By Jim Donaldson

Charlie Weis, seen as a savior at Notre Dame after taking the Fighting Irish to back-to-back BCS bowl games his first two seasons, is being looked at much differently these days in South Bend.
Last year's team was 1-9 until beating Duke and Stanford in its last two games. It was the worst Notre Dame team since 1963, and some thought it may have been the worst ever.
This year was expected to be much different. Unfortunately for ND fans, Saturday's opener against San Diego State -- which lost the week before to Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo -- looked very much like the sorry '07 season. The Aztecs, three-touchdown underdogs, were on the verge of taking a 20-7 lead in the fourth quarter when they fumbled the ball way inches from the goal line. Notre Dame then rallied to win, 21-13, but it was hardly an impressive victory.
How bad have things gotten for the Irish and Weis, who was offensive coordinator of the Patriots' three Super Bowl championship teams?
Consider this post-game comment from SDSU coach Chuck Long, who was a star quarterback at Iowa and was a first-round draft choice of the Detroit Lions:
Asked which team he thought was better, Cal Poly-SLO or Notre Dame, Long thought for a few seconds, then replied: "That's a tough question. It's hard to say."
That had to be hard to swallow for Weis and the legions of rabid Irish fans.