I'm not exactly the most knowledgeable college football fan in the world. Unfortunately when it comes to the subject my favorite team is actually the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. I can't even remember the exact reason why I like them in the first place. It seemed liked a good idea way back when Lou Holtz rejuvenated the program and brought them back into national prominence from the depths of Scrubville. Tim Brown, Rocket Ismael, Ricky Williams and Jerome Bettis were so easy to like. Maybe I simply chose to root for the team that so many loved to hate. Maybe I enjoyed the movie Rudy a tad too much. Maybe I just didn't know any better. Whatever the case may be this latest debacle is downright embarrassing.

In case you missed it or were asleep all weekend, Notre Dame lost 46-44 to Navy in triple overtime on Saturday. This just happened to end a losing streak that dates back to the presidential administration of John F. Kennedy.

Speaking of a Bay of Pigs...what exactly is head coach Charlie Weis doing? Isn't he part of the Bill Parcells coaching tree? Perhaps it's the Bill Belichick coaching tree that I'm thinking about. Then again isn't that one and the same? If Israelis and Palestinians are technically inter-connected after all these centuries, then shouldn't the same hold true for any coach... that used to coach... under any coach... that once coached... under Bill Parcells? Dang... if I'm confused then maybe you are too. At this moment I'd settle for a disciple from the Rich Kotite coaching tree.

Anyway, back to the portly Charlie Weis. I thought he was supposed to be a great coach. I also thought Notre Dame was allegedly an institution of higher learning that blamed the flaws of its football team on rigorous academic standards. If everyone in South Bend is so smart then how in heaven's name did they hire a nincompoop like Weis? Didn't he take Winning Football 101 back at Parcellsichick U.? Sounds more like Notre Dumb to me.

With approximately 40 or so seconds left in regulation the score was tied 28-28. Notre Dumb had the ball on the Navy 25-yard line after being stopped on 3rd and long. Rather than kick a potential game winning field goal of  slightly more than 40 yards, the coaching guru Weis elected to go for the first down instead of go for the win. What!?!? In that situation I think you should make an attempt at 3 points even with a mediocre kicker. Why the hell is he on the team in the first place?.  Keep in mind that the kicker already has a career long of 48 yards. Needless to say the Notre Dame quarterback got sacked and the rest is history. Well... at least it finally changed history...for Navy that is.

I understand that the Irish were already a despicable 1-7 entering the game but this is ridiculous. There's a reason why Navy hadn't beaten the Irish since long before the Vietnam War was close to ending. I think it has something to do with the fact that high school kids who actually want to play top-level collegiate football do not apply to the Naval Academy anymore. Apparently Charlie Weis is having trouble out-recruiting a military school that hasn't figured prominently in the collegiate football scene since the long gone days of Roger Staubach. Either that or he has no idea what he's doing on the sidelines. Personally I think it's quite a bit of both.

The Notre Dame athletic director needs to seriously consider firing Charlie Weis' under-performing ample arse. If they could run former head coach Ty Willingam out of town then what exactly does this qualify as? Let's not forget that this is Weis' third year at the university. In his first two seasons he went 9-3 and 10-3 with personnel he inherited from the recruitment efforts of his predecessor. If he was supposed to be such a drastic improvement, then one win after nine games during his third year on the job is thoroughly unacceptable. He shouldn't take the phrase, "Win just one for the Gipper" so literally.  It really is okay to win a few more. Charlie isn't exactly coaching the Temple Owls... although something tells me that this match up would be a lot more competitive than we could've ever imagined. 

Charlie the "Un-Weis (conveniently pronounced Wise in this instance) must go. I can't think of another who would have done as poorly a job considering the high expectations and fanfare with which he assumed the position.  Given the current state of affairs the only position that comes to mind is missionary.  Unfortunately for the Notre Dame faithful he's created a mess that could take a long time to clean up.