Mr. Wednesday | Email | Homepage | 09.24.07 - 12:04 pm | #

I might tip over before 2011...mentally and physically...
jim / redondo beach | Email | Homepage | 09.24.07 - 12:08 pm | #

"How many junior college transfers did Carroll bring into USC?"

Not many, to my knowledge. As a matter of fact none come to mind. LenDale White wasn't one. Nor was Reggie Bush, Leinart or any of the offensive linemen that I know of. I remember several of their defensive players being there long enough to start doctoral dissertations.

But I digress. This is whack-a-mole - every time some "Cover Charlie's A**" argument gets shot down, a new appendage grows out of it to sustain the cognitive dissonance. First it was an argument that Petey took a while to get going. He didn't. Now it's about junior college transfers. The claims have become unfalsifiable.

Look at Stanford - they've got transfers with talent since Harbaugh got there. They can't play this year, but they'll be starters next season at it looks like Stanford might steal your fourth tight end.
Topher | Email | Homepage | 09.24.07 - 2:17 pm | #

"since 1960, how many Big Ten teams (when in the Big Ten) have won the NC outright?"

What's the argument here? That the Big Ten is historically weak? How does that make Notre Dame's three-game losing streak to Big Ten teams look any better?

Or is this just a "scoreboard" argument that ND has more national success than Ohio State and Michigan since Joe Kuharich left South Bend?
Topher | Email | Homepage | 09.24.07 - 2:21 pm | #

If Stanford wants to "steal" our fourth TE, they're welcome to him. I trust our coaching staff to have chosen the better players as the first, second, and third TE, and to have at least one and possibly more recruits coming in next year who are just as highly touted as he was.

SC may not have brought stars in via JUCO transfers, but they were able to build depth, and depth is what we're most sorely missing right now. They also weren't left in nearly as big of a hole as we were in terms of the dearth of players in the last pre-Carroll and the joint-Carroll recuiting classes.

As has been noted on ndnation (by people other than me) and as I've repeated elsewhere, the best analog isn't USC. It's Miami under Butch Davis.
Mr. Wednesday | Email | Homepage | 09.24.07 - 3:18 pm | #

Topher:

I read your post-Michigan analysis of ND's problems, and I think most of your arguments are well-reasoned and accurately assess the situation in South Bend.

I don't think there's much of a "cover Charlie's posterior" movement within ND fan circles. People are quite critical. However, I think certain fans are sick of:

1. The Ty/Charlie comparisons, which are tedious, because there is not a chance in hell that Ty would have brought ND back to prominence if he had been allowed an extra 2 years.

2. Any Fire Charlie sentiments. Last time we were down this road, we had to choose between Charlie and Tom Clement to be the next head coach. It doesn't make a lot of sense to eagerly hand out a pink slip now, when high-profile prospects don't seem to be lining up at the door.

So they're grasping at any analogy from the past that suggest a hopeful future. Pete Carroll. Butch Davis. Whatever.
Gallaher | Email | Homepage | 09.24.07 - 4:03 pm | #

The "fire charlie" sentiments are preposterous. You guys are terrible notre dame fans and if times get good with him in the future, I don't want you around.
Tommy O | Email | Homepage | 09.24.07 - 4:57 pm | #

Gallaher - thanks for reading! And being straight about what's going on. I ahve quickly noticed that Lush is less than a sterling example of a proud but rational ND fan.
Topher | Email | Homepage | 09.24.07 - 5:38 pm | #

What does How many NCs the Big Ten has won or JoePa's record in the last 10 years have to do with anything? Well, you so called ND "fans" who think we should win the NC every third year need to get a grip. Coaches with far more tenure and continuity than Weis such as JoePa, Lloyd Carr, Joe Tiller have struggled in several years.
Lush | Email | Homepage | 09.24.07 - 8:43 pm | #