Notre Dame’s 27-22 loss last night to Pittsburgh likely represented the final nail in Charlie Weis’ coffin.  With an overall record of 35-25 as head coach, he’s basically on par with the limited success achieved by the likes of Bob Davie and Tyrone Willingham.  The Irish performance against the Panthers pretty much summed up the Charlie Weis era – another listless performance punctuated by myriad miscues, blown chances, phantom tackling and poor officiating.  On that last note, the Irish were most certainly screwed by those Big East officials.  Not only were the penalty calls massively skewed towards the Irish but the officials totally blew two replay calls that came at crucial moments in the game.  There was no way in hell that Jimmy Clausen fumbled that ball there at the end – doesn’t the fact that the ball went forward ten yards indicate forward motion? – and the stripping of an Irish timeout on that review added insult to injury.  In all seriousness, this may have been the worst-officiated game I’ve ever seen.  How these guys can get things so wrong while having the benefit of instant replay boggles my mind.

At the end of the day, though, the Irish deserved to lose that game.  And, unfortunately, Charlie Weis deserves to lose his job.  This is a bittersweet development for me, as I believe that Charlie has done a wonderful job rebuilding the program after the Willingham experiment in talent destruction.  I also believe that Charlie is a good guy who has run a clean program.  However, he’s just not getting it done on Saturdays.  So we now get to turn our attention to ND’s search for his replacement, which one can only hope is handled with more professionalism and efficiency than was witnessed with the last coaching search.

The below clip is making the rounds for very obvious reasons.  It shows a University of New Mexico female soccer player going absolutely ballistic during a match against BYU.  What amazes me about this video isn’t necessarily the thrashing that she imparts during the game, which is certainly brutal in and of itself.  Rather, I’m more amazed by the lack of action on the part of: 1) her teammates/coaches; and 2) the referees.  Clearly, her coaches not only condoned the behavior but, given their blatant inaction, may have also directed her to act in that fashion.  I mean, any normal coach would rip that girl out of the game after the second violent infraction, so it stands to reason that the coaches were more than just OK with her behavior.  And her teammates deserve plenty of blame as well, for any one of them worth their salt would’ve intervened to shut her down.

Regarding the referee, he or she should be suspended a couple weeks at the very least.  In my opinion, I’d say this person doesn’t deserve to ref ever again.  This isn’t simply a case of missing a few calls; this ref was completely asleep at the switch, allowing this nutjob to run rampant over her opponents and put several BYU players at risk of serious injury.  It’s not just a bad game for this referee, it’s one of the worst cases of successive misjudgment that I’ve ever witnessed as a long time player/fan of several sports.  And it’s totally unacceptable.  We all have bad days at the office, but this goes well beyond that.

The Irish pulled off a rather predictable 40-14 victory yesterday against the Washington State Cougars.  I say predictable in the sense that the Irish were expected to dominate – which they did – and because I knew they wouldn’t totally blow the Cougars out of the water (which helped me win $30 since I took WSU +28).  For whatever reason, ND doesn’t have it in them to run up the score Tecmo-style, so I felt good about taking the points in this one.

This was a good win, if not for the sole reason that the Irish pulled off a victory without having it go down to the game’s final moments.  However, this win did not come without its cost.  ND suffered a handful of setbacks that came in the form of key injuries, including a rolled ankle for their best offensive lineman, Trevor Robinson, and a possible destroyed knee to their QB of the future, Dayne Crist.  Plus, uber-star Jimmy Clausen aggravated that stubborn turf toe injury he’s been nursing since the Michigan State game.

Luckily, Navy strolls into town next week, which should make for another fairly easy victory.  But a very tough Pittsburgh squad awaits the Irish the week after, which could spell doom for a squad looking to play its bowl game on New Year’s Day.  Plus, the Irish Spring practice period just got a lot more interesting.  Assuming Clausen jumps at the chance to make millions next year in the NFL, the Irish could literally be without a healthy scholarship QB on the roster for the critical Spring period.  Doh!

By the way, I need to say something.  I am a Dallas Cowboys fan, which means I’ve been forced to root for guys I didn’t like.  That is, through dedication to my team, I’ve had to cheer on the likes of Terrell Owens, Michael Irvin, and Deion Sanders, guys who are clearly assholes but whose talent helped my squad achieve success.  Unfortunately, I now find myself in a similar position with this year’s Irish.  Despite their immense talent, I think Jimmy Clausen and Golden Tate are pricks.  They are selfish, cocky players who are in it for themselves and nobody else.  This means Clausen will no doubt follow the dollars to the NFL after the season instead of sticking it out with his team and his coach for a possible national championship run next year.  And I’m quite certain Tate will follow the yellow brick road to play major league baseball next year, which will leave the Irish – and college football – without two of the most potent offensive players in the game.  I suppose I can’t begrudge their desire to get paid, but I can lament the situation as a dedicated fan of the sport and the team.  But for their skills, I’d say good riddance!