It takes a few glances to tell what’s really going on at Notre Dame, but any way you look at it, the Irish are the biggest story in college football.
White smoke isn’t pouring out of the Golden Dome, but the Irish believe they have risen from the dead thanks to Charlie Weis. For Saturday’s home opener against Michigan State, Notre Dame alumni have asked for 49,000 tickets, one of the five biggest requests in school history.
They have requested 54,000 for the Southern California showdown Oct. 15, a week in which some South Bend hotels are price-gouging at a larcenous 300 percent markup.
Four quarterbacks from Notre Dame’s more glorious past – Rick Mirer, Tony Rice, Ron Powlus and Blair Kiel – will take part in pregame festivities this week that could rival New Year’s Eve.
“There is no question there’s more of a buzz this year,” Chuck Lennon, director of the Notre Dame Alumni Association, told The Indianapolis Star. “This is the most excitement I’ve seen around here in the last 10 years.”
But to get a clear picture of this rapidly growing story, let’s not take a quick glance. Let’s take three:
First glance: Notre Dame (2-0) has gone from unranked to 10th, and Weis is the first Notre Dame coach to start his career with two road wins since Knute Rockne did it in 1918.
The Irish did it the hard way, beating ranked teams in then-No. 23 Pittsburgh and then-No. 3 Michigan. A national legend that hasn’t won a bowl game in 12 seasons not only looks capable of winning one, but headed for a BCS bowl.
The future is bright. Weis, flashing four Super Bowl rings, has oral commitments from James Aldridge, one of the nation’s top five running backs, of Merrillville, Ind., and Zack Frazer, one of the top 10 quarterbacks, from Mechanicsburg, Pa.
Second glance: Forget the Rockne rubbish, OK? Weis is the first Irish coach to win his first two games on the road since Rockne because he’s the only Irish coach to play his first two games on the road since Rockne.
Also, there was a coach more recent than Rockne who created similar enthusiasm. He won his first game away from home, beating 21st-ranked Maryland, and beat three other ranked teams on his way to an 8-0 start.
His name was Tyrone Willingham. He also had a great first recruiting class, signing six current starters, including quarterback Brady Quinn, defensive end Victor Abiamiri and defensive tackle Trevor Laws.
Third glance: Here is the difference. Sure, Willingham started 8-0. But his offense didn’t score a touchdown until Game 3. Weis’ offense has already scored 59 points, and the 42 at Pitt were as many as all but one game in Willingham’s three-year reign.
It’s not just how many points Notre Dame is scoring, but simply how. While Willingham’s offense became as predictable and exciting as vespers, Weis keeps defenses guessing.
He injected immediate confidence in the offense when he veered from convention and took the ball after winning the toss at Michigan. Notre Dame drove down the field to score a touchdown, using a no-huddle offense and a no-back, five-wide set on first-and-goal from the Michigan 5.
He passes on first down, will use a full-house backfield, and running back Darius Walker’s team-high eight receptions are two fewer than he had all last season.
Weis is also making it fun. He actually practices a celebration drill in the end zone.
“Once you do that,” Weis said in Tuesday’s weekly news conference, “you get more people playing with enthusiasm and excitement, the chances of something good happening are greater than if you don’t play that way.”
Weis’ problem is that Notre Dame has the toughest schedule in the country. On tap Saturday is Michigan State, boasting a four-game win streak in South Bend – the longest streak since Purdue won five (1954-62). The Spartans have beaten the Irish six of the past eight.
This time, however, Notre Dame is a 6 1/2-point favorite. And that’s not blowing smoke.
Trouble in Big Ten
No conference has taken a beating so early as the Big Ten did last weekend. Its triad of Michigan, Ohio State and Iowa all lost in upsets, the first two at home, and only Ohio State remains in the top 10.
I still say Ohio State will be 9-1 when it visits Michigan on Nov. 19 and will get even more votes as Texas shreds through its schedule. Michigan has other issues, with struggling quarterback Chad Henne getting publicly roasted and tailback Mike Hart (hamstring) possibly out through next weekend’s game at Wisconsin.
The biggest issue is how deflated these teams have become emotionally.
“There’s pressure or implied pressure to be perfect,” Purdue coach Joe Tiller said during the Big Ten conference call this week. “It creates a different standard for young people.”
Auburn DE finds brothers
The Auburn defensive end who thought his two little brothers drowned during Hurricane Katrina? The story has a happy ending. Alonzo Horton’s siblings Jerry and Delorean are alive with their father in Houston.
Alonzo learned on Monday by accident. He called a relative to break the news about the two deaths, which he was told about by a cousin.
“He said, ‘Your cousins lied to you because your dad and them are right here with me,”‘ Horton told The Birmingham (Ala.) News. “I didn’t know what to say.”
Footnotes
Not good news for an Oklahoma team relying too much on tailback Adrian Peterson: UCLA held Rice to only 192 rushing yards, 124 fewer than the Owls averaged in leading the nation last year. … Anyone else notice that Ohio’s Dion Byrum laid the ball on the ground after his two dramatic interceptions for TDs in the upset of Pitt? The week before, new coach Frank Solich gave him a warning after he returned a fumble for an interception at Northwestern and started celebrating at the 30. … Penn State has drawn fewer than 100,000 fans two weeks in a row.
Final two after two weeks
(or, good luck, Big Ten)
Ohio State, Michigan and Iowa all lost Saturday, which makes odds long that any of them will be in the BCS title game in January. How the eventual final two fared after their first two games in recent years:
1998: Tennessee 2-0, Florida State 2-0
1999: Florida State 2-0, Virginia Tech 2-0
2000: Oklahoma 2-0, Florida State 2-0
2001: Miami 2-0, Nebraska 2-0
2002: Ohio State 2-0, Miami 2-0
2003: Louisiana State 2-0, Oklahoma 2-0
2004: Southern California 2-0, Oklahoma 2-0
Staff writer John Henderson can be reached at 303-820-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
