For the second straight game, Jack Cooley was shoved to the floor by an opposing player. And for the second straight game, Cooley responded with a scoring outburst for Notre Dame.Two points put Notre Dame right back where it started the football season.
After Saturday’s 23-21 loss to Navy (7-3), the Irish have to deal with speculation about coach Charlie Weis’ future with the program.
This was supposed to be the season that a lot of the heat subsided for Weis. Notre Dame had a big-play offense and what was believed to be a good enough defense to put the Irish in position to reach a third BCS bowl in Weis’ five seasons.
Instead, an inability to stop big plays on defense and flameouts in the red zone – some by bad luck (a ball bouncing off receiver Michael Floyd on a missed signal), others by misses (freshman kicker Nick Tauch’s 30-yard field goal) – have all but ended Notre Dame’s BCS dreams and again brought Weis’ job status to the forefront.
“But I think that as I just told the team, I coach the team exactly the same way every week regardless of the situation, whether it’s a win or lose,” Weis said about people questioning him after a second loss to Navy in three seasons.
The one good thing is that tight end Kyle Rudolph, who was injured in the third quarter against Navy, didn’t break his collarbone as originally expected Saturday. Weis said Rudolph’s X-rays came back negative, but he didn’t have any more information on the injury Sunday afternoon.
