Notre Dame rant

Why did Charlie Weis whine?

I've been ambivalent to Notre Dame's new football coach all year. He's been winning with a junior quarterback who started both his freshman year and sophomore years. Brady Quinn didn't set all kinds of records this year after starting from zero. He was a veteran quarterback who had experience in Tyrone Willingham's fairly complicated offense. He wasn't chopped liver.

But no. For almost every sports commentator in the world, Charlie Weis was the second coming of Knute Rockne. Well, he's the coach now and I'm interested to see what he can do.

But my opinion of him went down a few notches this week.

First, he insisted that the Ohio State defense wasn't that much better than teams Notre Dame had already faced. The announcer of Monday's game said that Weis declared that Tennessee had one of the best defenses in the country. Tennessee. What was Weis smoking?

If your defense can't find a way to a winning season or even a win over Vanderbilt, you aren't one of the best defenses in the country.

And then he whined during and after the game about the phantom fumble that safety Tom Zbikowski picked up in the third quarter. As the headline in the Chicago Tribune read: "Weis cites nullified fumble return as game's key play."

Please. As Ohio State coach Jim Tressel said, the Buckeyes had over 600 yards of offense.

Please. Everybody says Weis is a great offensive mind. Wonderful.

Could someone please remind the world that defense wins championships.

I remember in Tyrone Willingham's first season, there was a game when a couple of calls didn't go the team's way. Afterwards Willingham said that he wouldn't complain about the officials. His program wouldn't be built on that type of whining. He was too dignified for that sort of thing.

Now there's a new coach. And he makes excuses for losing. He whines about the officials.

I guess I should be excited that he cares so much. I wish he wasn't so in love with his own genius. The Oregon Ducks had a point. Notre Dame didn't beat any team that was special this year. They hit Michigan, Tennessee, Purdue and every other team they beat on down years.

I support my alma mater. I support Coach Weis. But I wish he wouldn't whine.