Eric Hansen

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - There is no script to deal with the kind of weeks Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis endured last week, nothing in the coaching manual or his long incubation period in the Bill Parcells/Bill Belichick coaching tree.

About the only things that didn’t happen during likely the most-scrutinized and criticized seven days of Weis’ four years as Irish head coach was the birth of a dreaded firecharlieweis.com Web site or an actual firing. The latter of which actually did happen Sunday to this week’s opposing coach, Syracuse’s Greg Robinson, like Weis a former longtime NFL assistant who parachuted into college football for the 2005 season.

“And different from a fan, who believes that they have a right to say whatever they want; this is our livelihood,” Weis said of standing up to the negativity. “This is what we do. And our wives and our kids live the wins and the losses right along with us. Sometimes it can be brutal being a kid. Sometimes you go into school, and it isn't just the kids. Sometimes it's the teachers. It's not the easiest thing in the world.

“My wife, she just wants to go do Hannah & Friends (the Weises’ charity) and ride her horses. And when she goes to the grocery store and somebody comes up at the grocery store and says, ‘Yeah, tough one yesterday,’ that's the last thing in the world she wants to be dealing with. They have to live it right along with us.”

A wobbly ending to an otherwise convincing 27-21 conquest of Navy Saturday, somewhat slowed the negative momentum. But Sunday’s medical report brought more challenges. Leading receiver Michael Floyd and standout linebacker and emotional leader Brian Smith will be lost for the regular season’s final two games -- Saturday vs. Syracuse (2-8), Nov. 29 at USC (9-1) –- with knee strains..

And the bowl-eligible Irish (6-4) may have to win out to end up somewhere other than El Paso, Texas, on Dec. 31 in the Sun Bowl. That is Notre Dame’s bowl trajectory at the moment -- against the Pac-10’s third option.

That team is likely to come out of a pool that includes Oregon (8-3), Cal (6-4) and Arizona (6-4) -- and Oregon State (7-3) should the Beavers slip off their inside track to the Rose Bowl in their final two games. The Sun Bowl might pass on the Ducks, though, since they played in El Paso last season.

Until ND’s two-game skid to Pittsburgh (Nov. 1) and Boston College (Nov. 8), it looked as if the Gator and Cotton -- both Jan. 1 bowls -- might engage in a taffy-pull for the Irish. The Gator will pair an ACC team against either a Big 12 team, a Big East team or Notre Dame.

The Gator gets to select two Big 12 teams in a four-year cycle. And since they have picked one Big 12 team and one Big East team in the first two years of that cycle, their options are wide open this time.

Notre Dame, if it predictably beats Syracuse but loses to USC, presents a bittersweet candidate. The Irish, even at 7-5, would drive TV ratings and ticket sales. And the Gator is coming off an attendance disaster in which Texas Tech and Virginia supposedly coaxed a paid attendance figure of 60,243 for the Jacksonville, Fla., game last Jan. 1. But in actuality, the 73,000-seat stadium was no more than half full.

Virginia sold 10,500 of its 13,500-seat allotment, Texas Tech just 5,000. Even a flawed Irish team has enough star power to get the cash registers humming and have actual fannies in the seats. Floyd and Smith will be back in time for a bowl. And quarterback Jimmy Clausen, even rife with growing pains, is a intriguing figure for Notre Dame loves and haters alike. The record crowd of 51,852 that showed up for Notre Dame’s spring game Clausen’s freshman year was largely driven by the buzz over the California QB.

The Irish would be even more appealing if the Gator were able to create a nostalgic matchup with either Miami (7-3) and Florida State (7-3) -- two of the six 7-3 teams in the ACC. But taking a five-loss team would be a first for the bowl in its 63-year history.

"Obviously, there will be a lot of conversation about that," Gator Bowl president Rick Catlett told the Florida Times-Union.

The Gator took a hit in the TV ratings too last season. Its 2.6 rating made it easily the least-watched of the six New Year’s Day games and it was outdrawn by several pre-Jan. 1 matchup, including the Music City, Motor City, Emerald, Champ Sports and Meineke Car Care bowls.

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The Big East candidate is likely to come from Cincinnati (8-2), Pittsburgh (7-2) or West Virginia (6-3), with the Cincy having the easiest road to the conference’s BCS berth. West Virginia has been a good money-maker for the Gator Bowl, but the fact the Mountaineers have landed in Jacksonville three out of the past five years makes them somewhat of a stale choice.

The favorite at the moment to land the berth, unless ND wins out, figures to come from the Big 12, and in the form of Nebraska. Should the Huskers defeat Colorado (5-6) in their regular-season finale Nov. 28, they would finish 8-4 with five wins in their last six games. They also have a strong tradition of traveling well and gobbling up tickets. Just ask former ND athletic director Kevin White about the “Sea of Red” in Notre Dame Stadium in 2000.

Nebraska first-year coach Bo Pelini isn’t having to ask questions about his job security, isn’t getting blasted by his own fans on message boards, doesn’t have to insulate himself so he can focus on the day-to-day tasks of running his football program.

The USC game could be the elixir for Weis -- or another reason to order dinner via delivery rather than risking another treacherous trip to the grocery store.

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