Eric Hansen

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - The statistical carnage from Notre Dame's 3-9 season will fade eventually.

So will the sometimes-clumsy quotes from Irish head football coach Charlie Weis that framed the three in-season transfers and almost a fourth one. So will the boos. So will the Tyrone Willingham comparisons. So will the rude whispers about who should or shouldn’t be wearing headsets on the Irish sidelines.

Notre Dame’s most perplexing, most forgettable, most exasperating, most weird season in its 119-year football history will not define Charlie Weis as a college head football coach. The days between now and the Sept. 6, 2008 season opener with San Diego State will.

Can Weis finish with a flourish and really bring in the No. 1 recruiting class? Will his coaching makeover be broader than a critique from coach Bill Belichick and the limbs of the New England Patriots’ coaching tree? Will he rearrange his coaching staff? Will his players work as hard in the offseason as he does? Can he stay out of the media traps? Can he relinquish trying to control the company line every single second and realize he does recruit intelligent, articulate, mature kids? Can he evolve rather than change and can he do it to the point that he can shock the college football world?...In a good way?

While all that incubates, there are aspects of 2007 worth looking back upon -- not as many as the aspects Irish fans would rather forget, but here’s a sampling of both:

Best Player: Trevor Laws. In a normal year, his stats would add up to All-America status. In a 3-9 season, the fifth-year senior defensive end's cool, crazy hairdo gets more pub than his numbers. Runner-up: Junior safety David Burton.

Best Player Under Pressure: Tom Zbikowski. No Irish player – not even freshman QB Jimmy Clausen – is held to a higher standard, more dissected, more cussed and discussed than the fifth-year senior safety. And he never once flinched in the spotlight. He may or may not have lived up to other people’s statistic and aesthetic expectations on the field, but Zbikowski helped hold a fragile team together, played big in big games, and served as the face of the program in good times and bad without a meltdown. Runner-up: Freshman running back Robert Hughes.

Best Freshman: Nose Tackle Ian Williams. Williams made just two starts and ended up with more tackles (45) than starter Pat Kuntz, who had a very good year himself (42 tackles). He also had more tackles than every other ND outside linebacker or defensive lineman except Laws. Runner-up: Wide receiver Duval Kamara.

Best Stat(s): Notre Dame improving from 90th nationally in 2006 (out of 119 FBS teams) to 20th in pass-efficiency defense and from 65th to 43rd in total defense.

Worst Stat: Fifty-eight sacks given up – worst in the NCAA’s short three-year history of recording that team stat, and 20 more than the now-obliterated old school record.

Best Moment: Hughes’ touchdown against Navy, a day after his slain brother Tony’s funeral. Runner-up: Zbikowski playing quarterback during garbage time in a Senior Day victory over Duke.

Worst Moment: Weis putting the nation’s worst offense on the field on fourth-and-8 from the Navy 24 with a chance to essentially win the game with a 41-yard field goal. The Mids went on to break a 43-game losing streak to the Irish with a 46-44 triple-overtime victory. Runner-up: The reversal by a Pac-10 replay official of David Grimes’ apparent touchdown catch against Stanford. The Irish still won the game, but the level of incompetence and the Pac-10’s reluctance to admit it as such raises serious integrity questions.

Slide show   Week in Sports Pictures Flying on the hardwood, racing on the rink, getting physical on the gridiron, and much more. more photos

Best Opposing Game Plan: Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets looked like a BCS contender on both sides of the ball in the season opener (a 33-3 Tech rout) and set the defensive template for defensive coordinators to follow the rest of the season. Runner-up: Navy.

Worst Opposing Game Plan: UCLA. The score (20-6) speaks for itself. Runner-up: Stanford. In this instance, the score (21-14) really had to speak for itself. Cardinal coach Jim Harbaugh played hooky from the postgame press conference.

Ten Players Who Need A Big Offseason In The Weightroom: 1. QB Jimmy Clausen, 2. RB Armando Allen, 3. OT Matt Romine, 4-8. Each and every one of the five incoming freshman defensive linemen, 9. TE Mike Ragone, 10. Kicker Brandon Walker.

Silliest Preseason Or Pregame Concern In Hindsight: That the freshmen were having trouble learning the words to the Alma Mater. Weis actually made them come in for an extra practice -- and before sunrise. Runner-up: That Michigan running back Mike Hart actually felt compelled to guarantee a victory over Notre Dame.

Five Signs That Weis Does Know What He’s Doing: 1. Weis driving Hughes home himself for the funeral of Hughes’ brother and engaging the NCAA to allow for two buses for Hughes’ Irish teammates to attend. 2. Offensive lineman Chris Stewart’s rapid rise upon returning to the team after contemplating a transfer. 3. Being unafraid to try new things in season, such as physical practices in the middle of the season. 4. Playing freshman outside linebackers Kerry Neal and Brian Smith early and often. 5. Still standing for the right things (various charitable causes) when no one was watching. In fact, Weis made certain some of his more heartfelt gestures off the field never found their way into print or onto tape.

Player who will surprise in 2008: Cornerback Gary Gray. Runner-up: Offensive tackle Sam Young.

MORE FROM NOTRE DAME CENTRAL

Notre Dame Central Section Front

Inside the Irish blog: Latest news and analysis Predictions 101: Irish to bounce back, edge Pitt Inside the Irish: TE Rudolph out for the season Fighting Irish face tough test at No. 8 Pitt Inside the Irish: Theme of week is accountability ND's loss to Navy puts pressure on Weis again Notre Dame drops out of Top 25 Five things we learned: Red zone offense killed Irish Navy likely sinks Notre Dame's BCS bowl hopes Floyd's back, competition with Tate resumes Notre Dame Central Section Front   Add Notre Dame Central headlines to your news reader: