Why is Notre Dame losing to Syracuse?

Every football season, I am probaby like every other Notre Dame fan and think that we have a shot at a National Title. Even after the worst season in history, there's a small piece of me that thinks miracles can happen during the off season. I almost expect them.

Sitting here, watching my team struggle again against a team that they are supposed to beat, I realize our problem as a program: we expect to win. I mean "we" as a fanbase, and it looks like "we" as a team. 

Gone are the days when we could expect to win a big game--or even a game against a team that is over .500. We are not the powerhouse we used to be. We don't deserve respect from other teams. We don't deserve to be on national television every home game. We are a mediocre team this year, beating up on poor teams; and we've been mediocre every year since 1993. There were  few 9 win and 10 win seasons, including Ty's first year when our defense and special teams carried us and Weis's first two years when Brady carried us over all the teams he should have.

No game today is a given, and it doesn't matter what team you are, but Notre Dame should be especially cognizant of this fact. We can be beaten at any time, as evidenced by Syracuse this year and Navy last year. The question is why?

It's easy to blame the players. They are the ones on the field, looking like they don't belong there. They are the ones blowing passes, catches, blocks, tackles, and coverage. They are usually the primary focus of the expletives I yell at the TV ("Tackle him!"). But blaming them is probably too easy. They are, after all, just kids despite the pressure placed on them by media, alumni, and coaches. And they aren't being paid millions.

Then there's the coach. We can blame Weis because he is an adult. He is given facilities, allowed to recruit great talent, and paid huge sums of money to produce wins. He is the leader, charged with putting players in the right frame of mind and providing a winning game plan. On the flip-side, maybe he doesn't have the talent, yet. But with three top recruiting classes in the last 3 years, I think we can eliminate this possibility. 

Maybe we expect too much from Weis. After all, we play USC and Michgan every year. However, we also play Stanford and Navy every year. Plus, the schedules have not been that tough the last two years. We don't play in the SEC or Big 12, and we have been softening our schedule for awhile. 

So, what should we do? Do we fire Weis? No way. If we weren't paying him so much, I'd say we keep him until his contract runs out. However, we are paying him way too much for not winning. He does deserve a shot though, so I say let him stay as long as his first and maybe second year of recruits are here. If he doesn't win a bowl by then, he should get the boot. He'll have had longer than Ty, but there is no reason in Hell that we should keep him as long as Davies. 

For millions of dollars, we should expect our coach to win; but our coach should never let the players expect a win.