Before I begin, let me just say congratulations to the U.S. Naval Air Force Academy. As always, they played with intensity, heart, and passion. Paul Johnson Troy Calhoun had an excellent gameplan in place to take advantage of our mistakes and put the Midshipmen Falcons in a position to win the game. They executed their offense to perfection, and their defense never gave up despite being completely outmanned, and even ended up delivering the final blow blow after blow. I couldn’t be happier for Navy Air Force. The streak had to end begin sooner or later, and by God, this was the best possible season for it to happen.

I’m also proud of our fans for applauding the Naval Air Force Academy after the game. It’s not easy to cheer for the team that came into your stadium and beat you in triple overtime like a red headed stepchild. It was heartening to re-affirm that Notre Dame fans are familiar with our longstanding friendship with the Naval Air Force Academy and respectful of the young men who will be serving our country very shortly.

Finally, giving the Ball to Robert Hughes in our first goal line situation was a class move. I wish he had been more featured in our gameplan, but at least he got in the end zone once for his brother. Watching the team rally around him after that play certainly spoke to the character of our football team.

Let’s begin, shall we?

[rant]

I’ve officially lost faith in decided that we have to fire Charlie. Sure, he can take a veteran team with sound fundamentals and draw up a super genius offensive gameplan, but who is going to develop these players into veterans? After nine ten games, we’ve seen no improvement on the offensive side of the ball. None. In fact, we’ve actually regressed at certain most positions.

Now let’s name names.

John Latina. How is this guy still on the staff? Does he have compromising pictures of Charlie? He’s never produced a line that has lived up to expectations, and this season has been a joke. We have a very talented group up front that is somehow the worst line ever assembled in college football. Navy Air Force had 5 13 sacks prior to playing Notre Dame, for the entire season, yet they were able to break through and harass Evan Sharpley Jimmy Clausen. The run game, which looked good on paper, was pathetic. When you outweigh the opposing line by at least 50 pounds per man, and all you can muster is 3-6 yard scampers before the entire line falls down and the play blows up, something is very, very wrong. Latina has got to go.

Sam Young. You were the highest ranked lineman in your recruiting class. Five stars, top 10 national player, recruited by every major program. You make the rest of our very talented line look small. You’ve been a starter for 22 games. You’re lined up against a 5’4” 175 pound Naval Air Force Cadet who was not offered any Division I scholarships… and you get outmanned.

John Sullivan. You’re a 5th year senior and a team captain, but we can’t snap out of the shotgun because of you.

Evan Sharpley Jimmy Clausen. Throw the ball out of bounds for God’s sake!

Asaph Schwapp. You are the worst fullback in the history of the world. Where are you going? What’s going through your head? Every time you’re supposed to lead block, you run off in some random direction and either block the wrong guy or totally whiff on someone. In the 4th quarter, I saw you get knocked flat on your back by a guy who must have weighed literally 80-100 pounds less than you! Your arms are bigger than my waist, and despite all this “pound-for-pound the strongest guy ever” talk, you’re somehow a giant pussy.

Luke Schmidt. How bad are you if you can’t see the field over Asaph? You need to quit football.

The linebackers. Were you guys even on the field? Every tackle was by the d-line or the safeties. Why is Trevor Laws making tackles 15 yards downfield? We should just put 4 more safeties out there, because you guys are just nonexistent.

Corwin Brown. You may be A number 1 and Duke of New York, but you [still] can’t defend the option for dick.

Whoever it was that didn’t dive on the football after Walls knocked it loose in the 4th quarter. If you dive on it, instead of slowing down to try to scoop it up and score, the game is over. Was it Bruton? I wanna say McNeill, but why would he have been all the way over on that side of the field? It certainly wasn’t a linebacker, because they weren’t even on the field. Anyone wanna help me out with this one?

Travis Thomas. The only thing you’re good for is the occasional holding or personal foul on special teams. If we ever need a thug to jam his fingers into a guy’s throat, we’ll let you back in the game, but until then, stay the hell off the field. You’re a poor representative of our university and you suck balls on offense, defense, and special teams.

Tommy Z. You’re still cool.

Charlie Weis. Where do I even begin? Did he have a stroke on Saturday? 4th and 15 on your own 30, down by a touchdown with 7 minutes to go… and you go for it? A 15 yard fake field goal run… with your slow-ass quarterback no less? Going for it instead of kicking the game winning field goal as time expires? Did you even know what the score was at that point? Did you want to go to overtime? Kick the god damn field goal you moron! Aldridge and Allen are carrying the offense up and down the field, but when the game is on the line, you put in Travis Thomas to run the same stupid off-tackle run that is virtually guaranteed of going for negative yardage? Travis Thomas is terrible and that play never, ever, ever works! How about giving it to Schwapp on 4th and 2. That dumb sonofabitch has NEVER run for 2 yards! What were you thinking? Were you trying to lose this game?! When are you going to realize that you don’t have the luxury of winning with cutesy super genius calls any more? You need to stress fundamentals, not gameplan wrinkles, intricate personnel packages, and trick plays. Your team sucks, and while it’s noble for you to take the blame, you have got to realize that it’s not your gameplans that need work. The more you desperately tinker with them, the worse we get. It’s the players! Stop spending your time playing chess with your opponents and teach Asaph Schwapp how to block for Christ sake!

I’m [completely] off the Charlie bandwagon. The season is almost over and the team has shown no signs of improvement. That’s almost unheard of. Even the worst teams get slightly better just by virtue of the fact that they’ve been playing for an entire season. We’re still the worst offense in the country by a wide margin, and that just doesn’t make sense considering the talent we’ve assembled. Sure, they’re all very young, but the depleted roster excuse only takes you so far. No matter how bad you are, you should still improve over the course of a season. To put it another way, I’m not really concerned with the record. We all looked at Ty’s recruiting and saw this year coming a long time ago. I’m more concerned with the way in which we achieved our record. Expectations were unbelievably low, and Charlie still missed them by a mile.

I’m not saying we should fire him immediately, as that might ruin our tremendous incoming recruiting class. His BCS bowl appearances and excellent recruiting have bought him through the halfway point of next season to prove himself. Unfortunately, I don’t think he’ll turn it around by then. The season is almost over, and he has shown no evidence that he can develop raw talent. Why should we have any cause to hope that another few months will be enough for him to develop these guys? In any case, we need to start looking for a replacement right now. We have to be prepared, lest we end up repeating the bumblef*ck that ensued in the wake of Ty’s firing. We have to have a plan in place this time.

[/rant]

He may not have what it takes to deliver a national title, but Notre Dame still owes Charlie a great deal. He infused new life into a program on the brink of collapse by bringing us to two straight BCS bowls and has brought in three truly elite recruiting classes. Assuming the current class holds together, it may be the best haul in Notre Dame history. When he arrived, nobody wanted to coach at Notre Dame. When we fire him next year, he’s leaving behind a very Florida-esque situation. The next coach will inherit an unbelievable stable of under-developed talent. In short, it will be much easier to find a coach this time. We owe the big guy, and whether or not he pans out at Notre Dame, I wish him the best of luck. Oh, and trust me, no one wants me to be wrong about Charlie than I do.

Go Irish. Beat Air Force Duke. Or Don’t. Whatever.