The man with an identical Notre Dame coaching record as Ty Willingham after 15 games supposedly guaranteed a win over Michigan State today. And for the rest of his tenure, too. From the Indianapolis Star’s Tim Prister.

Notre Dame’s Charlie Weis and Michigan State’s John L. Smith have developed a professional disdain for each other that took root last season after the Spartans’ 44-41 overtime victory over Notre Dame.

More than a dozen Michigan State players planted the Spartans’ flag in the middle of Notre Dame Stadium. Weis didn’t see it. He was preoccupied. He had just lost his first game as Irish coach. But his 13-year-old son, Charlie Jr., saw it, and later described the scene to his father.

Weis vowed revenge, if not publicly, privately. Smith insists that Weis said the Irish “will never lose to Michigan State again on my watch” during an alumni function. Weis said he doesn’t talk to anyone other than his family during the offseason, yet he never denied making the statement.

Asked if he had heard that Weis would be using Michigan State’s flag planting act as motivation, a sardonic Smith replied, “Good for him.”

Oh, but there’s more. There’s a megaphone trophy the two programs have exchanged through the years, with the winner taking home the prize. Notre Dame dominated the series for so long — 23 victories in 26 games from 1969 through 1994 — the megaphone remained in the Notre Dame trophy case for the better part of 21/2 decades.

But then Michigan State won seven of the past nine, including all five in Notre Dame Stadium. Spartans quarterback Drew Stanton said the megaphone was nowhere to be found in Notre Dame Stadium a year ago because the Irish assumed they would win.
Weis insisted he had more to worry about this week in the aftermath of Notre Dame’s 47-21 shellacking by Michigan than flags, megaphones and bulletin board material.

“We have to put the flag incident and Michigan behind us because if we try to use something like the flag incident as motivation for the game, that lasts for about five minutes once the game starts,” Weis said. “Once you start hitting each other in the mouth a few times, that stuff is over with.”

Reading this might spare you actually having to watch Penn State/Ohio State later today.

I don’t wish to sound cavalier about today’s student-athletes breaking the law, but if you’re gonna get yourself suspended, it really oughta be over something hotter than stealing a moped.

The wit and wisdom of Baylor CB CJ Wilson, as quoted by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s John Miller.

I still can’t get over that [a quarterback threw his way to start a game]. What’s even worse is even running at me the last play of the game [against Washington State]. I need to talk to somebody about that. I need to get a shrink. If there are any shrinks around Waco, I need some numbers. I’ve got to talk to some people so I can get over this. This is crazy.

There’s been a couple of comments made about Miss Wilson [his mother]. The next couple of plays, that’s usually when you see me at my best, probably jamming a guy to the ground, or hitting somebody extremely hard. When you see me doing plays like that, you’ve got to go back and watch the film. You’ve got to see if a receiver came up to me or walked past me and said something. He probably said something about my mamma. All I have to do is point [to his mother], and if she points back, it’s over. If she gives the thumbs down, I have to get him.