For Irish, 'it can't get much worse' than 1-8

Collar open, tie loose, insides roiling, Trevor Laws angrily mourned.

"I'm a fifth-year senior, and we're 1-8," the Notre Dame defensive end said Saturday evening. "It can't get much worse than that."

Though these Irish have re-excavated rock bottom again and again, Laws might be correct. A 46-44 triple-overtime loss to Navy totaled the season, rendered it unsalvageable, robbed this team of its one remaining hat-hanging hook—that 43-game win streak against the Midshipmen.

So with the pertinent returns in—three remaining games notwithstanding—this is some of what has been learned:

• The Irish are gutted. The post-Navy comments mattered only insofar as their uniformity. It's just another loss. History doesn't matter. Navy just made one more play.

It was all the same, which means it was all prefabricated parroting. Which means the truth lay in the disbelieving faces, in the rumblings of a veteran like Laws, in the locker room scene Irish coach Charlie Weis encountered.

"[Saturday] was probably as disappointed as I've seen our team," Weis said. "There were a lot of guys who still hadn't gotten out of their uniforms. They were still sitting there."

Weis said his first order of business was picking up his team. The Irish may no longer have any emotion to give in return.

• It's Jimmy Clausen or bust for 2008. Weis planned to shuffle between starter Evan Sharpley and a healthy Jimmy Clausen against Navy. It didn't happen, but a door is open.

"If Jimmy's ready to go, which I'm saying he is, it's not just a slam-dunk who is doing what," Weis said Sunday.

Sharpley has not distinguished himself as the solution. Nor will highly rated recruit Dayne Crist be ready to start after one preseason camp. So, somewhere amid the true freshman mistakes, Jimmy Clausen needs to offer glimpses that he is all he is purported to be.

• Weis still paints by numbers. The plan and the stats and the wind told him to forgo a go-ahead 41-yard field goal with less than a minute left in regulation Saturday. A day later, Weis was asked if he might have taken a shot anyway.

"What, and miss the field goal?" Weis said. "I thought we had a good play to get the first down. We complete the pass for the first down and you're inside the 15-yard line."

The Irish were 6-for-7 on fourth downs to that point, but just one was longer than fourth-and-3. So attempting to convert a fourth-and-8 was a no-brainer?

Spike the plan. Give a haggard team a chance to author a magic moment. As one observer said: Harry Oliver wouldn't be Harry Oliver if wind or distance mattered before his legendary 51-yard game-winner against Michigan.

• Weis has officially entered a hailstorm. Traditionally, as the "1812 Overture" plays after Irish home games, the fans salute the coach. On Saturday, boos were plainly audible through the fanfare.

Asked where disgruntled faithful can see hope, Weis pointed to good special-teams play, a productive run game and surrendering just three regulation touchdowns against Navy. He said it didn't matter that success came against the middling Midshipmen.

Sure it matters. It also matters that Georgia Tech, Penn State, Purdue, Michigan State and even Southern California aren't exactly among college football's elite this season.

It also matters that Weis, after 34 games at Notre Dame, is 20-14. His predecessor, Tyrone Willingham, was 21-13 at the same point.

"I'm going to be here for a long time," Weis said Sunday. "I'm going to be judged by what happens when I leave. Let's see where I am when I walk out the door."

Somewhat amusingly, in the transcript of Weis' remarks provided by ASAP Sports, the statement "I'm going to be here for a long time" was omitted. As far as what the word is, maybe the transcript folks know more than anyone.

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