Let’s take a look at the upcoming schedule for the Notre Dame football team, shall we?

Sat, Sep 8 at (14) Penn State
Sat, Sep 15 at Michigan
Sat, Sep 22 Michigan State
Sat, Sep 29 at Purdue
Sat, Oct 6 at (13) UCLA
Sat, Oct 13 Boston College
Sat, Oct 20 (1) USC
Sat, Nov 3 Navy
Sat, Nov 10 Air Force
Sat, Nov 17 Duke
Sat, Nov 24 at Stanford

Conceivably, Notre Dame could go winless up until November 3rd.

I’m a huge Notre Dame fan. Have been since I was a teenager. However, the fact that they could go 0-8 this fall absolutely enthralls me. Why? Because they deserve it. I want to like Charlie Weis. I really do. But there’s a certain smugness about the guy. I get the feeling he thinks, “I don’t need this job. I deserve this job.” To me he seems like the kind of guy who would say, “Do you know who I am?? I’ve got three Super Bowl wins with the New England Patriots! What have you got?? A sandwich maybe? Can I have it?”

What irks me is that this guy got a ten year extension halfway through his 2nd year of coaching. Tyrone Willingham gets the boot after one great season and two mediocre seasons, but was practically in the same position as Weis midway through his second season and never got so much as a whiff of a contract extension. And you give Weis ten years? Okay. Georgia Tech pummeled the Irish 33-3 this past weekend and I can almost guarantee that Penn State will not be so nice this upcoming Saturday. Weis is finally playing with his guys, not Willingham’s leftovers. Let’s see what he can do. If he does go 0-8 or 1-7, what will he get at the end of the season? A pat on the back? “Better luck next year, coach. We believe in you.”

Willingham’s Huskies put the smackdown on Syracuse this weekend. Not a huge win, but a win nonetheless. They play Boise State this weekend as well as Cal and USC later in the season. I know that I am hoping for a lot, but it sure would be nice to see Willingham have a successful run this season — just to give a bit of the middle finger to his former employers.

A coworker asked me today if I would even care about this if Willingham were not African-American. I plainly told him the truth. No. I wouldn’t care. But Willingham was the first African-American coach of one of the most prestigious university football teams in the nation. He had two mediocre seasons, true. Whether that deserves the boot or not, I can not say. But his record was almost equivalent to Weis’s at the time that Weis got the contract extension. Some could say that Weis carried more weight (figuratively) what with the Super Bowl rings. But I would like to think that the head honchos at ND were a little smarter than to throw so much wampum behind a guy who had yet to really prove himself. Maybe not.

Perhaps you did deserve this job, Chuck. But after this season, you may deserve another one.