FanHouse Charlie Weis

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- South Bend is suddenly every sailor's favorite port-of-call.

Navy beat Notre Dame for the second time in as many dockings at Notre Dame Stadium, a defeat that left the Fighting Irish (6-3) and their head coach lost at sea with three games remaining. A BCS berth has been torpedoed, as has at least one Heisman candidacy. A second consecutive 7-6 season is not out of the question as inquiries about whether head coach Charlie Weis can properly inspire his team, and whether this team will be his next season, once again arise.

"We kind of felt like we had them in a perfect storm," said Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo, whose team did everything right in the sense that they did nothing wrong. "Just [Notre Dame] looking to the postseason, very, very good Pitt team coming next week, and it's us coming."

So you think Air Jordans are expensive? The pair Marcus Jordan put on Wednesday night cost $3 million.

That's what his school's exclusive deal with adidas was worth. Now adidas has canceled the contract, and UCF athletes may have to play in their Crocs.

If we didn't know better -- and we don't -- we'd say it's all a Nike conspiracy.

It wanted adidas to make a stink over Jordan's feet so it can swoosh in on a white horse. But until that plot is exposed, we'll take this rift face value.

That means only one person can truly save the day.

Come on, Marcus. Put on the adidas.

FanHouse Writer John Walters is living in South Bend, Ind., during one of the most pivotal seasons in Notre Dame history. Check back daily for his dispatches on the Irish.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Fight? Yes.

Might? We're waiting.

"Anyone who doesn't realize the fight that's in the Fighting Irish is missing the boat," Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis said following Saturday's 34-27 loss to No. 6 USC. "If you haven't watched the last five games, I mean, it's every week the same thing."

The last five games?!? The last two years. As Saturday's nail biter proved yet again, Notre Dame football is the most compelling prime-time network drama that does not involve forensic evidence. What it also reaffirmed, what we've long believed, is that the Irish have a penchant for playing to the level of their competition. Johnny Drama, meet Charlie Drama.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Observations and opinions on Saturday's USC-Notre Dame clash:

Sure, Notre Dame came close, but imagine how much better quarterback Matt Barkley will be 13 months from now in the Los Angeles Coliseum. By the way, listening to both Pete Carroll and Barkley speaking to the media after the game, it sounds as if the USC head coach has engineered his own Mini-Me.

Here is a portion of what Carroll had to say about Barkley, who after all did toss for 380 yards, is 5-0 as a starter and has won on the road in Columbus, Berkeley and South Bend: "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."

And you thought Charlie Weis had a man-crush on Jimmy Clausen ...

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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SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Not again.

The clock really did read "0:00" this time. Notre Dame quarterback Jimmy Clausen trudged slowly toward his teammates who were congregating in the northwest corner of Notre Dame Stadium. Clausen, still wearing his helmet, walked alone and allowed himself a singular, soul-cleansing, emphatic expletive.

After what he had just been through, the junior quarterback can be forgiven that audible.

FanHouse writer John Walters is living in South Bend, Ind., during one of the most pivotal seasons in Notre Dame history. Check back daily for his dispatches on the Irish.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Flat-lined against a blue-gray sky...huh?

Greetings from the Notre Dame Stadium pressbox, which is filled with budding eulogists this afternoon. National scribes from publications and websites alike, many of them here to see whether USC will blow out the Irish and put the nail in Charlie Weis' coffin.

Sorry, I just don't see it that way.

Follow John Walters live blog after the jump.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Said Charlie Weis, glowing while describing the mighty spirit this week around Notre Dame, "I haven't felt it like this ever, me personally, since I've been here. And it's not just the university. It's the whole town."

They're called Gipper Games. They occur when a famously gifted foe is on campus to face a Notre Dame team disguised as an underdog. Not only that, with the whole college football universe watching, Gipper Games feature all of those ghosts for the Fighting Irish soaring from the steeples on the Basilica of the Sacred Heart to the statue atop the Golden Dome to the tunnel of Notre Dame Stadium.

The great Notre Dame coaches flourish in Gipper Games. Actually, they win most of them, and Weis has won none of them. So he isn't a great Notre Dame coach. He also could be a gone Notre Dame coach since each of his predecessors without a Gipper Game victory either quietly or noisily left the city limits with a shove.

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.

FanHouse writer John Walters is living in South Bend during one of the most pivotal seasons in Notre Dame history. Check back daily for his latest dispatches on the Irish.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- "I think that our players believe that they're going to win," Charlie Weis said during Tuesday's noon press conference. "I don't know if that's always been the case. Once again, I'm going reiterate it, I mean, they understand the talent level who they're going against, but I'd say, you know, this is probably the first time since I've been here where the players really believe they're going to win."

Faith. It should come naturally on a campus where Jesus is the unofficial mascot, but Weis himself admitted that his team were ye-of-little types in their previous two games versus USC.

"I think two years ago when they rolled in there, I think we might have been beat walking out the tunnel," Weis continued. "Last year, you know, I think that we hung in there at the very beginning of the game, but it didn't roll that way."