Notre Dame: The Cheating Just Won't Go Away

After giving hope to Irish fans everywhere, the legacy of Charlie Weis has caused the Irish Stew to hit the fan.

What was once a fluke season has now reinvented itself as a more insidious torture: toying with the loyalty of fans. The reality of the 2-1 start from the Irish is that nothing has changed from last year, except for the quality of teams they have played.

The private projection of a 9- to 12-win season by Weis is based merely on a soft schedule, not improvement.

The Irish offense is ranked near the bottom again. The total offense is ranked 107th, and the rushing offense is ranked 111th. Some things, despite a "schematic advantage," remain unchanged.

Last year, the reasons for a 3-9 season—not excuses, as Weis never uses them—were boundless, endless and reassured with nodding heads, as the Irish faithful carefully folded their plaid flannel scarves and Clausen jerseys away for next season.

They heard the improvement on all fronts: the spin machine was well-oiled and humming from South Bend during spring practice.

Reality has a way of slapping one back into the present when an elite team struggles to put away one of the worst teams in football: the San Diego State Aztecs.

"First game jitters", "the O needs to jell" and "they're young" were all whispered, but this time, with worried faces after their home opener. "Last year we wouldn't have beaten those teams," the faithful said.

Last year, they didn't face these lower-tiered teams. Georgia Tech is a world above San Diego State, and Penn State last year would have mopped up this year's version of Michigan.

After the beat down from Michigan State, more bad news has surfaced.

An intern coach was discovered having a laptop open in the coach's press box, a clear violation of NCAA rules. To be fair, it seems probable that this breach was a simple mistake. But it has caused a more ominous story to re-emerge.

Weis, in an effort to quell any insinuation of cheating, immediately went on the offensive saying, "It wasn't like there was somebody trying to do something illegal" and then furthered his position by saying "The last thing I ever want to do is lie."

Fair enough Coach. Lying is bad, and you wouldn't want to get caught in one.

So why haven't you offered a defense to Spygate? It's not going away.

Matt Walsh, the much-maligned video assistant who brought down the Patriots, said that Weis was relaying intercepted signals from opposing teams into the helmets of Patriots' quarterbacks.

"I know that we had a quarterback learning the signals and then relaying that information to Charlie, and Charlie would then call it in to the quarterback on the field, through the coach-to-quarterback communication system in the helmet," Walsh told the New York Times.

If Weis was so adamant about defending a possible breach of rules in the Michigan State game, why has he not reacted to equal veracity regarding his possible role in Spygate?

There are two types of people in stressful situations: fighters or flee'ers. Weis, via the Michigan State game, has proven that he will defend an accusation with an immediate response. He is a fighter.

But his silence on Spygate is deafening. There can only be two reasons for this silence. One, he has been advised to do so by legal counsel, or two, if he says he wasn't involved in Spygate and is proven wrong, he will have been caught in a lie. Either way, it doesn't bode well for him.

Can one assume he hasn't responded to the Spygate accusations because he simply doesn't want to talk about it? Maybe.

But Weis has also already shown to be one who vigorously defends any accusation that he deems to be an outright fallacy, so his refusal to answer Spygate questions is a change of behavior. The fighter is also a flee'er.

What possible reason could Weis have for not answering Spygate? Why not just address the murmurs?

While no one but Notre Dame and Charlie Weis know exactly what the buyout clause in his contract is, you can bet it is large if he is terminated.

The only way Notre Dame can get out of the contract without penalty is if Weis' contract states he can be terminated due to a moral or ethical breach which portrays Notre Dame in an unkind light, or if he takes another job.

Since no one is knocking on Weis' door right now, lying would presumably be one of those "outs" for Notre Dame. George O'Leary already tested the waters of a slip-up on his resume and failed.

As long as Weis keeps mum about Spygate, he is their coach for a long time. The Irish fans must be thrilled with all of the stability that brings. He is theirs until 2015.

A head coach who, except for one year as a high school coach, has never held a head coaching position prior to Notre Dame.

A coach who was hired after Notre Dame gambled on Urban Meyer and lost, after firing Tyrone Willingham.

A coach (24-16) who now has more losses than Tyrone Willingham (21-15) at Notre Dame, and did so with a lot more talent.

A coach who was hired due to his genius offensive mind, but was implicated in using intercepted stolen play signals while he was an offensive coordinator at New England.

A coach who has stood silent when controversy erupted over one of the most publicized cheating scandals in football history.

An offensive coordinator who got great praise for the offensive juggernaut that the Patriots were, only to be given a second look when Brady got hurt. It wasn't Weis, it was Brady who was the genius.

A coach who needs to answer some questions before Notre Dame is made the laughingstock of college football.

Spygate was an aberration, wasn't it? Laptop-gate was an unfortunate error.

Wasn't it?