Feast and Famine in South Bend

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Here in the Midwest the first Friday of each month conjures two words: "Fish Fry!" At Notre Dame, though, it's a final Friday of sorts for the Charlie Weis era. Players, coaches, staff and some family members will convene in a few hours for the 2009 football banquet and I imagine that something heartier than cod or smelt will be on the menu.

Strange day at The Gug for what is the last day of note of the Weis era. Shortly before 2 PM on this chilly (27 degrees), gray and blustery afternoon, players began filing in for their final team meeting. Coach Weis was expected to be there as well, to meet with juniors Jimmy Clausen and Golden Tate and their families to advise each about his respective NFL draft prospects should either elect to pass up his senior season in South Bend.

Outside, two delivery cars from local sandwich favorite Jimmy John's pulled up, carrying dozens upon dozens of boxed meals into The Gug. In the rear, at the entrance closest to the coaches' parking lot, the sign that you see pictured here was duct-taped to the door.


For the coaches, Friday may be the first day all have been in the same place since their plane touched down in South Bend following the 45-38 loss at Stanford (only once in the Weis era did the Irish allow more points in regulation, the 47-21 loss to Michigan in 2006) last Sunday morning. The assistants have been out on the road recruiting all week, and as Eric Hansen of the South Bend Tribune wrote on Thursday, even Weis himself did a little cellphone recruiting this week on behalf of his former employer (we wonder if, as an alumnus contacting a prospective recruit, Weis' call qualified as illegal contact and if so, would the NCAA really be so heartless as to impose a sanction? Wait, this is the NCAA ...).

The banquet, which has long been open to both the public -- for the price of a ticket -- and the media, is just a family affair. And that decision was handed down just a little more than a week ago. The curiously clandestine nature of the feast has led to some gallows-humor musings.

For instance, would it be worth my while to find a pretty blonde in a red dress and crash the banquet Salahi-style? Would it be worth my while to find a pretty blonde in a red dress regardless? Who will be the guest speaker? Ken Niumatalolo? Will we receive a media update that the banquet has been further downgraded to a pot-luck supper in the South Dining Hall? To a pizza party in the Dillon Hall 24-Hour lounge? Does Golden Tate get to sit anywhere and bring anyone he damn well pleases?

Inside the Joyce Athletic & Convocation Center, caterers were busy in the large foyer outside the Monogram Room setting up the 48 tables where tonight's guests will be seated. On either end of the foyer a large projection screen has been erected to show highlights of the year past. Since you and I will not be there, I recommend this 5:46 video clip to suffice (why didn't they use Bowie's "Golden Years" as accompaniment, though?).

And when Saturday comes, with it will arrive not just the dawn of a new day but of a new era in Notre Dame football. And yet the world keeps on turning. As all this was taking place in South Bend, the women's soccer team was planning to meet its nemesis, North Carolina, in the Women's College Cup national semi-final. No varsity sport has been more successful at Notre Dame this decade.

Taking Quarter

All week long, to no one's surprise, the editorial page of The Observer has contained earnest open letters to Clausen and/or Tate to stay and play in South Bend one more season. On Friday correspondent Bob Kessler, a class of '09 grad, went beyond the typical memories-vs.-money argument. Targeting No. 7 (as Weis likes to call him), Kessler rang off a list of NFL quarterbacks who played four years of college football: Peyton and Eli Manning, Drew Brees, Tom Brady, Brett Favre, Carson Palmer, Ben Roethlisberger and Donovan McNabb, to name a few (I will add Roger Staubach, Joe Montana and Troy Aikman).

Then Kessler named some passers who left school early: Ryan Leaf, Andre Ware, Tim Couch, Michael Vick, Todd Marinovich, JaMarcus Russell and Rex Grossman. Finally, Kessler noted that since 1985 only two quarterbacks who left school early have won a Super Bowl: Trent Dilfer and Mark Rypien.

Kessler may have made the most compelling argument for a fourth season that I have yet heard anyone make.

How Tweet It Is

Finally, some props to my man Stewart Mandel at SI.com. In the wake of Oregon's 37-33 defeat of Oregon State last night, Mandel tweeted that "ESPN should have had Jesse Palmer ask Chip Kelly, "Will you accept this rose?" ... As originally reported by FanHouse on Thursday, Notre Dame announced on Friday that it will not appear in a bowl game. This is the first time since 1996 that the Irish have been bowl-eligible but have not opted to accept an invitation. In 1996, head coach Lou Holtz resigned at the end of the season.