ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The first guy off the field was Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis. Michigan had just blasted his team 38-0, and already he was trying to put as much distance as possible between himself and this game. So while his players were back at midfield in a stupefied huddle, their coach bolted toward the Michigan Stadium exit.
As the Irish sulked at midfield, Michigan's players caught up to Weis and left the field with him. Surrounded by Wolverines, Weis disappeared into the tunnel and didn't stop until he reached the door to his locker room -- where he stayed until every Notre Dame player and every Notre Dame assistant coach finally walked past.
|
|
| Charlie Weis and Jimmy Claussen lead an offense that is last in the nation in three categories. (US Presswire) |
"I was looking into their eyes to see if anyone had thrown in the towel," he said.
Weis says he saw no sign of surrender, which almost makes what happened Saturday seem worse. Does that mean Notre Dame lost 38-0 to a bad Michigan team ... and Notre Dame was trying?
Notre Dame is 0-3 for the second time in program history, with five straight losses by a combined margin of 136 points dating to last season. Notre Dame is brutally bad, unlikely to win anytime in the near future. Weis acknowledged as much, wondering how badly Michigan State might beat his team this week now that the Irish have followed their season-opening, 33-3 loss to Georgia Tech with a 31-10 loss to Penn State and this stinker to Michigan -- a game Weis won't force his players to watch on film.
"We won't be watching tape on the game," Weis said. "It doesn't make any difference what happened in the game because one game is worse than the next. ... What if next week we're talking about 41-0 (against Michigan State)?"
Weis seemed almost shocked by how badly his team played. He probably wasn't the only one. Until Saturday, Notre Dame's abject awfulness had been overshadowed by Michigan's own struggles. Michigan was the fifth-ranked team that lost its season opener at home to tiny Appalachian State. Michigan was then destroyed at home by unranked Oregon. Until Saturday, the demise of Michigan was the biggest story in college football, and on Saturday, the Wolverines played without their senior quarterback, injured Chad Henne. They are one-dimensional on offense, slow on defense and inept on special teams.
And the Wolverines trashed Notre Dame.
Notre Dame was garbage. First play of the game, Notre Dame shot-gunned the snap over the backfield for a 17-yard loss. It only got worse, and that's a literal statement, because late in the fourth quarter, the Irish had minus-40 yards rushing.
The Irish entered the game dead last in the country in three offensive stats -- rushing yards (minus-4.0 per game), total offense (133) and sacks allowed (7.5) -- and surely broadened the deficit in each category by finishing this game with minus-6 rushing yards and 79 yards of total offense, and by allowing eight sacks.
"We're not doing anything consistently good," Weis said. "Let's call it like it is -- we're three games into the season and we don't have a niche. We've got to go find one."
Weis said the Irish will literally start over on Sunday, returning to the first day of training camp and re-installing everything from scratch. Instead of watching game film, lifting weights and running, Notre Dame's players will practice Sunday. For four hours.
