The Rundown: January 8th, 2009

Trying something new here. The biggest stories for your morning, delivered the night before!

Today's top stories:

NCAAFB: The FedEx Bowl Championship Series National Championship Game is tonight!

And don't try and say that whole event's name before the game begins. The champ will be crowned before you're finished.

There's been plenty of intriguing discussion back and forth on this game. I think most would agree that, if nothing else, it's the most up in the air title game we've had since probably the 2003 LSU/Oklahoma(/USC) tilt. People forget this when breathlessly calling the 2005 USC/Texas game the best ever, but a lot of people, myself included, figured USC would win that one rather easily. This time around, the general opinion seems to be that Florida will win (ESPN's vote, I believe, has the Gators favored about 60/40), but I'd say most of us don't really know what's going to happen. Florida has a very good defense and a very good offense, led by the speedsters Jeff Demps, Percy Harvin and Chris Rainey, and that guy who won a Heisman once too. Brandon Spikes leads the Gators' D, and he's also the one taking part in the back and forth smack talk with Oklahoma. ("Sam Bradford hasn't faced an SEC defense." "Well, Tim Tebow hasn't had to beat a Big 12 quarterback!")

Oklahoma counters with this year's Heisman winner, Sam Bradford, and the highest-scoring offense in college football history. Oklahoma scored 60 pretty much every time they stepped on a field this year, but I really doubt they're expecting that to happen against Florida. However, Oklahoma is incredibly formidable offensively, and they're absolutely loaded with weapons. DeMarco Murray, Chris Brown, J

Seriously, though: When did conference pride become such a big deal? I don't remember a lot of this prior to 2006, but ever since Florida crushed Ohio State in that year's title game, it seems like every conference's fans go overboard trying to outdo each other in the trash-talk department, with SEC fans generally agreed to be the most ridiculously over the top.

Anyway, tonight's game (8:30 pm, Fox), should be a very good, very close game. I'll take the Gators to win. My bowl confidence picks (which are in shambles), have five confidence points on the Gators, with a tiebreaker score of 35-31. So I'll go with that. Should be a heck of a show.

Other news: BC fired Jeff Jagodzinski after all after he interviewed with the Jets...Urban Meyer says he's in favor of Mack Brown of Texas, Kyle Whittingham of Utah, Pete Carroll of USC, and pretty much anyone else who feels like it voting their own team #1 in the coaches' poll after the national title game even though it violates their agreement...Georgia's Matt Stafford and Knowshon Moreno, both first-round locks in the NFL draft, are going to jump...Navy's coach, whose name is impossible to spell, got a contract extension.

NCAAB: The Big East rules the roost in college hoops.

Now, in college basketball, the conference pride thing becomes a much, much bigger deal. Your schedule has a huge effect on where you're seeded, which can have a direct effect on your chance to win the national title. Yes, it's true that in college football your conference plays a part, but for the most part, teams can control that by simply winning all their games. In college hoops, you can be a top-of-the-heap team in your league (say, the SEC), but you're still probably not going to get thought of as highly as a 5th or 6th place team from a better league (the Big East or ACC, most years).

That's why I feel comfortable saying that the Big East rules the roost in college basketball. During the Duke/Davidson game last night, the ESPN ticker for in-progress games involving ranked teams was all Big East teams except for Boston College's game with Harvard. (Which the Eagles lost, giving the Crimson their first-ever win over a ranked team. Good job.) Of course, with nine ranked teams in the league, ESPN has little choice but to run such a ticker. Nine of the top 22 teams in the country, in fact, hail from the Big East. Oddly, no other teams from the league are receiving votes in either poll, but seriously: NINE.

All that needs to be said on the subject is that Georgetown opened Big East play by visiting Connecticut, hosting Pitt, and traveling to Notre Dame, all in the period of a week. All those teams are in the top 13. The Hoyas are 1-2 in league play after that stretch. Care to wonder how often that happens with other conferences? Another "the Big East is ridiculous" note: Notre Dame will play seven out of eight games during one month-ish long stretch against ranked teams! (Full disclosure: One of those is against non-league foe UCLA.)

It should be very entertaining to see what develops in this war-of-attrition league. League teams will have a few breaks in between the gauntlet (Rutgers, DePaul, South Florida, St. John's), but even those are not gimmes. (ND has already lost to the Red Storm, and the Scarlet Knights gave top-ranked Pitt a fight.)

Also of note from last night: How about Michigan coming back from down 20 to take down IU in overtime? The Hoosiers have now played pretty well in a losing effort twice in league play. You have to figure the wins will come, but this was nothing less than a choke job on their parts. The Wolverines have as many good wins as anyone in America, but playing like this is a good way to keep them out of the big dance. Luckily for them they stole the win anyway, thanks to IU shooting 2/7 from the line in the extra frame.

Last night's Top 25 scores, with the home team in bold:
#2 Duke 79, Davidson 67 (Steph Curry had 29 points)
#3 UNC 108, College of Charleston 70
#9 Syracuse 85, DePaul 68
#15 Marquette 81, Rutgers 76
#21 Louisville 71, South Florida 57
Harvard 82, #24 Boston College 70
Gonzaga 89, #25 Tennessee 79 (OT)

Game to watch tonight:
#19 Minnesota at Iowa (7 pm, ESPN2). Not a lot going on tomorrow in the world of college basketball, but if the Golden Gophers want to be taken seriously nationwide, they need to win games like this: where they're clearly the better team but are playing a league road game. Tubby Smith's done a good job rebuilding Minnesota quickly, and starting 2-1 in the Big Ten would be a good way to get things rolling in preparation for what they hope is a berth in March.

NBA: What's up with Boston?

The Celtics were not only roundly considered the best team in the NBA and favorites to repeat after the first month and a half of the season, but talk was that they'd break the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls' record of 72 wins after they won 19 in a row at one point. Well, that's down the drain after they lost yet again last night, this time at home to Houston and some guy named Von Wafer who hit a game-winning trey. It's their sixth loss out of eight and sends them to eight losses overall, so talk of record-breaking is up in smoke. In fact, Boston is in danger of falling to the 3 seed in the Eastern Conference if the season ended today. They're already behind Cleveland and are only a half-game up on the best team no one knows, the Orlando Magic.

If you ask me, it's not a big deal. The Lakers won three straight titles without really trying in a game before April, so a few regular-season losses aren't going to kill Boston. It's worth asking the question of whether it may affect their playoff aura of invincibility, but then again, this team was taken to seven games by an under-.500 team last spring.

Other NBA notables: Danny Granger had 37 points and the game-winning three to single-handedly beat Phoenix out West...Randy Foye scored 32 and led Minnesota (?) to their fourth win in a row...Dwight Howard fell just short of a 20-20 game, but his team beat Atlanta on the road anyway.

What to watch for tonight:

Only two games tonight, and neither of them are of note (Knicks at Dallas; Clips at San Antonio). Take the night off if you're an NBA fan I guess.

NFL: The Mangenius got another job already.

Eric Mangini was unemployed only about a week until the Cleveland Browns snapped him up. After their short-lived Bill Cowher hopes went away, Mangini was probably the best option Cleveland had left. He can't really be judged on last season in New York, if the reports that he wasn't a big fan of the Brett Favre thing all along are true. It is humorous that Cleveland replaced the former Patriots' defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel with...another former Patriots' defensive coordinator.

Cleveland was an underrated soap opera last year (as a Brady Quinn fan, I kept a close eye on the situation). It wasn't quite as bad as Oakland, but between the Derek Anderson fiasco, Kellen Winslow, Jamal Lewis saying his team quit, Braylon Edwards dropping anything that came his way, and Phil Savage dropping f-bombs on e-mailers left and right, it was quite the circus. I sometimes wonder if Braylon dropped his bottle of 5-Hour Energy numerous times during filming of his incredibly wooden commercial for the product.

Despite all this, there's talent there. A lot of it, in fact. There's a reason Cleveland was supposed to be good. You know, before failing to score an offensive TD in the final six games of the season (!!!). Mangini has a franchise QB, a good wideout if he ever learns how to catch, and one of the league's most explosive tight ends, in more ways than one, to work with. We'll see what he can do.

Other news: The Pac-Man era is over in Dallas: he was released...Tomlinson almost certainly won't play in Pittsburgh this weekend with a torn groin tendon...Anquan Boldin may miss the Cards' round 2 game in Carolina...Brian Westbrook is a go for the Eagles/Giants game.

MLB's Hot Stove: Smoltz to Boston.

At this point, it's just getting ridiculous. Any remotely desirable free agent appears to be a lock to go to Boston or New York. If you ask me, as long as neither team makes the World Series, as occurred in 2008, they're not overly relevant. The Sawx are also apparently going to sign Rocco Baldelli, which is an interesting move. Baldelli's well-publicized condition should make for interesting material as he heads to Press Heaven, Boston.

Other signings: The Dodgers may grab Trevor Hoffman...Jason Giambi's headed back to Oakland!...the Reds sign Jerry Hairston Jr...and Baltimore imports a Japanese pitcher.

Last Word:

Sadly for the NHL, the Jarko Ruutu biting incident isn't even a new low for the league. Ruutu was suspended two games for taking a bite out of the Sabres' Andrew Peters. Does anyone even notice anymore? Apart from the Winter Classic (a fantastic idea), the NHL just doesn't seem to matter anymore. That's too bad, because hockey is fun as hell to watch in person.

Enjoy your day, everyone.

Ball State Gives Up On Football, Lets Hoke Walk

I'm so very disappointed in my alma mater today.

As wonderful, incredible, amazing as the 2008 football season was to watch Ball State rise as high as 12th in the polls - almost assuredly as high as they will ever go - it is just as disheartening to see that Ball State's leadership has absolutely no intention of keeping it going, or even attempting to.

Brady Hoke, the coach and architect of the 12-0 start, bolted BSU for San Diego State over the weekend. It is, at best, a lateral football move and is probably more like a downgrade. Hoke's salary will be more than twice what it was at BSU, so he has that going for him. But all reports are he would've stayed if Ball State had done one simple thing...give his assistants the raises they deserved.

The offer on the table for Hoke was 390,000 dollars a year (SDSU will be paying him 700k a year for 5 years). But when Hoke asked president Jo Ann Gora about raises for his assistants - you know, like Stan Parrish, who's only one of five finalists for the national asst. coach of the year award, or Mark Smith, who, as much as he was shredded by people like me the last few years, actually put together a pretty solid defense this year - Gora said no.

That was it. Hoke was gone. A Ball State alum. A great guy. Exactly the kind of person Ball State should have representing their football program and their university. Done.

This was the equivalent of Notre Dame saying thanks but no thanks to Frank Leahy after the four straight undefeated seasons in the late 1940s. Florida dumping Steve Spurrier after he won the 1996 national championship. Nebraska chasing out Tom Osborne after his back to back titles in the mid-1990s. Simply a humiliating day.

Ball State should be ashamed of itself. They could get a new coach who's better. I really doubt it. This university has shown no aptitude for achieving anything in athletics. Ronny Thompson saga, firing the women's volleyball coach after his 1st losing season out of EIGHTEEN, pick your humiliating move. This school, for all its talk of achieving, seems to have no desire to achieve what would give us the most publicity.

One-Line Bowl Breakdowns

EagleBank Bowl - Navy vs Wake Forest:
Triple option and the home field in DC? Advantage Middies.

New Mexico Bowl - Colorado St vs Fresno St:
Anytime, anywhere for FSU coach Pat Hill means Albuquerque this year.

magicJack St. Petersburg Bowl - Memphis vs South Florida:
Not exactly where USF wanted to be playing a 'home' game this bowl season.

Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl - BYU vs Arizona:
Chance for the Cats to make a name for themselves by winning the first bowl with a ranked team.

R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl - Southern Mississippi vs Troy:
Ten bucks if you can name one player on either of these teams without looking.

San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl - Boise St vs TCU:
After Ball State's loss, this is now the "not in a BCS bowl" national championship game.

Sheraton Hawaii Bowl - Hawaii vs Notre Dame:
This is what ND's reduced itself to - a bowl game off the mainland on Christmas Eve.

Motor City Bowl - Florida Atlantic vs Central Michigan:
CMU in Detroit for the 3rd year in a row in a real yawner of a matchup.

Meineke Car Care Bowl - West Virginia vs North Carolina:
I remember when bowl games at least used to have a real name after the sponsor's name.

Champs Sports Bowl - Wisconsin vs Florida St:
Wisconsin almost lost to a I-AA team - FSU was almost ranked at the end of the season.

Emerald Bowl - California vs Miami:
I thought this bowl was in Seattle (Emerald City) for a couple of years. Nope - it's Emerald Nuts.

Independence Bowl - Northern Illinois vs Louisiana Tech:
6-6 MAC teams should never, ever, ever get a bowl bid.

Papajohns.com Bowl - NC St vs Rutgers:
Rutgers started the year 1-5 and I'm impressed with their in-season turnaround.

Valero Alamo Bowl - Missouri vs Northwestern:
Both these teams should be in better bowls but got passed up for more name teams.

Roady's Humanitarian Bowl - Maryland vs Nevada:
I can't imagine any scenario in which a fan of either school would go to Boise for this.

Texas Bowl - Rice vs Western Michigan:
I'm guessing few new subscribers to the NFL Network earmark this one as the reason.

Pacific Life Holiday Bowl - Oklahoma St vs Oregon:
First bowl of the year with two ranked teams, and this should be a very good one.

Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl - Houston vs Air Force:
Gotta think this bowl jumped at the chance to get an academy, given the name.

Brut Sun Bowl - Oregon St vs Pittsburgh:
It's a long way from Pasadena to El Paso for OSU. And from Miami to El Paso for Pitt.

Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl - Boston College vs Vanderbilt:
There are many bowls with essentially a home team this season, and this one might be the oddest.

Insight Bowl - Kansas vs Minnesota:
Minnesota has no right to be in a bowl despite their 7-5 record. This should be a massacre.

Chick-fil-A Bowl - LSU vs Georgia Tech:
The Jackets might be the best team no one is talking about right now - they ended up BCS-eligible.

Outback Bowl - South Carolina vs Iowa:
Pretty good matchup of under-the-radar teams from the SEC and Big Ten.

Capital One Bowl - Georgia vs Michigan St:
The annual matchup of 'teams that look good until you realize that they beat no one who matters.'

Konica Minolta Gator Bowl - Clemson vs Nebraska:
Gotta give Dabo Swinney credit for getting the Tigers here.

AT&T Cotton Bowl - Ole Miss vs Texas Tech:
A tremendous job by Houston Nutt to get the Rebs here, but their prize is a beatdown loss, assumedly.

AutoZone Liberty Bowl - Kentucky vs East Carolina:
Why is this bowl on Jan. 2nd? Answer me that. The spate of post-New Year's crappy bowls annoys me.

International Bowl - Connecticut vs Buffalo:
See what I mean? This one's on Jan. 3rd. Toronto thrilled to get two nearby teams.

GMAC Bowl - Tulsa vs Ball St:
BSU might have ended up here regardless of their MAC title game defeat.

Rose Bowl - Penn St vs USC:
Is anyone going to take PSU in this game?

FedEx Orange Bowl - Virginia Tech vs Cincinnati:
The Orange locking itself into the ACC champ is why there's never a good Orange Bowl matchup.

Allstate Sugar Bowl - Alabama vs Utah:
This might be the best bowl matchup besides the national title game.

Tostitos Fiesta Bowl - Texas vs Ohio St:
A 3rd straight BCS humiliation for the Buckeyes as Texas takes out their Big 12 snub on them.

FedEx National Championship Game - Florida vs Oklahoma:
The last good matchup in the national title game was three years ago. This one might end that streak.

Charlie Weis's Resignation Speech

Jason Whitlock was more right than I was. He was right for all the wrong reasons, but he was still right. Charlie Weis will not make it at Notre Dame. That's obvious.

That's why I have written Charlie up a resignation letter. It looks an awful lot like his hiring speech.

"Ladies and gentlemen, right now we're a 6-5 football team. That's not good enough for you, and it's certainly not good enough for me. And that's why I'm resigning."

"The attitude of the head coach has been permeated through the players. We couldn't get up for a Senior Day with a New Year's Day game on the line. Our guys ran out of the tunnel and didn't look like they gave a shit. And they didn't play like they did either."

"If you hired me here to go .500, you got the wrong guy. I'm resigning so you can get the right one."

Rebutting Jason Whitlock - Again

I haven't even read this article yet, but I hear Jason Whitlock is bashing Charlie Weis again. Even though I'm not so sure how I feel about the guy myself after two ridiculous losses to Pittsburgh and Boston College, I am positive that my fellow Cardinal alum Whitlock has once again made a bunch of ridiculous, if not patently false, assertions regarding the fourth-year Irish coach - see a couple posts down for what happened the last time he tried to do this.

Again, Whitlock in bold italics.

It is very brave and quite magnanimous for The Great Weis Hope to throw his offensive coordinator under the bus by publicly announcing his decision to reclaim leadership of the Notre Dame offense with defensive powerhouses Navy and Syracuse on the Irish schedule.

This "Great Weis Hope" business has to stop. It's never going to catch on. No one besides Whitlock even probably gets the reference. And Whitlock is blatantly ignoring the reason given for Weis taking play-calling duties for the week: Mike Haywood, the offensive coordinator, is going to be missing practices to be attending a family funeral. Granted, I think (and I don't want to make light of a family tragedy) this is as 'convenient' a reason as many others do given the ND offense's struggles, but I have to, for the sake of integrity, assume outwardly that this is the real reason.

And in case Whitlock missed it, ND faced a terrible defense LAST WEEK. BC had given up 27 points to CLEMSON AT HOME THE PREVIOUS FREAKING WEEK...and Notre Dame got shut out. With Haywood calling the plays. Funeral or not, clearly something needed shaking up.

Too often, I waste column inches blasting Charlie Weis, Notre Dame and the lifetime contract awarded to an unproven blowhard. I never take the time to point out the good side of "Pear Bryant."

You certainly do waste column inches. Maybe you should stop. And now Whitlock is making fat jokes. That's rich. How much do you weigh, Jason? That's what I thought.

I cannot deny the courageousness and nobility of Weis embarrassing offensive coordinator Mike Haywood following Notre Dame's 17-0 loss to Boston College over the weekend.

Look, most college coaches of reasonable character and integrity would've stripped Haywood of his control of Notre Dame's offense privately. A low-key, moderate-ego coach would've kept the behind-the-scenes maneuvering behind the scenes.

I will have to read further into it to see Whitlock's rationale for saying that Haywood is being embarrassed, but I've missed that to this point. Weis has not even mentioned Haywood by name this week as being a problem. He has just said the offense needs to improve - repeatedly. I don't think that after a zero-point showing that this can really be argued, but since Haywood is black, like Whitlock is, he'll probably find a way.

(EDITED TO ADD:I just noticed after re-reading that Whitlock never does say that Haywood is black in this article. Considering your background, Jason, that seems a pretty dishonest thing to do, especially since your dislike for Charlie seems largely predicated on his whiteness vs. another guy's blackness.)

And I don't think there's any coach in America that would do something as radical as take over play-calling duties for a week without telling the media about it. But I wouldn't want to get in the way of an uninformed bash session, would I?

But Weis has virtually no ego. He is arguably the most ego-less coach working today.

That's why he made it crystal clear to anyone who would listen that he will be responsible for any offensive success the Irish have when they face defensive juggernauts Navy and Syracuse.

I am once again awaiting actual evidence that Whitlock has to back this up. So far, all we know is that Weis is taking over play-calling duties. In fact, Jason hasn't even specifically said that, lest he miss out on an opportunity to make a fat joke and/or use a stupid nickname for Charlie. All we've got from him is "reclaiming leadership of the Notre Dame offense".

The undersized Middies are giving up just 27 points per game to Division I opponents. The 2-7 Orangemen are nearly as stingy, surrendering just 37 points per outing.

As you can see, a week after battling the nation's 10th-best defense (Boston College), it's extremely noble for Weis to alert the media of his plans to fix Notre Dame's offense.

Yes, we know the next two opponents are bad on defense. Got it. And BC is not the nation's 10th-best defense. They are ranked 10th on defense, but that is thanks to a ridiculously easy schedule. This team is TWO AND THREE IN THE ACC, possibly the worst league of the BCS six. Stop building them up to be some incredible force that poor Mike Haywood could not have hoped to gameplan against.

I'm sure the same media members who championed Weis' lifetime contract will once again sing his praises when the Irish show remarkable improvement and climb to 7-4 before getting waxed by USC.

Again, Notre Dame's progress and Pear Bryant's greatness can best be seen by analyzing Washington's failure under Tyrone Willingham. You must remember that Tyrone Willingham's recruiting is what destroyed Notre Dame football, and as long as Tyrone is recruiting — no matter the school — Notre Dame won't be any good.

STOP. DEAR GOD, STOP. No one has even MENTIONED Ty Willingham since he finally got his unceremonious axe from Washington. Not one Domer, not one Irish subway alumni, not anyone wearing the color green on any occasion in America. STOP TRYING TO PANDER TO THE LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR. Dear God. And, I ask what I asked last time, who exactly "championed" this contract extension? Everyone in America is basically calling this extension an anvil around ND's neck at the moment.

That has to be the explanation. I realize The Great Weis Hope is in his fourth season and has a roster flush with mature talent he recruited. And I realize that Boston College coach Jeff Jagodzinski made a point to remind his players that none of them was good enough to be recruited by Pear Bryant. (I must admit I stole the Pear Bryant nickname from an e-mailer.)

I'm not going to defend Weis's work the last couple of weeks. It's not worth trying, because he has not done a good job. Calling the ND roster "flush" with "mature" talent is probably not entirely accurate, but there is plenty enough talent on this team (as Jagodzinski did point out last week) that Notre Dame has no business losing to the Eagles.

I love how Whitlock didn't even come up with the ridiculously unoriginal "Pear Bryant" name himself. That's even more pathetic than using it a billion times after coming up with it yourself (see: Great Weis Hope).

You would think that superior talent and the decided schematic advantage that Weis promised upon his coronation as Notre Dame messiah would allow the Irish to at least kick a field goal against Boston College. That's naive thinking. You don't understand the damage being caused in South Bend by Willingham's recruiting in Seattle.

This is sickening. It really is. It was one thing when he attacked ND fans for being overly willing to blame the last couple years on Ty. He was overdramatizing it, but at least he had a point. This is just wailing away on a dead horse. No one has even alluded to Ty in weeks. It has not happened. I know Whitlock is a good writer. Crap like this is not why.

And if you can't understand that, then you surely can't grasp the self-serving motive of Weis retaking over his offense with two weak opponents on the schedule.

You see, now I'm actually starting to believe that Jason thinks this was a calculated move. Which is even more pathetic, more ridiculous, more jaw-droppingly STUPID, than this whole sarcasm-laced tirade was.

It's no secret. I dislike Charlie Weis and despise the free pass he was given by the media when he was handed a huge contract extension for doing less than Willingham.

Weis is a bully and a coward, and his well-timed announcement that he would abandon this "head coach stuff" so he could bail out his offense proves my contentions.

There is no "free pass". This never happened. Most of your former colleagues at ESPN spent the 2005 season alternately blasting Notre Dame's schedule strength and reviving the racism accusations against ND for handing Weis a contract extension. Whitlock is openly making things up. And your deciding to assume the worst about Charlie when he decides to try and win a damn football game any way he can proves nothing except your open racism. Yes, I'm calling it racism. Because this is ridiculous. If Weis was black, you'd love him.

He's planning on the Irish averaging 35 points the next two weeks and selling his impatient fan base on the myth that he's making real progress. He's hoping the media will assist him in selling this lie.

Unless you have access to Charlie's brain, you can't say this with any degree of certainty. And since ND's season freaking high for regulation-time points is 35, I doubt he's banking on averaging 35. But I bet he wants to average more than 0.

Weis is an average college head coach with horrendous people skills. That's not a good combination. Bobby Knight had poor people skills, a brilliant mind and a superior work ethic. Nick Saban is a football Bobby Knight.

Weis probably does have horrendous people skills, and there's some evidence out there of that being true. But have you ever met Charlie, Whitlock? I'd venture to say you have, but I may be overestimating your ability to face up to people you've spent years trashing behind a computer screen. And Charlie has an incredible work ethic, or maybe you haven't taken a look at: A) his recruiting classes, or B) his daily itinerary that begins with getting to work BEFORE FIVE IN THE FUCKING MORNING, a time at which I assume you are still sleeping/digesting pizza (hey, I can make fat jokes too!).

Weis might be a reverse of Pete Carroll, who bombed in the pros and excelled in the collegiate game. Coaching in the NFL is easier. Everyone is on more equal footing. There are fewer variables. You can hire someone else to evaluate talent. College coaches have already developed the talent.

Maybe he is. I don't believe he'd be the first. This paragraph is probably the only one in the entire column that I don't have a gripe with. Coaching in the NFL is not "easier" in terms of the hours, but the other stuff is true.

Weis is in over his head coaching the college game.

You can't prove that, though you aren't the first to claim it, so I'll let it slide.

There are rumors that Notre Dame might pull the plug on The Great Weis Hope if he loses to Navy.

Rumors that were debunked today by Notre Dame A.D. Jack Swarbrick (for the readers, not for Jason).

I'll be rooting for Notre Dame this weekend. I want Charlie Weis at Notre Dame as long as I'm a columnist. His failures and the rationalizations offered up by Notre Dame fans are worth two to three columns a year.

Yeah, you're hilarious. For all this talk about rationalizations, I haven't seen you print one comment from anyone to prove it. Maybe you just don't want to distract from your own writing "brilliance" on this topic, or maybe you don't want to give idiots a forum (though you could just make the comment anonymous if that were the case), but I don't know how much of these so-called rationalizations aren't inside your head.

Hell, I've written two this month and could easily get a third if Navy pulls an upset. Stay tuned.

If Navy pulls the upset, I will probably give up on Charlie. Not that that means I'd let you get away with making things up for another column, but I would give up on Charlie.

Till next time.

Ball State vs. Northern Illinois

The mighty Cardinals, ranked 17th in the nation by the BCS and, of course, my alma mater, are back in action tomorrow night on ESPN2. Watch the game (the College Football Final gang of Rece, Mark and Lou will be there for your entertainment) and read my preview on FansKnowBest.com.

Go Cardinals!!

Rebutting Jason Whitlock

I haven't posted in nearly a month, but what better reason to do so than in a post that links my two favorite schools?

Rebutting Jason Whitlock isn't all that popular to Ball Staters, because Whitlock is a proud BSU alum who mentions the Cardinals whenever possible. He even wrote an entire column before the season about how the mighty bird would crash a BCS bowl game.

I confess that I used to HATE Whitlock. I thought he was just another one of those race-baiting big black dudes that play the race card all the time whether it makes sense or not. I now know better - he doesn't play the race card all the time. He does so too much, and even when he doesn't, he considers it, but he's not just another one of 'those guys', and is an open disliker of one of the guys who is - Scoop Jackson. Naturally, in ESPN's wisdom, they dumped the guy that's not and have kept the guy that is.

Anyway, he wrote an article this last week after Tyrone Willingham was finally fired at Washington, a move that would've taken place last year if UW wasn't scared of getting the business from the media about firing him after three years like Notre Dame did. This, of course, would never have happened because Washington is not Notre Dame. Now we have L.A. Times columnists actually saying, "Ty deserved to get fired from Washington, but he was still wronged by Notre Dame".

I am a huge Notre Dame fan, as most of you know, so I feel I need to clear things up.

Deconstructing Whitlock's article on, as he calls Charlie, "The Great Weis Hope" v. Ty Willingham (Whitlock in bold):

Here's what Notre Dame football fans don't seem to comprehend:

1. I've never stated that Tyrone Willingham was a great (or even good) coach; 2. I never blasted Notre Dame for firing Tyrone Willingham; 3. My problem with Charlie Weis and Notre Dame is the premature, undeserved lifetime contract he received after proving nothing and the reach-around Notre Dame and Weis received from most of the media during his first season.

Fair enough. I didn't read Whitlock at the time of Willingham's firing, so I couldn't say if he blasted ND or not, but he's not the type to just lie, so I'll buy it.

However, I consumed more media than I ever have in my life during the 2005 football season and saw little evidence of this "reach-around" ND supposedly got. Most personalities - Jim Rome, both "PTI" co-hosts, everyone on "Around the Horn" - were busier trying to justify why Notre Dame should not have gotten a BCS bid over Oregon, ignoring that a) it wasn't the BCS's choice (under existing rules, the Irish got an auto-bid by being ranked top 6) and b) Oregon played a horribly weak schedule, even weaker than ND's surprisingly toothless 2005 slate. It was all about 10-1 (Oregon) vs 9-2 (ND).

But I can understand why Whitlock thinks of it as a reach-around, given that he's an ND-hater (and I suspect he was before this whole thing happened).

I have never disagreed with those who believe Weis's contract extension was undeserved, but I have also never gotten any indication from anyone in the know that the extension was for any reason other than Weis wanting to diffuse any "he's going to the NFL" rumors. People forget this now (the anti-ND media doesn't want to say so), but Adam Schefter of NFL.com - a Michigan alum, by the way - floated a story before the extension that Weis was headed to the Giants after the season to replace then-embattled Tom Coughlin. This rumor was later debunked, but it was the catalyst for the extension. Weis, who is ironically a lot like Whitlock, is a very honest and open guy who I don't believe would tell the media his extension was to avoid negative recruiting by others if it wasn't true.

Notre Dame fans are having trouble grasping either column. They somehow think that Willingham's failure at Washington justifies giving Weis a record contract at Notre Dame.

This is simply wrong. ND fans are not trying to justify giving Weis a record contract. I can personally say that my open rooting against Ty during his entire Huskies tenure had nothing to do with it, and in fact often forget about the contract fiasco entirely until someone else brings it up.

ND fans' hatred of Ty stems from most of the media harrassing ND for being racist after firing Willingham. The media spreads lies like "violated a contract", when Ty's contract had mutually agreed-upon buyout terms after the third year. They ignore proven facts like Willingham having met with Washington about their upcoming vacancy during the bye week before ND's 2004 matchup with USC (instead of, you know, recruiting), or Willingham's utter refusal to fire horrible defensive coordinator Kent Baer having played a large role in Ty's axe. (The ever-loyal Ty would eventually axe Baer anyway at Washington.)

Their/my hatred of Ty stems from an interview that played on ABC before ND faced Washington in 2005 - the first Weis/Willingham matchup. Here's a link to the transcript. John Saunders - who, by the way, is a skunk and is the lowest form of "journalist" - blatantly floats racism accusations against ND to Ty. Willingham - who is also a skunk - coyly doesn't confirm or deny the accusations (keep in mind Ty knew damn well why he was fired and that it had nothing to do with racism). This enabled Ty to keep the heat on ND without coming off bitter. It was played brilliantly by the man, who knows how to spin the P.R. machine in his favor. He still does not receive his share of blame for his horrid recruiting at ND, which helped contribute to the historically awful 2007 season (look at the starting depth charts from those games and play Find the Upperclassman). And now he is getting largely let off the hook for his horrible job at Washington, where recruiting has been even worse and Ty will leave as the worst coach - by percentage - in Huskies history.

So, Jason, that's why we hate Ty. Has nothing to do with Charlie's contract.

(Ty Willingham replaced a guy who got fired after 20 games at UW. Keith Gilbertson. He was white. No one defended him. Not one person.)

Even with the Irish sitting at 5-2, every word in those columns still rings true. Notre Dame and a hefty percentage of the sports media overreacted to Weis' hot start, and Weis' complexion played a role in the overreaction.

Did the media overreact to Charlie's hot start? Probably. At the time, we didn't know how bad the teams he was beating were, though.

Did Weis's being white have anything to do with it? Bullshit. Absolute 100 percent pure non-alcoholic bullshit. I will give anyone 1,000 dollars if they can name a black coach at any school or pro team in the entire universe who is a good coach and doesn't get enough credit for it. If everything else at ND were exactly the same, except Willingham was white and Weis was black, I guarantee nothing ND would've done changes.

As of today, we have little evidence that Weis is a better college football coach than Willingham.

This is one of the worst and most indefensible sentences that Jason Whitlock has ever written. Charlie took two ND teams to BCS games his first two years. Yes, he was using Ty's recruits, but he was also GETTING PERFORMANCE out of Ty's recruits that Ty never even came close to getting. He was using guys like Jeff Samardzija, who caught like 14 passes in Ty's two years with him. And Darius Walker, who wasn't even taken on the team plane to BYU for his first game (ND lost by three) before running for 100 yards in like a quarter against Michigan. Hell, Walker never did get the starting job from Ryan Grant, even though he proved himself to be better repeatedly in 2004.

Even this year, Charlie is 5-2 with a team that still has virtually no senior presence, thanks largely to Willingham. Against a weak schedule, yes, but imagine what would be happening if Ty were still here (hint: look at Washington's 2008 season so far).

Meanwhile, Ty has a career record that hovers around .500, has never done anything of consequence except for taking one Stanford team to the Rose Bowl in a horrible Pac-10 football year, and can't recruit ANYBODY. Whitlock should be ashamed of himself for writing this sentence.

Notre Dame fans are repeating the same mistake they made in 2005 when the school overpaid for Weis. They're turning conceited based on a glossy record compiled against weak competition.

San Diego State, Michigan, Purdue, Stanford and Washington — ND's victims — have a combined record of 9-32. Only Stanford, 4-4, has more than two victories.

No argument here. As I just wrote, no one is denying ND's schedule thus far has been pretty weak. Although I don't know many Irish fans who are getting "conceited" about it. Rooting against our former coach, who tried his best to destroy the program, is not being conceited.

I'm not saying that the Irish haven't made progress. Hell, a year ago the Great Weis Hope finished 3-9 and lost back-to-back games to Navy and Air Force. Although, if you listen to Notre Dame fans, those losses, like all ND losses under Weis, were a byproduct of Weis having to play with Willingham's pathetic recruits.

The "all ND losses under Weis" addendum is an unnecessary and false potshot at Irish fans. ND's loss to Navy last year might not happen if Charlie Weis decides to kick a makeable field goal of 42 yards with Brandon Walker instead of going for it on a 4th down. That was what led to the now-infamous flying sack of then-QB Evan Sharpley. ND ended up losing in triple OT, because of another poor Weis decision, running Travis Thomas off-tackle on ND's two-point attempt.

See? I just blamed an ND loss on Weis without any potshots at the guy I hate. Was that so hard, Jason?

However, as much as Whitlock doesn't want to hear it, ND's 3-9 season WAS caused in part by "Willingham's pathetic recruits". Now, if Charlie had done a better job with that team, it would not have been the embarrassment it became, and I think Charlie, if forced to take truth serum, would tell you that himself. But you take away essentially two years of decent recruiting and replace them with upper-echelon MAC-type classes, and try and play ND's schedule, and yes, you're gonna have problems. I doubt even the best coach could've done much more than 6-6 or 7-5 with that ND team. People forget the first 10 teams the Irish played in 2007 were bowl teams (including "Navy and Air Force"). ND beat the only two nonbowl teams they played, Duke and Stanford, in the final weeks of the season.

You know, Navy and Air Force routinely pluck four- and five-star recruits from across the country. A great coaching mind like Weis' couldn't be expected to overcome ND's obvious talent deficiency against the service academies.

More unnecessary potshots, but point taken.

Has The Great Weis Hope so lowered expectations at Notre Dame that a 5-2 team incapable of cracking the top 25 is worthy of celebration and I-told-you-so e-mails?

No. Your buddy Ty Willingham did. With some help from Bob Davie. Davie could at least recruit though. He was just an idiotic coach.

Charlie claimed he'd never get outcoached, he'd never lose to Michigan State again and that after his first 5-2 start every team in the NFL was ready to fire its coach and land the offensive coordinator who carried Bill Belichick and Tom Brady to the Super Bowl.

The MSU comment came at an alumni function. Come on, man. And you find me the quote where Charlie said every NFL team wanted him. You find it, and I'll apologize, Jason.

Stoops won a national championship in his second season at Oklahoma. Carroll won titles in his third and fourth seasons.

As I've gone over, both those guys had much more well-stocked cupboards than Charlie did. Easier schedules, too. While you're at it, why not bring up Urban Meyer, who won one in his 2nd season at Florida? (He replaced Ron Zook, who entered Florida coaching the same year Willingham came to ND. Zook was fired half a season before Ty was. What color is Zook's skin?)

Notre Dame fans need to get over their fixation on Tyrone Willingham. He's not their problem anymore. His inadequacies don't strengthen Weis' resume. Willingham's resignation at Washington isn't going to make Notre Dame a national-title contender or justify Weis' bloated salary.

He does have a point here. Some ND fans care far too much about Ty. I myself like to laugh at him and will miss that. Did you know he once ended a statement about this season and how it's gone wrong with "...but not everything is microwave popcorn?" Apparently that's a well-known simile I just missed somewhere. Willingham was fired, by the way. Not resigned.

He can begin to do that over the last month of the season. Notre Dame's last five opponents — Pittsburgh, Boston College, Navy, Syracuse and USC — own a combined record of 22-14.

He certainly can. This five-game stretch (six with the expected bowl game) is very big to ND and laying the groundwork for what many Irish fans expect to be a possible title-contending team in 2009. Take out pathetic Syracuse from that quintet, by the way, and the record is 21-8. Whitlock and I agree on this thought.

If he goes 3-2, I'll consider it a passing grade and abstain from taking another potshot at him until next season. If he goes 4-1, I'll call it progress and agree that he's the coaching equivalent of Frank Solich. If the Irish overcome Weis' shortcomings and run the table, I'll strongly consider writing an apology column.

I personally think ND's going 4-1 to end the season. The Pitt game is at home and the Panthers will be without their starting QB. BC is not very good, Navy should be a layup for the remainder of Charlie's tenure (although they have a road win at Wake on their resume) and Syracuse is Syracuse. I like the backhanded compliment of calling Weis Solich's equal. Very nice.

If they fall on their face and lose three or more games, I'd speculate that most Irish fans would prefer Willingham be named Notre Dame athletic director than read my follow-up column.

Notre Dame would have to refrain from getting on the team plane to BC and Navy to do that in all likelihood. But if that somehow happens, I'll be ready for you, Jason.