It's the most wonderful time of the year.

I'm working on the season breakdown for the Fightin' Irish, but I wanted some distance from the disappointing season before I finish it, to try to make sure my analysis is not tainted by my personal disappointment in our final record.

Lucky for me, it's bowl season, which means the same thing it means every year: BCS controversy. So, I'm setting up my annual playoff bracket which I do every year. It's all broken down below, but the most important aspects are the inclusion of at least 2 non-BCS teams, so that the Hawaiis of the world get their shot at the MNC.

Here is how my system would play out for this season, with my picks (or actual winners) in bold:

Week 1: Championship Week
- require all major BCS conferences to have a championship game
- this is the first round of the playoffs

ACC Championship game: Virginia Tech vs. Boston College

Big East Championship game: West Virginia vs. Connecticut

Big Ten Championship game: Ohio State vs. Illinois

Big 12 Championship game: Oklahoma vs. Missouri

Pac-10 Championship game: Southern Cal vs. Arizona State

SEC Championship Game: LSU vs. Tennessee

Independence Bowl: Independent/BCS at-large Hawaii vs. Non-BCS Boise State

Capital One Bowl: BCS at-large Kansas vs. Non-BCS Brigham Young

Second Round
- played over Christmas

Cotton Bowl: SEC Champion vs. Big 12 Champion
LSU vs. Oklahoma

Gator Bowl: Independence Bowl Champion vs. Big Ten Champion
Hawaii vs. Ohio State

Fiesta Bowl: ACC Champion vs. Capital One Bowl Champion
Virginia Tech vs. Kansas

Orange Bowl: Big East Champion vs. Pac-10 Champion
West Virginia vs. Southern Cal

Third Round
- played over New Year's

Rose Bowl: Gator Bowl Champion vs. Orange Bowl Champion
Hawaii vs. Southern Cal

Sugar Bowl: Cotton Bowl Champion vs. Fiesta Bowl Champion
LSU vs. Kansas

Championship game (played the week after New Year's):

Rose Bowl Champion vs. Sugar Bowl Champion
LSU vs. Hawaii

This system allows the remaining bowl games to remain in place, comprising the teams that are bowl eligible that did not get into the playoffs. Under this system, the only people who currently play in bowls but will not are the losers of the Conference championship games, and a couple of the fringe teams that don't really deserve bowls for a .500 season.

The games are all played during traditional bowl times, except some New Year's bowls are being moved to Christmas. The other bowls could be used to fill up the season between Championship week and the second round.

There are no complaints from non-BCS schools, as they get two slots (from five conferences). There may be some complaints about who gets the at-large BCS slots, but they can't complain too much, because they didn't win their conference.

It maintains traditional bowl matchups in most seasons (SEC-Big 12 Cotton; Big 10-Pac-10 Rose, etc.).

And, most importantly, it gets decided on the field.

Now we just need to make it happen.

ND Heisman Candidate?

I've heard some rumblings on the sports networks lately about the possibility of a defensive lineman ala LSU's Glenn Dorsey or Virginia's Chris Long being considered for a Heisman invitation. A pair of defensive linemen in a year where no offensive player has stepped up to the plate to claim their stake to the Heisman. Intrigued by this possibility, I thought I'd compare some statistics.

Which of these three players would you invite to the Heisman ceremony?

#1:
35 solo tackles, 26 assists, 61 total tackles
11.5 tackles for loss for 48 yards
6 sacks for 40 yards
3 pass breakups, 4 QB hurries

#2:
30 solo tackles, 39 assists, 69 total tackles
17 tackles for loss for 104 yards
12 sacks for 104 yards
1 interception, 7 pass breakups
21 QB hurries
1 forced fumble, 1 blocked kick

#3:
47 solo tackles, 57 assists, 104 total tackles
7 tackles for loss for 36 yards
3 sacks for 23 yards
5 pass breakups, 6 QB hurries
2 fumble recoveries, 2 blocked kicks

Looking at the numbers, it's clear that the second two lineman stand head and shoulders above the first, and the numer of tackles and turnovers by the third candidate are truly impressive for a defensive lineman.

So who would you invite?

The #1 candidate is the highly touted LSU lineman Glenn Dorsey, the leader in support for Heisman votes for s D-lineman.

The #2 candidate is Chris Long out of Virginia, who is clearly diruptive in the passing game, but not exactly dominant against the run.

The #3 candidate is our very own Trevor Laws, who has been shut out of this discussion due to his team's dismal record.

I submit that Trevor Laws is quite simply the most dominant defensive lineman in the country, and that if anyone should be invited to New York off the defensive line, it should be him.

Just a little more support for my contention that the Heisman goes to the best player on the #1 team at the end of November, not the truly best player in college football.

I'm done for the year.

Oh, I'll post evey now and then, and I'll take my lumps from the schadenfreude obsessed ND haters, but as far as this season goes, I'm checking out.

This display of football on the field has been quite simply pathetic, and despite there being some talent on its way up the ranks in the underclassmen and incoming recruits, there is little from this season that shows that the Weis regime is more than a 1-trick pony, great recruiters who can't develop talent.

I hope the offseason shows that that isn't the case, and that Weis and Co. are able to develop this young talent into something that resembles a competitive football team.

However, I hope that the powers that be at this University start examining that short list of potential coaching replacements, because as much as I like Coach Weis as a person and as a representative of Notre Dame, next year is quite simply make-or-break for him. And I have no idea whether he can turn this team around over such a short span.

The delusional Notre Dame fan in myself believes he can, but that nagging realist has some real concerns over being able to compete against the USCs and Michigans of the world anytime in the near future.

Let's review the damage so far:

9 losses for the first time in history

Started 0-5 for the first time in history, having never started worse than 0-3 before.

Lost 6th straight home game to an opponent (MSU) for first time in history.

Worst home opening loss in history (33-3 to Georgia Tech)

Worst home loss in history (38-0 to USC)

I could go on and on, but this list of historical lows is positively Willingham-esque. The only positive I can take from this season is that we have talent coming in. It could be worse - if Willingham were still coaching, this season would probably have gone completely winless, with no positives in recruiting in sight. But I digress.

Now, keep in mind, I'm not calling for Weis' head. And I love the Weis family, and hope it never comes to that. I'm just saying that at 1-9, with what is undisputedly the worst season in Notre Dame history starting to wrap up, maybe we should start thinking about that conversation.

As for this week, I'm going to limit my posting, but I think we squeak out a win against 1-9 Duke. And, yes, I sad squeak out. This Duke team is a team that based on talent alone we should be able to beat by 30 with our second string.

But this year's team is like Humpty Dumpty.

All the king's horses and all the kings men...

Perspective

I needed a bit of perspective to get myself moving this morning, and an e-mail from an old friend provided that this morning. I thought I'd share the bit that cheered me up:

"It took the catastrophic, systemic, once in a generation (and possibly, and God willing, once in a lifetime) IMPLOSION of Notre Dame for Navy to manage to snap that 43 game losing streak--in 3 overtimes."

The world still feels... wrong... but at least the room has stopped spinning.

History Lesson

I just posted this over on NDNation (my first post there in months - I hate their new elitist board system, where you have to become one of the "cool" kids to post on Rock's House). It was in response to someone's question about how past ND coaches who won champonships had fared in their worst seasons. I didn't do an exhaustive research job, but I think I pretty much covered all the bases:

*****

These are the worst records that National Championship coaches have posted at Notre Dame during their tenures, as well as the worst records they posted in their careers:

Rockne: 5-4 (.556)
Leahy: 4-4-1 (.500)
Parseghian: 8-3 (.727) at Notre Dame, 0-9 at Northwestern (1957)
Devine: 7-4 (.636) at Notre Dame, 5-6 at Missouri
Holtz: 5-6 (.454) at Notre Dame, 4-7 at Minnesota (before ND), 0-11 at South Carolina (post-ND)

With Weis staring down the barrel of (at best) a 4-8 (.333) season, there is no historical precedence at Notre Dame of this level of failure prior to winning a National Championship. Only Parseghian has a worse record in his coaching career before ND, during his time at Northwestern.

It took Parseghian almost a decade to go from 0-9 at Northwestern to a NC at Notre Dame.

However, I still hear a lot of folks whispering about 2008 and 2009 like they are some sort of magical talismam that will "return us to glory."

I like Coach Weis, and am willing to give him more time, but I'm not sure if this ship can be turned around that quickly.

For perspective, other turnarounds (by the same coach) from loser to champion include:
Bobby Ross: First year 2-8, then 3-9, then two years later 11-0-1 (1990 Georgia Tech)
Paul Dietzel: 3-7 to 11-0 in two years (1957 LSU)
John McKay: 4-6 to 11-0 in first three years (USC)
Howard Schnellenberger: 5-6 to 11-1 in 4 years (Miami)
Woody Hayes: 4-5 to 10-0 in 2 years, 4-3-2 to 10-0 in 3 years (Ohio State)
Don James: 5-6 to 12-0 in 15 years (Washington)
Bobby Bowden: 4-7 to 12-1 in 19 years (Florida State)

Only Bobby Ross seems to have pulled off a turnaround of this magnitude, and he had his losing seasons in his first two years at the school. Going from winner, to loser, and back to winner has only been done by Woody Hayes.

Sure, there's a first time for everything, but if history teaches us anything, the type of turnaround we are hoping for would be unprecedented in college football (modern era - I was too lazy to go through every single championship...)

*****

So, with that information in hand, do you all think, as I still do (although my confidence is fading fast), that Coach Weis is the right coach for the Notre Dame football program?

Dumbest. Call. Ever.

In the history of Notre Dame football, there has never been a more egregious mistake on the part of the coaches than not kicking the 41-yard field goal with 45 seconds left to attempt to ice the game for the Irish. Nothing Davie, or Faust, or even the Coach Who Shall Not Be Named-ingham has ever approached the hubris and utter ignorance of the decision not to kick a field goal in yesterday's game.

And when asked why he didn't even attempt the kick, Coach Weis said that they needed four more yards to have confidence in the kick. Four yards. Twelve feet. That's 111 feet instead of 123 feet, not even a 10% difference between a 41-yarder and a 37-yarder. And he had a kicker that made a 48-yarder just scant weeks ago against UCLA. Then Coach Weis talked about the wind factoring in. Bullshit, I say. I was at the game, and the wind was negligible. Hell, if the wind was so damn important to his decision making, why not defer and choose to kick with the wind in the fourth quarter when he won the toss at the beginning of the game?

I love Coach Weis' resume, his recruiting ability, and think he is one of the best Notre Dame men around off the field. Paraphrasing Dr. White, he is the perfect Notre Dame football coach from Sunday to Friday. And he showed that again this week with the way he handled the tragedy in Robert Hughes' family.

But on the football field Saturday, he really stunk up the joint.

And, having listened to Coach Weis' press conferences for so long, I think I realized why he struggles sometimes with making the right call on the field.

He overanalyzes and micromanages the game.

I'm amazed he doesn't sit up n the press box with practice and game film, a calculator, slide rule, and the statistics from every college football game in the history of the world and call plays from there.

"We go by what we see." He says. In practice. On tape. By the numbers.

In the pros, this is the only way to call a game, where the margin for error is so small and the players on both sides execute everything at such a high level.

But in the college game (DRINK! Thank you, BGS) the odds and practice tape and schemes only get you so far. At some time, in the words of Coach Holtz, YOU GOTTA BELIEVE. Believe, not because the down and distance and game situation call for this specific play in your telephone book sized playbook. Believe, not because your starting kicker has made only 7.435% of the field goals from this hashmark at this specific yard line in this stadium at this temperature and wind speed in practice situations. Believe in your players. Believe in your coaches. Believe in the Notre Dame family 80,000 strong sitting in the stands.

Most importantly, Coach Weis needs to believe in a little thing we call the luck of the Irish.

In Notre Dame football, I don't care how bad the kicker is, when they line up for that 41 yard field goal attempt, and a hush falls over the crowd as 80,000 Notre Dame students, alums, and subway alums silently pray a Hal Mary, special things happen.

Like in 1993, when Shawn Wooden believed that the Seminole's desperation heave would come his way to seal the victory.

Like in 1992, when Rick Mirer refused to stop believing as he scrambled through the snow and found Reggie Brooks in the back of the endzone.

Like in 1988, when a haughty Miami team entered Notre Dame Stadium with the swagger of champions and left with a black eye and a 31-30 loss because Pat Terrell believed he would knock down that pass.

Believing like those young kids from a small midwestern Catholic school who rolled into West Point in 1913 and stunned the vaunted Black Knights with their untested aerial attack.

Notre Dame's football success is built, like other football powerhouses, on recruiting and training the best players in the country. But what separates Notre Dame's 11 national championships from the rest of the pack is a willingness to believe in triumph against all odds, believing in the players who represent Our Lady, believing in divine intervention, and believing in the luck of the Irish.

But I don't think Coach Weis puts much stock into such things. He breaks every play down to its minutiae, ignoring the greater glory of Notre Dame football.

We didn't beat Navy 43 straight times by playing it safe.

And you know what? I saw a two teams on that field yesterday that had that belief in something special. But I only saw one head coach who believed it.

Those Midshipmen of Navy struggled mightily as the game wore on, believing as they do every single year that this year, THIS would be the year that they finally beat the Fighting Irish. But as the game clock wore down to :45 seconds, the Navy players and fans had a moment's pause, remembering all to well the numerous last minute feld goals that had iced the game for the Irish.

And when Coach Weis opted to go for it on 4th and 8, the Navy faithful KNEW they would emerge victorious. You could feel it in that stadium, that this WAS gong to be the year that Navy beat Notre Dame. And then Navy's Ram Vela pulled a Waterboy-esque flying sack of Evan Sharpley to kill Notre Dame's chances at victory and drain the belief from the Irish faithful who were stunned that we didn't kick the ball.

The players gamed on, forcing three overtimes before finally being unable to match Navy's clockwork offense on a short field. But Weis had not believed.

Kudos to the Naval Academy, and all of their players, students, alumni, and all Naval officers and seamen across the world. Like every Navy game, they fight to the end of every game, just like they fight to the end of every battle. I did my best to congratulate the Naval officers I saw yesterday after the game. They believed in their guys, and earned a long-awaited victory.

But shame on Coach Weis, who let a golden opportunity pass him by.

[Note: I'm still on the Weis bandwagon, and think the program will be fine long-term, but I can't stomach his playcalling. I believe, as I've stated before, that he needs to hand off the reins of the offense to someone else, and focus on his head coaching duties ONLY.]

Bump in the road

Life has once again gotten in the way of my football obsession, but I will be drafting a full postgame breakdown of Navy later this weekend (I was far too upset to blog about the last game, against Those Who Shall Not Be Named).

I did want to do my part to send my condolences to Robert and the whole Hughes family, as they deal with their tragic loss. The prayers of myself and the whole Notre Dame family are with them as they deal with the loss of Earl Hughes.

Go Irish! Beat the Middies!