CRUTCH PLAYER

Charlie Weis is back on the sidelines, using a pair of crutches and looking anything but comfortable.

Upon further review it was John Ryan, his own player, who took him out on the play. Now I'm hearing that Charlie has a torn ACl and torn MCL. He'll need major surgery...which is just what he doen't need... another operation on his leg.

Curiously enough, former Irish head coach Dan Devine broke his left leg while making his coaching debut with the Green Bay Packers in 1971. Devine was hit by ex-Packer Bob Hyland in the 4th quarter and taken to the local hospital. Green Bay wound up losing to the New York Giants 42-40. The year was 1971. This was four years prior to Devine taking over at Notre Dame.

Notre Dame Stadium denizens are trying to cope with the dowpour...the stands look like a regular pancho villa. From what I can observe royal blue is by far the most popular pancho color in Michiana. Actually, this morning at Walgreen's I spotted '88 captain Mark Green in the store asking if they had any more panchos. Alas, only three remained and all were childrens' sizes.

Not that you should be looking for moral victories today if you are a Notre Dame fan, but once more the Irish' leading offensive players are sophomores. This time, the difference is that all of them are having terrific days.

Defensive lineman Ethan Johnson, a true freshman for Notre Dame (No. 9), is having one of those active days on defense. He's always around the ball.

We're about to find out which Irish and Wolverine players are mudders. If only this press box had windshield wipers.

Update: David Bruton is a mudder. Second consecutive game where the Irish defense forced a fumble within six yards of the end zone in the north end of the stadium in the second half. A huge momentum-changer. Michigan was moving and would have been within four points still in the 3rd quarter.

Notre Dame have turned into the Divine Clock Eaters in the second half. They're trying to shorten the game, which is fine, but they'd do themselve a favor with another score.

Robby Parris is seeing his first playing time of the season this half, by the way.