Projo Sports Blog

I thought Charlie Weis, after serving as offensive coordinator on the Patriots' three Super Bowl championship teams, would be a terrfiic head coach at Notre Dame.

Boy, was I ever wrong.

For 43 consecutive seasons, from 1964 through 2006, the Fighting Irish defeated Navy in what is the longest, continuous intersectional rivalry in college football.

Now the Midshipmen, who lost last Saturday to Temple in Annapolis, have won two of the last three over ND, both of their victories coming in South Bend -- the latest a 23-21 upset yesterday afternoon.

The loss drops Notre Dame to 6-3 and puts them out of contention for a BCS bowl bid for the third consecutive year.

Weis took the Irish to BCS bowls his first two seasons, but the program has since slumped badly.

The 2007 season, Weis' third, may have been the worst in Notre Dame's storied history, as the Irish finished 3-9, losing 9 of their first 10 games.

Notre Dame was only 7-6 last year, losing 5 of its last 7 regular-season games before beating Hawaii in Honolulu in the Hawaii Bowl. Among those defeats were a shutout loss at Boston College, a blown, fourth-quarter lead in a home loss to a Syracuse team with a lame-duck coach that had lost 8 games -- the first time in Irish history they were beaten by a team with 8 losses, and a 38-3 rout at Southern Cal in which Notre Dame didn't make a first down until late in the third quarter.

The 15 losses in 2007-08 are the most-ever over a two-year period in Notre Dame history.

This season, the Irish are 6-3, and have needed late-game heroics against Michigan State, Purdue, Washington, and Boston College to pull out narrow victories.

There was considerable debate over Weis would be brought back to coach this season, or whether his contract would be bought out. Those talks will intensify now, as the program continues to flounder in his fifth season at the helm.

1 Comments

dreadnaught said:

Weis is not good. Notre Dame needs to start over, he is not getting better, even after doing his own recruiting. Were are the excuses now?

Link | November 7, 2009 9:54 PM
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