A few things for Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick to consider while coach Charlie Weis twists in the employment wind these next three weeks:
• Barring a transformation into Knute Rockne, Weis will miss a BCS bowl for the third consecutive year. At 6-3, the Irish must have nine wins and reach the top 14 in the BCS rankings to qualify. The Irish didn’t receive a single vote in Sunday’s coaches poll, and next are at No. 8 Pitt and No. 25 Stanford sandwiched around a home finale against a Connecticut team that nearly beat undefeated Cincinnati.
• One reason Swarbrick kept Weis last year was the offense he would have this year. Notre Dame has its best quarterback in a generation in Jimmy Clausen, two of the best receivers in its history in Golden Tate and Michael Floyd and an NFL-quality tight end in Kyle Rudolph. If this offensive guru can’t get into a BCS bowl with this group, when can he?
• After Saturday’s 23-21 loss to Navy, Weis is not only the first Irish coach to lose twice to the Midshipmen since Joe Kuharich in 1960-61, he’s the first to lose to them twice at home. Ever.
• Yet, what if the Irish win those three and finish 9-3? It’s doubtful that would catapult them into the top 14, but they would make the Gator Bowl. A win over a quality opponent would mean a 10-3 record and reason for Swarbrick to consider his options.
Or he could just turn on the Navy film.
It was the kind of colossal ineptitude that put Weis in the crosshairs of his subway alumni to begin with and on my hot seat of the week. Notre Dame went 2-for-6 in the red zone, missed two field goals, Clausen fumbled at the Navy 1 and was sacked for a safety.
Don’t blame the offense for Weis’ woes, though. The Irish defense is dreadful — again. After Notre Dame held Navy to 172 rushing yards in last year’s win, defensive coordinator Jon Tenuta didn’t change a darn thing.
Said Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo after the game, “I think the one thing that helped us — and I really hope this doesn’t come across wrong — was last year, because we knew that they’d line up the same way.”
Bad time for backups.
Now you know why coaches threaten to imprison players who hit their starting quarterbacks in practice. When Iowa’s Ricky Stanzi went down with a sprained ankle, so did his 17-3 career record.
Backup James Vandenburg, who had thrown all of three passes in his career, went 9-of-27 for 82 yards and Iowa gained only 132 yards on eight possessions in the 17-10 loss to Northwestern.
“To see a quarterback on the turf hurting,” offensive tackle Bryan Bulaga said after the game, “it’s a little bit of a blow to your confidence.”
Stanzi is expected to miss the remaining two games at 10th-ranked Ohio State on Saturday and against Minnesota.
Oklahoma dropped to 5-4 for the most losses in Bob Stoops’ 11 years there after freshman backup Landry Jones threw a school-record five interceptions at Nebraska. The Sooners crossed the Cornhusker 20 only once.
However, fear not, backups. Cincinnati 6-foot sophomore Zach Collaros has a quarterback rating of 210.2 in place of Tony Pike. Collaros, who led Steubenville (Ohio) High School to a 30-0 record, is 76-of-100 for 1,229 yards with 10 TDs and one interception in three starts.
Another SEC boo-boo.
Need a job? Become an SEC official. There should be plenty of openings soon. Days after Florida coach Urban Meyer was fined $30,000 for criticizing officials, LSU coach Les Miles had to bite his lip after replays and a footprint apparently showed LSU cornerback Patrick Peterson picked off Alabama’s Greg McElroy in the fourth quarter.
The referee didn’t immediately make a call, then his mike went out halfway through ruling it an incompletion. The replay official asked CBS for clips from every angle and, of course, none was conclusive enough to overturn it.
Alabama then drove for a clinching field goal.
One-liner.
If Colorado’s offensive line is supposedly improved, why are Miami of Ohio and Washington State the only schools that are giving up more than the Buffs’ 4.0 sacks per game?
