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Stuck with a genius
September 25, 2007Splat. Pow. Wham. Bam.
Those were the sounds of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish falling on their collective faces the first four times out of the gate this season.
Invariably, every time this happens, the focus shifts to current Washington Huskies coach and former Notre Dame castoff Tyrone Willingham.
But, somehow, I don't think he cares.
Willingham compiled a 21-15 record in three seasons with the Irish and lost his job for finishing 6-6 in 2004, his third and final season in South Bend. Yet, current Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis will be incredibly lucky to do that well in his.
Already 0-4, Weis' Irish have sure-fire losses coming to Purdue, UCLA, Boston College, No. 1 USC and maybe even Navy and Air Force before the season-ender with Stanford -- the only game they may have a legitimate chance to win.
"It kind of reminds me of our first year with the Patriots back in 2000," Weis told Stephen A. Smith on ESPN Radio. "We started out pretty bad just like this, but we won our last four games of the season and went to the playoffs the next year.
"That's what we hope we're experiencing here."
Truthfully though, Weis is staring down the barrel at a 1-10 or maybe a 2-9 campaign (if they're lucky), but he'll be back with the Fighting Irish next year.
Just as the NCAA will never parcel out another death penalty due to its effect on a still-reeling SMU, Notre Dame gave Weis a 10-year contract supposedly to ensure the stability of its program and put the Willingham controversy behind them.
Well, now they're stuck with him until 2015.
And that seems like an awful long time at 0-4 in 2007.
Meanwhile at the opposite end of the spectrum, Willingham is 2-2 with the Huskies and hosting the top-ranked Trojans on Saturday.
In fairness though, Washington is certainly no Notre Dame. But then again, a look at their records shows that Notre Dame is certainly no Washington.
Posted by Stephen Smith at 3:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
