Someting is going awry in South Bend, Indiana.  Charlie Weis is doing something wrong with such a storyed program.  The problem is the program itself.

Notre Dame is such a high standing academic institution.  That is the problem.  You can't get a brain dead offensive lineman that does two things well, blocking and fishing or  defensive players who would run through a wall to tackle his own mother, won't cut it at a high academic institution like Notre Dame.

The problem with some division one college football schools is that they set their academic standards above what the NCAA has set their standards at.  Places like Notre Dame, Stanford, and an SEC school like South Carolina (I thought football players didn't go to class in the SEC) they will continue to be bottom feeders when it comes to the recruiting trail when they can only get 3 star defensive prospects when top schools like USC, Florida, and Texas clober them with 5 star defensive recruits.

These schools will always turn out smart quarterbacks like Brady Quinn and Trent Edwards, but their is a problem with everyone of these schools defense.  These schools will always be defensively inferior when it comes to playing schools like LSU and Florida.  Look what happened to Notre Dame last year in the Sugar bowl.  They couldn't compete with LSU's speed on offense because there defense was suspect to being shredded by fast teams.  Earlier in the year they got destroyed by Michigan and the speed of Mario Manningham.

If you relax the standards of academics you will get some footballs players in the like stated above will run through a wall to make a play.  You need guys to close the gaps, swarm to the ball and gang tackle anyone that moves.

Something has got to change at Notre Dame, because when Notre Dame is good, it is a good year in college football, because every Notre Dame fan will watch the game, and everyone who hates Notre Dame will watch the game to see them lose.

Just a thought,

Mark