It all hangs in the balance

Today's a big day to be an Irish fan. Now, I don't base my self-worth on Notre Dame football, because if I did I would have a hard time looking myself in the mirror on a week-to-week basis.

After last week's embarrassing loss to Navy, the Irish have three more games, and they could easily lose all of them. Today they're up against Pitt, next week it's UConn and finally Stanford.

Pitt is ranked #12 in the country, for reasons I cannot discern except that it's one of the few teams in the nation with one loss. That said, their loss comes to NC State, which features my least favorite coach in the world, Tom O'Brien (and that's saying something, since I have a lot of hate in my heart for football coaches across this great nation). It should be noted that NC State is 4-5. Anyway, Pitt has beaten every team in the Big East this season, along with, wait for it, Navy.

So there's that.

I happen to think ND will beat Pitt. But even if the Irish get that win, they've still got to get past UConn and Stanford, and I'm embarrassed to write that as if it's a challenge. Except that Stanford put up 50 points to beat Oregon, and UConn nearly beat Cincinnati a couple weeks ago.

Point is, most Notre Dame fans seem pretty well finished with Charlie Weis. They can either root for three more wins and a decent bowl game (I won't even get into the hopes of winning a bowl game) or they can hope for a couple losses here at the end of the season so Charlie's definitely out the door. Because if they finish strong, I could see the Irish giving Charlie another year. Or six.

On to other, more important parts of college football...

Who knew a game between Utah and Texas Christian would be so damn important? The game, which is usually an also-ran that plays on a Friday night, has big implications. Both teams are ranked and TCU is undefeated. Utah's beaten TCU the past three years, and while TCU is slated to beat up on Utah, I doubt that will happen. I'm guessing TCU stays undefeated but am hopeful for a close game. That said, is this game even televised? Ridiculous.

Finally, there's kind of an interesting game on mid-day between Iowa and Ohio State. I've stated previously that I am not convinced about the middle America teams' strength. Ohio State just hasn't looked particularly crisp this year, and I knew Iowa was going to go down eventually. But I think this game is interesting because whoever wins solidifies its spot in the Rose Bowl. Iowa lost its quarterback, but I think for the Hawkeyes, the pressure's off. They're no longer undefeated and I think that helps a team get back to basics. Anyway, no idea who is going to win, but I think it should be a decent game.

I will leave you with this, the greatest of all justifications for bringing back Oregon's LeGarrette Blount, who was suspended for the season after punching a Boise State player on national television during opening night of college football.

"We put a plan in place lot of academic and behavioral ladders and if he climbed them he would have the opportunity to be reinstated," Coach Chip Kelly said. "For him it's been a long road back but he fulfilled everything we asked him to do."

I would pay at least $500 to see that kid's mid-term grades.

A long road back it was not.