Jim Rogash / Getty Images

Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis, right, shakes hands with Boston College coach Jeff Jagodzinski after the Eagles beat the Irish 17-0 on Saturday.

How does Weis expect his players to express themselves on the field when he controls so much of their image off it?

Notre Dame is 16-16 since they beat Penn State in the second game of the 2006 season. That is also the last time they beat a ranked team. I am continuously mystified by how the Irish could have played with such passion and poise during the first six games of Weis’ tenure in 2005, and yet since the Fiesta Bowl loss to Ohio State have been so … routinely emasculated.

I wonder, was it Harold Hill Syndrome? Were Notre Dame’s players, like the citizenry of River City in “The Music Man”, so starved for leadership and inspiration that the arrival of Weis (and the concomitant glitter of his Super Bowl rings) blinded all as to whether he really is a great head coach? A good head coach?

Weis certainly is an intelligent football mind. And, as this season’s catastrophic knee injury has proven, he puts the team’s welfare ahead of his own health. But, as the situation with Golden Tate once again evinced, he consistently micro-manages the image of this program to unrealistic standards.

It can be quite comical. Earlier this week Weis was asked if he had spoken to his former quarterback, Brady Quinn, after Quinn was named the Cleveland Browns' starter. "Yeah, I'll give you one a little anecdote," Weis replied. "(Brady) said, 'Well, it's the same as every week. I prepare the same every week.'

"I said, 'Hey, Brady, that's a bunch of garbage; you can tell it to someone else who wants to hear that stuff,'" he said.

So, to clarify, when a former Notre Dame player falsely testifies to him, Weis calls him on it. And when a present Notre Dame player truthfully testifies to the media, Weis calls him on it.

Does all of that have anything to do with winning and losing? Maybe. Weis and his staff have landed two terrific recruiting classes in a row, and the feeling was that this season was all about growth and possibilities. Steps toward expunging the memory of that putrid 3-9 season. First, a winning record. Then rankings. Then a bowl. As long as the slope was upward, the exact number of wins and losses was largely just cosmetic.

But the Irish, ever since halftime of the North Carolina game, have regressed. And, though none would ever say it for fear of Charlie having "a talk with them," their effort at Boston College spoke loudly enough: "Right now, we think the season’s over."

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