Lost in all of the Charlie Weis buyout rumors from the past few days is the fact that Notre Dame is still bowl eligible and according to Weis last week, the Irish will go to a bowl if they are invited this year.  That said, I came across a post over on the ESPN College Football Blog defining the bowl options for the Irish this year.

Here are the bowl games which will have an at large spot available to them.

Guaranteed Open At-Large Bids

• (1) Texas Bowl - 12/30 - (vs. Conf USA)
• (1) Poinsettia Bowl - 12/23 - (vs. Mountain West) (Update: The Poinsettia Bowl is not an option for ND)
• (1) Papajohns.com Bowl - 12/29 - (vs. Big East)
• (2) Independence Bowl - 12/28
• (1) Emerald Bowl - 12/27 - (vs. ACC)

Possible Open At-Large Bids

• (1) Motor City Bowl - 12/26  (vs. MAC)
• (1) Hawaii Bowl - 12/24 - (vs. Hawaii)

So there you have it.  We could be in a bowl game anywhere from December 23-December 30.  Of these bowls, the only one the Irish have ever been to is the Independance Bowl.  Notre Dame lost to LSU 27-9 in Bob Davie’s first season as head coach for the Irish in 1997.

Not exactly the big name bowls most were hoping for before the season started, but as the infamous Bob Davie used to say, “it is what it is”.

According to Brian Hamilton’s Chicago Tribune Blog, Notre Dame center Luke Harangody might be back in time for this month’s showdown with Ohio State in Indianapolis.

Irish coach Mike Brey said Saturday afternoon that Harangody’s pneumonia was diagnosed at an early enough stage that the junior almost certainly will return for a Dec. 13 game against Boston University. And there remains an outside chance that Harangody will be available for a critical non-conference matchup with Ohio State on Dec. 6 at Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium.

“I think you just kind of take it day to day,” Brey said in a phone interview. “Certainly, certainly, he won’t be able to play in these two games (Sunday vs. Furman and Tuesday vs. South Dakota). Is there a possibility he could play against Ohio State – yeah, but we’re not going to push it. We’ll reevaluate it Wednesday, Thursday and see where he’s at.

Possibly having Harangody back in time for Ohio State is absolutely great news.  Ohio State hasn’t been tested yet this year, but they are a pretty formidable opponent and are currently just outside both the AP and Coach’s polls right now.  The OSU game is in 5 days with a tune up against South Dakota State in between.

Playing a top 25 caliber team without our leading scorer and rebounder is not something any Irish fan is looking forward to so let’s hope Brey isn’t just being overly optimistic.  A win over Ohio State would look nice on Notre Dame’s resume come March though.

We have yet another figure on Weis buyout now courtesy of WNDU.  According to the South Bend NBC affiliate, Weis’s buyout is actually in the $20 million range.

As we first told you on NewsCenter 16 at 6, a source very close to the situation tells WNDU that the price to buy Weis out of the remaining seven years of his contract is around $20 million.

The source also says that Notre Dame does not appear to have the money right now and could be using the next week to try and raise more funds from alums.

So let’s review reports on the buyout over the last 5 days:

• Wednesday - Chicago Tribune reports the buyout is around $4.5 and source called it “loose change.”
• Wednesday - ESPN responds that the buyout is “stupefying” and actually around $16 million.
• Saturday - Irish Illustrated reports that the buyout is actually around $10 million.
• Sunday - Michael Rothstein of Fort Wayne Journal reports the buyout is around $12 million.
• Sunday - WNDU reports the buyout to be in the $20 million range.

It’s official.  No one really knows what the hell they are talking about in regards to this buyout.  My guess is there’s a whole lot of good and bad information floating around out there about this buyout and that we may never actually know what the real buyout value is.  I do know one thing.  The silence from the Notre Dame athletic department right now is deafening.

At this point though, I fully expect to hear a couple more news outlets come up with their own buyout figure.  Heck, the range in buyout figures is already $15 million from the smallest to the highest so how wrong can anyone else really be on the matter?

According to the Detroit News, Notre Dame defensive coordinator Corwin Brown is one of the leading candidates for the vacant head coaching position at Eastern Michigan.

Lions quarterbacks coach Scot Loefler , a former Michigan assistant coach; Notre Dame defensive coordinator Corwin Brown and Iowa receivers coach Erik Campbell are believed to be the leading candidates.

It makes sense that Eastern Michigan would consider Brown considering his ties to the area and the success he’s had at Notre Dame.  With limited depth and talent in the front seven over the past two seasons, Brown took a defense which had trouble stopping anyone and turned them into a respectable unit which has kept the Irish in games this year.  Even on Saturday night against the high powered USC offense, the defense played tough and kept the Irish in the game as long as they could.

Of all of the assistants on the Notre Dame staff, Brown is by far my favorite.  Watch any press conference video of Brown and you will see a coach with a great deal of pride and a great deal of love for the university.  When you consider that Corwin is a Michigan alum, it makes the pride and love he shows for Notre Dame even more impressive.  Brown is also the most emotional on the sidelines and it rubs off on his players.  Watch a replay of the Robert Blanton interception last night and you’d have a hard time deciding who was more pumped up about it - the players or Brown.

It’s only a matter of time before he is made a head coach somewhere because of his personality and recruiting prowress so this shouldn’t be shocking news, but at the same time I was hoping we get at least another year or two with him at Notre Dame.

The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette threw its own report in the buyout fray regarding the buyout for Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis stating that the number is around $12 million.

The Journal Gazette has learned from a source close to the situation that Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis’ buyout is at least $12 million.

The source said Weis is scheduled to be paid at least $2 million per year before incentives, which the fourth-year coach has not reached, according to the source. Weis agreed to the new contract in October 2005, soon after Notre Dame had a close loss to then-No. 1 USC, 34-31, in South Bend after reported NFL suitors came calling.

In the past few days there have been numerous rerports about the buyout.  The Chicago Tribune said on Wednesday that the buyout figure was between $4-5 million.  ESPN responded with a report of their own stating that the buyout was “stupifying” and around $16 million.  Yesterday, Irish Illustrated reported the number to be around $10 million.

So what have we learned about Weis’s buyout in the last week?  No one really knows what the figure is and we likely won’t ever know what the real value of the buyout is even if a change gets made.

While tonight’s game will go down as one of the more embarassing of the Weis Era, a few young and one old defender showed some heart and played really good games despite the lopsided loss.  Robert Blanton, Darius Fleming, and Pat Kuntz played their hearts out as far as I could tell and did what they could to keep Notre Dame in the game early.

Blanton started the game off right for the defense with an interception on Mark Sanchez’s first pass attempts of the game.  Blanton nearly intercepted another pass and made what should have been a tackle for loss on a reverse in the first quarter (the officials gave USC a ridiculous forward progress spot - not that it mattered much).  The future certainly looks bright for Blanton who filled in for Terrail Lambert again this week.  It is going to be very interesting to see what happens when Darrin Walls returns next year.  Walls was clearly the best corner on the team before being dismissed this semester and Raeshon McNeil has become a pretty good starting corner himself this year.  Throw in Gary Gray who got his second pick of the season tonight and corner will be one position where we have a lot of depth in 2009.

Fleming lost his helmet on one play in the second quarter but kept pursuing the play.  He was all over the field before getting hurt and like Blanton, he appears to have a very bright future.  It will be interesting to see where he ends up playing next year - whether it be at OLB or DE if the Irish play more 4-3 defense next season.

Kuntz meanwhile was a warrior yet again.  He isn’t the most talented kid and probably wouldn’t start on most top defenses, but the kid flat out leaves everything on the field and plays with more heart than anyone else out on the field.  He was disruptive early on and sniffed out a couple screens in the first half.  Give me 11 defenders with the heart of Pat Kuntz and I’ll show you one heck of a defense.

A couple other young defenders played tough as well such as Kerry Neal and Ethan Johnson.  Junior Toryan Smith also made another case for a starting role in next year’s defense once Maurice Crum graduates with a strong effort.

Notre Dame suffered a humbling 38-3 loss at the hands of USC Saturday night.  Aside from the beating on the scoreboard, the Irish suffered a couple of key injuries along the way.

Mike Anello suffered what looked to be a serious leg injury trying to cover a punt.  Anello was carted off the field with his leg in an air brace which suggests it was not a minor injury.  Anello has been, hands down, the special teams MVP of the season and had an eye popping 22 tackles on special teams appearances alone this season.  Notre Dame ranked #1 in the country in kick return coverage this season in large part because of Anello.

Armando Allen went down with a knee injury at the end of the first half and didn’t return to the game.  Allen was replaced by James Aldridge in the second half and Aldridge did OK in his absence with 58 yards on 12 carries.

Darius Fleming was injured as well and was seen on the sidelines with his arm in a sling during the 2nd half.  Fleming played quite a bit against USC and looked pretty good at times.  He played wth a lot of heart and emotion - especially when he helmet popped off and he still kept pursuing the ball callier.

We’ll find out the availability of all three for any potential bowl game once the team gets back to South Bend most likely.

Saturday night’s loss to USC had very few highlights for the Irish.  Instead the game was highlighted by offensive ineptitude like we haven’t seen for a while.  Even though the Irish got on the scoreboard Saturday night, unlike they did in Boston three weeks ago, the Irish offense could barely move the ball.

Notre Dame gained just 91 total yards and collected just 4 first downs.  In fact, the first 1st down of the game came on the last play of the 3rd quarter.  Let that sink in for a bit.  It took almost 45 minutes of game time for the Irish offense to gain a single first down.

In the last two meetings with USC, Notre Dame now has just 14 first downs and 3 points.  Who ever thought that would be the case after the 2005 thriller in South Bend?

Here are a few more sobering offensive stats from tonight.

• Clausen completed a respectable 50% of his passes (11 of 22) for a mere 41 yards.  That’s 1.87 yards per attempt.
• Thanks to sack yardage, Notre Dame ran 27 times for 50 yards - a 1.9 yards/carry average.  Even without the sack yardage, Notre Dame gained just 79 yards on 23 attempts - a 3.4 yards/carry average.
• Notre Dame had almost as many turnovers (3) as first downs (4).
• The Irish were just 2 of 14 on 3rd down.
• Notre Dame never reached the red zone.

During the 4th quarter of the Notre Dame-USC game tonight Holly Rowe reported that she had a conversation with Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick and her report was anything but a ringing endorsement for Charlie Weis.

In a nutshell, Swarbrick said that the only thing that will be considered is what is best for the student athlete and based on what she said, it sounded as though Swarbrick was saying the buyout was not an issue and wouldn’t be a deciding factor on what Notre Dame will do with Charlie Weis.

Given the opportunity to defend Weis and give him a vote of confidence, he did not according to Rowe and that speaks volumes.

The only positive comment from Swarbrick was that we have had two great recruiting class in a row and are on the verge of another.

Also, since they did not show the interview with Swarbrick, take all of these comments with a grain of salt even though I’m sure a quality news service like ESPN wouldn’t only report what made the best story right?

I think the quarter by quarter notes are going to end here because there isn’t going to be much positive I can say about this game.  This game is disappointing and disheartening in so many ways.  As I type this, we are still looking for our initial first down of the game.  Sigh.