No Moral Victories at Notre Dame, Charlie

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- It really depends on what a Notre Dame fan wants these days, a Domer's self-satisfaction quotient. If you're thrilled to stage a startling comeback, only to lose on three straight incompletions from the USC 4, then you're settling for an existence far beneath the national titles and Heisman Trophies of yesteryear. But if you're disgusted to lose, especially when the Irish used to win such games and were given one last play after NBC and everybody else thought the game was over, then you won't like Charlie Weis' take after the 34-27 defeat.

In his world, he was proud that the FIghting Irish fought Saturday, even if the nickname connotes that the Irish are supposed to fight.

Meaning, we have crept into moral-victory territory under the Golden Dome, which is more a perpetuation of Rockne Bottom, in my mind, than any wondrous progress made by Weis in Year 5 of his wobbly $40 million project. Anyone who truly cares about Notre Dame football and what it once symbolized should have been spitting cuss words afterward, as Jimmy Clausen was. The Weis Guy? He was giving an inspirational speech that, somehow, isn't what Knute Rockne had in mind.

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"Anyone who doesn't realize the fight we're seeing in the Fighting Irish is missing the boat,'' he barked in the media room. "It's evident if you watched the last five games -- every week, it's the same thing. This team is a bunch of fighters. I'm proud of the fight. I'm disappointed in the loss; it's never OK to lose. But they're a bunch of fighters. Down three scores, everybody probably thought it was time to throw in the towel. Not this group. No way.''

I would have preferred a devastated reaction myself, such as the one delivered by Clausen. "Coming up short, with one second to go, is just heartbreaking,'' said the junior quarterback, who continues to impress with guile and guts while stuck with a defense that couldn't tackle and a still-shaky offensive line that allowed five sacks and left him limping.

Armed with a national TV contract, a contractually paved path to the Bowl Championship Series and a campus oozing of wealth and influence, Weis has no business applauding his team's effort in defeat.

It was time to win a big game, something Old Charlie hasn't shown he can do without Bill Belichick and Bill Parcells in charge, and now that he has lost his last nine against top 25 teams and all five against Pete Carroll and USC, we can start banging the drum slowly for him. How can Weis keep his job when his team isn't anywhere near the national elite, yet he's paid like an elite coach? If he is judged most critically in his performances aganst the Trojans, as fired predecessors Tyrone Willingham and Bob Davie were, then how does he maintain his employment beyond next month?

Where is the accountability to succeed? "If you would have told me before the game, 'Hey, you can have the ball on the 5-yard line with a chance to tie it or win,' I probably would have taken that,'' he said.

Gee, I think Rockne, Ara Parseghian, Dan Devine, Lou Holtz and other Irish coaches through the years would have taken a decisive victory. That defines just how miserably the program has plummeted since its last national championship in 1988.

It's not only that the Irish failed in the final minute, but how they failed. Rallying from a 34-14 deficit, which USC constructed thanks to the golden touch of freshman quarterback Matt Barkley, Notre Dame mismanaged the clock and didn't finish what it started. If Weis does anything well, it should be converting the frantic final drive into a victory, seeing how his pupil, Tom Brady, often helped him do it with the New England Patriots. Here was his chance to do it with his newest student, Clausen, who has been mounting late rallies all year and now had an opportunity to do so against the estimable USC defense. But after Clausen's fourth-down pass to Robby Parris was followed by a cheap shot to Parris' head by the nation's best safety, Taylor Mays, the Irish did nothing with a wonderful opportunity: First and goal at the USC 8, then first and goal at the 4 when Malik Jackson roughed up Clausen with another "knucklehead'' penalty, to quote Carroll.

The problem? That sequence required almost 20 seconds, draining to clock to nine ticks. Too much time was wasted by Clausen, who dawdled at the line, then scrambled for too long. He had time for two more plays, one a close miss to Kyle Rudolph on a jump ball, another not even close to Golden Tate -- who was spectacular all day. The Trojans celebrated, ran off the field and trash-talked Tate and other fallen Irish players. Carroll rushed to midfield to see Weis, while Clausen and Barkley exchanged handshakes and words. But rightfully so, the officials suspected that one second remained, and a replay confirmed it. So everyone came back onto the field for one last play that, in the end, defined why USC is a premier program under Carroll and Notre Dame is a wannabe under Weis.

In the shotgun, Clausen dropped back and fired the ball ... to no one in particular. We wanted a Joe Montana ending and instead got a harmless incompletion. In fairness, he didn't have Michael Floyd, a terrific receiver who is injured, or Parris, a solid possession receiver who was sidelined by Mays' hit and was seen crying with his parents after the game. Still, this was a Charlie Weis moment ... and it ended badly, like his previous six games against top 10 teams.

"We weren't worried. We knew how many plays we'd be able to get off,'' Weis said when asked why the clock was mismanaged. "We knew what plays we'd be able to call. We probably could have gotten it off a few seconds earlier [on first down], but with the one second at the end, that was the number of plays we thought we'd have. We ended up getting it done.''

Congratulations, Charlie. You got all your plays in. Never mind that you didn't win the game. His stance was in direct contrast to the dynamic Carroll, who never had a doubt that his defense would make the final stop, despite the dumb penalties and blown big lead.

"It was a great moment. Even when we had to go back [on the field], it just doubled the fun of getting it done,'' he said. "We had a real good play call, and we had to go play another real hard down and play it real well. Just execute the calls we had. Everyone in that huddle, everyone on the sidelines -- that's all we know. That may sound [arrogant], but we try to develop the mentality that it doesn't matter, just give us one last play. We want to have something left in the tank and finish it and win it. We prepare to build legitimacy to that mindset. When it doesn't happen, we can't even relate to it. It's a fun way to think and prepare and operate.''

Fun. Carroll and the Trojans always have it, which is why they're a top 5 program perennially. Weis and the Irish don't have nearly as much of it, which is why Charlie isn't long for South Bend. When Carroll took over at USC, he inherited the same sort of mess inherited by Weis at Notre Dame. Why does one former NFL coach get it done while the other, a former NFL assistant, doesn't get it done? How can USC have Notre Dame's number to the extreme of eight straight victories in a one-sided rivalry?

"All I know is, we win and play better football,'' Carroll said. "It's about that day, and it doesn't have anything to do with the past or the future. We've been able to have a real consistent run, and I can't tell you how thrilled we are to do that. We want rivalries to go this way so our fans get used to it. The expectations are difficult and challenging, but it's the only way we'd want it. We hope to keep this thing going. It's a big deal to us. It's special for the SC family to continue to be on top of this rivalry.''



With Barkley, there's no reason the Trojans shouldn't keep romping. He started slowly, but settled down to hit seven consecutive passes for 195 yards, including one of two touchdown passes to Damian Williams. Notre Dame couldn't tackle the USC receivers, allowing tight end Anthony McCoy to roam freely with five catches for 153 yards, one for 60. As fellow southern Californians, Barkley and Clausen will be compared throughout their careers -- and surely on the next level.

Barkley won their first matchup with a 380-yard performance, and afterward, as he always does, thanked "Jesus Christ.'' He is a humble, smiling kid with a 3.9 grade-point average who loves life, bringing to mind Tim Tebow. This is in complete contrast to Clausen, who arrived at his oral commitment press conference in a stretch Hummer and hair that was spiked with goop.

Yes, as Weis said, Barkley has more weapons than Clausen. But Saturday, he found his weapons consistently. He now has won in Columbus, Berkeley and South Bend. Not bad for a 19-year-old.

"Exceptional play from the quarterback. Matt Barkley is really something,'' Carroll said. "The plays he's capable of making, there's no limit for him. He's just remarkable -- there's no other way to describe it. There's no one else to compare him to in our history. He's so poised, so comfortable in the arena. He has this great inner strength. He's doing the same things that our other quarterbacks have done. I'm not saying he's better than Carson [Palmer] or Matt [Leinart], but I'm saying he's doing now what those guys were doing in the middle of their careers.''

On a day when Clausen could have taken hold of the Heisman race and didn't, Barkley picked up some votes himself. He's not going to win -- Tebow may have locked it down Saturday, between his 69-yard final drive to beat upset-minded Arkansas and Colt McCoy's inconsistency -- but he'll win one someday as Palmer and Leinart did.

As for Weis, he's 4-2 with losable games left against Boston College, Pittsburgh, Connecticut and Stanford. Someone asked if he would have gone for a two-point conversion. Surprisingly, he answered the question.

"I was torn,'' Weis said. "My gut is, I probably would not have. I probably would have kicked the extra point, then made the freshman quarterback beat you in overtime.''

It's a good thing, then, that Clausen's final pass fell incomplete. Because based on that jittery rationale, the freshman quarterback would have rallied his team -- as he did at Ohio State -- and won the game. And the Domers really would have raised hell about Charlie Weis, who is advised to enjoy his final days in South Bend without ever again applauding the Fighting Irish for, um, fighting.