What's Wrong with Notre Dame?

de-ba-cle [dey bah kuhl] - noun
1. a general breakup or dispersion; sudden downfall or rout.
2. a complete collapse or failure.

That pretty much sums up the Fighting Irish’s season right now as they have started 0-5 for the first time in school history. And that is a very long history. So how did it come to this? After consecutive BCS bowl games how did Notre Dame go from a team back on the rise to a season long punch line? A lot is being made of Charlie Weis’s struggles this year, his third year, especially because his predecessor Tyrone Willingham was fired when his third season was not nearly this bad. So is Weis to blame? What about the overzealous Athletic Department which didn’t give Willingham a fair chance but then Weis a 10 year extension before he finished his first year?

Always Wanted a Big Name: I have always felt the ND jumped the gun when they fired Tyrone Willingham. I thought he was doing a good job and finally rebuilding the stable of talented players after the disaster that was the Bob Davie era. But Notre Dame’s administration always wanted a big name coach. Willingham only got the job because bigger named coaches turned down the job. So when Charlie Weis became available after his Super Bowl runs with the Patriots the alumni and AD couldn’t help themselves. Nothing has given me more pleasure than seeing Willingham succeed at Washington. I am still a die-hard Notre Dame fan, but that was one move I was never proud of.

Graduation Sucks: Aside from the high profile names of Brady Quinn, Jeff Samardzija, and Darius Walker the Fightin’ Irish also graduated much of its offensive line and defensive front seven. The turnover rate left Charlie Weis with no choice but to start a lot of young and unproven players out of his highly touted recruiting classes. The large wave of youngsters has yet to click and has been the biggest contributor to their slow start.

Backwards Schedule: Notre Dame always plays one of the most difficult in all of College Football. Even though they always play a couple of the service academies they easily make up for it by consistently scheduling the likes of USC, Michigan, BC, and other Top 25 teams. Now if the Irish had started with the end of their schedule first (Stanford, Duke, Air Force, Navy) they may have had a chance to pick up a few wins and some confidence. Instead it looks as though they could go 0-8 with UCLA, BC, and USC in the next three weeks. This is just one of those circumstances that conspired against them this year.

The Lost Recruiting Class: This is probably the most under looked factor contributing to the Fighting Irish’s struggles this year. When Tyrone Willingham was fired and Charlie Weis hired he was still coaching for the Patriots. Weis helped lead the Patriots all the way to the Super Bowl and therefore didn’t really begin recruiting til mid-February. That head-start giving to every other major school for the high class recruits hurt the class that should currently be coming into its own. Without the stud players from that group coming in as juniors and red-shirt sophomores right now there is a serious experience gap. That gap is a missing building block and as a result this year we are definitely taking our lumps.

Those are the reasons. They are not excuses, there is no excuse for the worst season in school history, but they are an effort to understand things. The 2007 college football season has been a perfect storm of mistakes, mishaps, and unfortunate circumstances for Notre Dame. Some have been beyond their control; some have been entirely of their own doing. But the end result is the Fighting Irish are looking at an 0-8 start and a 4-8 finish at best. This is a season that will test loyalty, but I’ll still be here next year when the Irish make their assault on the Top 25.