It's gone from the ridiculous to the sublime. From bad to horrendous. From embarrassing to abject humiliation. Rock bottom has definitely been breached!
In the aftermath of Notre Dame's humbling loss to Navy, the Irish have gone completely subterranean with an astonishingly pathetic 1 and 8 record. This is a nightmare times ten. A total scorched earth scenario has unfolded. Utter hell has arrived. Charlie Weis has turned into the devil himself for the torture he's foisting on Irish fans.
It can be forcefully asserted on many fronts that 2007 rates as perhaps the most disappointing season in the annals of ND football. No matter what happens in the final three weeks, there's very little that can be salvaged from this unprecedented breakdown. The damage has been done. Notre Dame's rep has been savaged to the point where it has suffered irreparable if not permanent harm. The Golden Dome has gone beyond tarnishing. It's rusted!
Because right now, Notre Dame football is a disgusting joke. A total travesty. An absolute laughingstock. The subject of innumerable jibes and snide remarks. Under Weis' leadership, and I use the word loosely, the Irish have become irrelevant. They have descended so low, they're no longer visible on the radar screen. They've crashed and burned.
Who ever would have thought that ND would experience a fall so precipitous that they would be lumped in with perennial losers such as Temple and Duke? But that's the current reality. It's irrefutable that the Domers are one of the most incompetent teams in college football today. They're continually falling all over themselves. They're bunglers and clowns. They epitomize the word futility.
But what's most disturbing about ND's stunning deterioration is what it represents. What it infers about the program. And what it says is that a culture of losing has taken root in South Bend. A pattern of insidious defeat has been firmly established. The prevailing mindset seems to suggest that the players expect the worst. Their confidence as well as a belief in themselves has all but disappeared. Negativism abounds. It's almost as if they anticipate a loss. And maybe, deep down in the recesses of their subconscious, they actually do.
It's hard to feel optimistic when you've dropped a staggering 10 out of your last 11 games dating back to '06. Mull that over for a moment. Ponder its' significance. That basically amounts to an entire season and during that time, you've got one puny win to show for your efforts. That's bottom-of-the-barrel stuff. It represents unmitigated failure.
Like anything, losing can become a habit and, for Notre Dame, it's become a way of life. Being on the winning end of things has become completely foreign to them. Getting beat is who they are and what they do best. Getting their heads handed to them is their sole identity. It's simply mind-boggling how far this program has fallen and how submissive it's become.
The Irish are so indoctrinated in a culture of losing, it's anyone's guess as to when they might snap out of it. Sadly, there's nothing in the offing to suggest that a rebirth will happen anytime soon. An isolated win or two won't signify that a corner has been turned. Only when the Irish run off a lengthy streak of at least five games, can you feel comfortable that the losing mode has been put in the rearview mirror. Only then, will you get a sense that perhaps the danger has passed and that this rotten stretch of abysmal play can be ignored if not forgotten.
Everyone has had a part in creating this defeatist environment where expectations are at an all-time low. The guilt must be divvied up and shared. There's not one who doesn't have some blood on his hands. But while the players and the assistant coaches are certainly culpable, the onus for this catastrophe must be laid at Weis' doorstep. His miscalculation about his team and how to prepare it and his atrocious play- calling and game plans have paved the way for this most demoralizing of seasons.
In short, Weis hasn't earned his hefty paycheck. Worse, he should be genuinely ashamed about the product he's put on the field. He should be red-faced over his team's lack of competitiveness and the overall malaise he's allowed to infiltrate the program he oversees.
Weis talks a good game about how ND's foes and detractors had best enjoy themselves now because soon the Irish will strike back with a vengeance. Sorry, but I don't see it. Whatever promising future Weis envisions escapes me. There's not one shred of evidence to indicate that the Domers are on the verge of a resurgence.
At present, they're nothing but overmatched and under motivated. To say they've disgraced themselves may sound quite harsh but if the shoe fits, be prepared to wear it. It's been nothing but dismal doings since that debacle of an opener against Georgia Tech.
For the most part, 2007 is down the drain. It's a lost cause if ever there was one, regardless of how things play out from here. The fallout from this fruitless campaign is immense. For the Irish, 1 and 8 represents a nuclear winter. It's tantamount to total destruction. A nadir has been reached.
But this season is no longer important. It's become immaterial and incidental. What matters now is next year and the seasons to come. The burning question is can the Irish shake themselves from this morass and reclaim their dignity in a relatively short amount of time? Can they dig down deep, learn from this abomination and start their climb back towards respectability without prolonging this agony much longer?
Or is the culture of losing so engrained in them that its' effect could last well into the immediate future? Like a virulent cancer, will it be hard to eradicate?
You know that the Irish nation, the alumni, the fans, those sympathetic in the media, won't put up with much more of this crap. If things don't radically change, Weis and crew will be devoured alive. They'll be eaten up until there's nothing left. Those that are passionate about the Irish have had their belly full of losing. They're fed up with it. Shouldn't Weis and his charges feel the same?
The time has come for the culture of losing to stop. The brakes need to be applied to it this very moment. Because if it isn't purged soon, the Irish will become even more lost than they are now. And that's too scary a proposition to even contemplate.