Charlie Weis begins another week of intensive game planning.
As a football fan, one of my favorite rites of fall is the annual exhaltation of the Oh So Holy Glory that is Notre Dame. And why wouldn't it be? After all, they've had an undisturbed string of 30 national titles, Heisman Trophies, and Academy Awards, somehow. Every Notre Dame player goes on to be an NFL Pro Bowler, pisses diamonds, and cures cancer. Charlie Weis has recently qualified for sainthood. And lest we forget, let us pay tribute to the second coming, Brady Quinn. Yea, He is the Way, and the Light. His passes always find their target. For the blind to look upon his handsome face is to regain the gift of sight.
Obviously, none of the last paragraph was true. But if you were to take the word of the pundits who overhype South Bend every year, it might as well be. At the beginning of the season, there are always a million reasons why this is finally time for Notre Dame to turn the corner. They never turn out to be true, but oh well. The voters and the media bias still force them up the polls no matter what. Brady Quinn had his best games against no-name teams and military academies? Doesn't matter. Heisman contender.
The results have reinforced that Notre Dame teams do not have the talent to play with the big boys. Ohio State? Demolished them last year in the bowl. Michigan? Hung 47 on them this year. And then last week, the Irish laid another egg at USC, getting blown out by a vastly superior Pete Carroll team. And while it appears that we're now headed towards a possible Michigan/OSU rematch in January, todays USC loss reinforces just how overrated Notre Dame is. An unranked team held an offense that dominated Weis's squad to under ten points. The unfortunate reality of this is that it will probably help South Bend anyway, pushing them into BCS contention. But, realists like me can take comfort that if they end up playing any real team, they'll get beaten. Badly.
