Mandate for Weis: Beat USC or Beat It

To the swarms of Charlie Weis bashers searching for any and all indicting angles, here's another: sleep deprivation. The man rarely gets much shut-eye, reaching his office each morning when it's still dark at Notre Dame, where the ghosts and demons always are awake and plotting to ruin the life of the football coach in residence. Except one can argue that Weis, who was given a $40-million contract and at least five seasons to become a hero, has loused up the program all by himself.

"I get enough. I get my four hours in,'' he said Tuesday. "But, see, that's not that unusual for football season. It's four or five hours, that's usually what it is. You know, you get home late, and you want to spend a little time saying hello to your wife and go to sleep and get up early. That's just what you do. That's what we do."

So if he doesn't snap a seven-game losing streak in the USC rivalry Saturday -- or should we call it a travesty, considering the Irish have lost the last two by a combined 76-3? -- I'll assume the power-mongers-that-be will ask Weis to take his coffee machine and red eyes and get out of town. And why shouldn't they? It's time for the big man with the Super Bowl rings to prove he isn't the weakest branch on the Bill Belichick tree, time for Weis to back up his swagger with a landmark victory. I don't need to mention that Weis' teams lost 15 games the last two seasons, most ever by an ND coach in such a span. I don't need to mention that Weis has lost his last six games against top-10 teams. I don't need to mention that the Fighting Irish, in building a 4-1 record, have yet to beat a winning team this season.

Every Monday night, Jon Gruden shows up for work in an ESPN booth in an NFL stadium, trying to have fun as an analyst but preferring to coach football. Perhaps that will be in the pros but maybe it will be in South Bend, where he attended high school while his father was a Notre Dame assistant under Dan Devine. Every so often, the ultra-successful coach at Florida, Urban Meyer, drops a hint that Notre Dame once was his dream job. If he wins his third national championship in four years in Gainesville, will he seek a new challenge in a dead-end destination where a quick U-turn would make him an instant legend? Somehow, the Golden Dome remains an attractive job for coaches who grew up in the '70s and '80s, even if high-school players in 2009 see it as a cobwebbed relic in a cold Indiana town where old folks are desperately trying to recapture glory days. Don't they know that Florida, USC and Texas are established as the super-hot places?

The good news is, Weis grasps the urgency. Rather than shower reporters with his trademark arrogance as they tried to develop a story line at his weekly news conference -- isn't he long overdue for a "signature'' win in his tenure? -- the Weis Guy tended to agree. After all, he once was a Notre Dame student sitting in the same stadium, demanding excellence from football. He might be nothing more than a glorified offensive coordinator, but he's also smart enough to know when the crossroads have arrived. Beat USC, and the Irish are on their way to a Bowl Championship Series bid that will save Weis' job for another year. Lose to USC, especially by another lopsided score? Let the wooing of Meyer, Gruden and Steve Sarkisian -- the Washington coach who almost beat the Irish two Saturdays ago -- begin in earnest.

"I think that our university really, really could use this win," Weis said. "Not me personally -- but our football team, our university. We don't just play for us. We play for them, too. It has been a long time coming. And we know the challenge we have at hand. We're not oblivious to that fact that it's been a long time coming, and we're going to give it a fair go.

"USC is one of the best teams in the country. They've beaten us seven times in a row, really, the bottom line. Some of them have been ugly. So I think winning this week would do wonders for my spirits. But it wouldn't just be my spirits; it would be everyone affiliated with Notre Dame."

The difference, Weis says, is that the players truly believe they can win this game for the first time since the near-miss against Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush in 2005. "I think two years ago when [USC] rolled in here, I think we might have been beat walking out the tunnel,'' he said. "But this year, I think our players believe they're going to win. I don't know if that's always been the case. They understand the talent level they're going against [and] they might be in the minority, but they certainly believe that. Last year, I thought the defense hung in there for a while and the offense was just taking a whooping. I'm not expecting to be taking a whooping."

Jimmy Clausen won't let Notre Dame take a whooping. Not this time. The one coaching element that Weis continues to achieve with excellence is the ability to groom a quarterback. Just as he helped Tom Brady grow into a performer for the ages in New England, and just as he maximized Brady Quinn's decent skills at ND, he finally has developed Clausen's raw talents and produced a remarkably efficient passer and dynamic leader who manufactures late victories. With his career-high 422 yards in the Washington win, the junior gained the national lead in passing efficiency with 12 touchdown passes, 1,544 yards and only two interceptions. And he has done most of his recent damage with a turf toe injury that won't get better the rest of the season. His gutsy performance last month, in returning from his injury and rallying the Irish to a victory at Purdue, made an imprint with some important insiders.

"I got more text messages [that night] from NFL people saying the same thing: 'Good to see a quarterback with some guts,' " Weis said. "The word might not have been 'guts,' but I got several of them on the way home, and they were impressed."

If he plays equally well against a USC defense that hasn't allowed a scoring pass this season, well, wish him luck on the next level, Irish fans. Because he'll be a high No. 1 pick next April and won't be returning to South Bend. "I think that he's had a heck of a year. I mean, you look at what he's done through these first five games, there couldn't be anyone in the country playing any better than him,'' Weis said. "But now, he is going against the best defense that he's seen all year long. So I think these are the type of moments where you really get to be judged on how well you do when you go against the really, really good guys. That's not being disrespectful to the first five opponents. This is a 'what have you done for me lately' type of position right here. So he won't be judged by bringing us back three times in a row or four times in a row, for that matter. He'll be judged by what he does against USC."

Clausen's immaturity has been channeled into a vibrant, infectious energy. This is a far cry from the train wreck who performed like a brash, overhyped, skittish disappointment his first two seasons, when he became a target for loud critics who recalled a spiky-haired Clausen showing up for his verbal commitment announcement -- at the College Football Hall of Fame, of all places -- inside a stretch Hummer limo. He vowed that day to lead the Irish to four national titles. Put it this way: He has learned to shut his mouth, wear his hair with less dazzle and do right by his abilities. In a Heisman Trophy race that hasn't been dominated by the injured Sam Bradford, the mistakes-prone Colt McCoy and the statistics-challenged and concussion-whacked Tim Tebow, a victory over USC would vault Clausen into prime consideration. Who knew?

"It's just a different mindset for me right now,'' Clausen said. "When things were going bad the past few years, I got a little down. But coach Weis always says it the best: 'When things are good, you need to stay levelheaded; when things are bad, you need to stay levelheaded.' It feels great this year knowing that whenever we get the ball, we can make plays. And if we don't score, at least get three points.

"It's different coming from high school into college. You think you're good and you think you can step right in and play, but it's just something that's extremely tough and something I've had to work on to get to this point. It's taken me two, three years to get to this point, and I'm just handling myself like I did when I was a veteran in high school. I know everything now; I know the offense. I know how to handle myself on the field, off the field, and handle my teammates and be a leader and a captain of the team. It's just something that I've had to evolve into being here at Notre Dame.''

Weis is evolving, too, though much too late for a beaten-down Irish following that lost patience in the program about 15 years ago. The only reason he wasn't dumped last year is because of the economic downturn; even filthy-rich Notre Dame would have looked bad in issuing a monstrous financial settlement to Weis. The only thing that can save him is beating USC. Someone noted that "Beat 'SC" chalk drawings have been posted throughout the football building. "My goal is for them to be excited at 7 (PM) Saturday, not seven on Thursday morning. Or what is this, Tuesday morning,'' he said, oblivious to the days.

He has not accomplished at Notre Dame what his Saturday counterpart, Pete Carroll, has accomplished with great verve at USC. Both inherited slumbering programs, but only Weis' is still asleep. "He's really evolved,'' Weis said. "I'm not going to compare him to either of the Bills [Parcells and Belichick], who I have the utmost respect for, but here is the thing I admire about him the most: He has lost all these good players to the NFL. Last year, he lost his offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator. Now you look at the team right there and, you know, this is what great coaches do. Great coaches lose players, they lose coaches, they put somebody else in and the thing just keeps on ticking. So I think that in the grand scheme of things, when coaches can do that, you know that they're doing a heck of a job.''

Much as he respects Carroll, Weis isn't shy to hide his disdain for a particular USC fan. Seems some idiot sent Weis a cap that says "USC Owns Notre Dame,'' which wouldn't mean diddly if the guy also hadn't taken cheap shots at Weis' daughter, Hannah, who suffers from developmental disorders. The cap is displayed at a spot in Weis' office where he can see it every day.

"With that cap came a letter from somebody with a very derogatory comment towards my daughter. So until we win a game, I'll hold on to that cap,'' he said. "And when we've won a game, that cap won't be around any more. It's kind of a refresher for me, and rather than share the derogatory comment, I'd like to just keep that private."

No one's ever questioned the man's heart and decency. Now, he must prove he's worthy of the most pressurized job in college sports. Saturday is Charlie Weis' last stand.