Moving On

I've been neglecting to offer any analysis on the Michigan game for a few reasons. One, I was too busy drowning my sorrows with Miller High Life and shots of Jager to offer any immediate analysis on Saturday. Two, law school has been keeping my attention the past few days. And three, there isn't that much to say about the game. No one except Geoff Price played well on Saturday. The execution by both sides of the ball was pitiful and Charlie Weis deserves a good amount of the blame. Saturday's game reminded me of some of the crap I watched my senior year at Notre Dame when the Ty Willingham era was in full swing.

But that leads me to my next point, anyone comparing Charlie Weis to Ty Willingham in the words of the Irish Roundtable should be punched in the throat. Charlie Weis is not anywhere close to Ty Willingham. He actually recruits on consistent basis, as he got another 5 star recruit on Monday in the form of cornerback Gary Gray despite the blowout. He doesn't speak on such platitudes that no one has any idea what he is saying. He doesn't spend his free time on lowering his handicap instead of figuring out how to make this football team better. He doesn't rely on smokes and mirrors to win games like Ty's first Notre Dame team. But what Irish fans need to realize is that while Notre Dame had a chance to win a national championship this season, their margin of error was razor thin. They have zero depth on both sides of ball due to neglect from the Willingham era. And that was so evident on Saturday. If the Irish had any depth this past Saturday, players like Smardzija or McKnight or Lambert or Mitchell Thomas would have been riding the pine later in the game for their craptacular play.

It's going to get worse before it's gets better, especially when you consider next year, Notre Dame will have only 9 seniors on the team and they have early season games at Penn State and at Michigan. I don't think Notre Dame will be competing for a national championship until 2008 when Weis will have three full classes under him and his first full class will be juniors.

But getting back to this year, yes Saturday was horrible, but let's avoid these chicken little proclamations that Notre Dame sucks and will be lucky to be playing in the Continental Tire Bowl. This team still has a great chance to make it to a BCS game. After this Saturday's game against Michigan State, the only serious tests left for the Irish are Stanford and USC. And if they can return to the level of play that was exhibited in the Penn State game, there's no reason why Notre Dame shouldn't finish the season 11-1 or 10-2.