Samoa to Seattle: Notre Dame & Navy

For years, Notre Dame has used this formula to portray itself as a good team:
- Schedule 2, 3, or 4 good or pretty good teams. These games get big press, even if they lose them all, that's only 2, 3, or 4 losses and 8-4 or 9-4 is still enough to get ND to a bigtime bowl and set them up for recruiting also.
- Lace the rest of the schedule with weak teams. That way while Michigan is playing a "bad" team, it is Minnesota. When Washington is playing a "bad" team it is Oregon State or Cal(in the past). ND is playing Army or Duke or Bowling Green (probably all of them) and my favorite, Navy. That leads to tons of wins because they are playing just terrible teams.

Charlie Weis used this formula to get himself a 10 year contract halfway through his first season and even had books written about him and how great he and ND are.

Are these books written by Karl Rove?

Yes, INCREDIBLE!

This week, Notre Dame had their annual beatdown of Navy. Navy is a powerhouse this year. Last week they lost a titanic matchup against mighty Delaware. To further guarantee ND's 2nd win of the season, the game was at Notre Dame.

Notre Dame had used Navy for a sure win 43 (forty-three!) times in a row.

Plus, ND is coming off a bye, while Navy had to deal with national championship contender Delaware.

Brady Quinn knew they'd at least beat Navy.

I haven't been very impressed with Tyrone Willingham's 2nd half coaching this season, but let's see how he did at ND against Navy: Yup, 3-0

After today under Charlie Weis, Notre Dame now has lost to Navy after a sure win for 43 times in a row!!!!

My favorite part about today's loss is that Navy is so terrrrrrible that they even tried to give the game to ND. With the game tied they let the Irish drive down to the Navy 26 with about a minute left and 3rd down. Charlie smartly decided to run the ball which gained 2 yards and 4th and 8 with 45 seconds and the clock running on the Navy 24. Clearly this set up a game winning field goal and ND could escape with win #44 in a row. Then, Charlie must have eaten his own brain because he called timeout. This was obviously stupid since it would give Navy some time to come back after the field goal. But after the time out, instead of kicking the field goal, Weis decided to pass on 4th and 8 from the Navy 24. What? ND was sacked on the play and it went to overtime where Navy won.
Charlie: You are the man!