Maybe the most unsettling part about the worst start in the history of Notre Dame football was how similar it looked to the forbidding crescendo that preceded it.
The same players linked arm in arm, swaying almost imperceptibly before a cadre of dumbstruck fans. The same ashen, at-a-loss expressions as they sang the alma mater with no emotion.
This has been the scene every weekend this fall, and a 31-14 loss to Michigan State on Saturday produced only a grim reprise.
No Notre Dame team had ever started 0-4. This season, then, is history.
“It’s tough. And it’s not going to get any easier,” Irish defensive end Trevor Laws said. “This week is probably going to be worse than last week as far as practice and what people say about us and everything. It’s terrible, really. I don’t know. We just have to find a way.”
Yet each time the Irish redirect themselves, a road-closed sign arrests their progress. Last week it was a return to training camp, dismantling themselves to the most basic level in search of any traction. It did produce an offense that wasn’t totally hapless, featuring James Aldridge’s 104 yards rushing.
But that offense also managed just one drive of 30 or more yards, failed on 11 of 15 third downs and permitted four more sacks. Starting quarterback Jimmy Clausen threw for just 53 yards. The defense, meanwhile, allowed 30-plus points for the sixth straight game and surrendered 219 yards rushing to a Spartans squad down two starting offensive linemen.
Irish coach Charlie Weis once again will incorporate the physical, grueling training camp elements into practices this week. Yet he does so asking his team for blind faith.
All that Notre Dame has tried to date has been a means to no end. So how are the players to believe results will arrive through more of the same?
“They have to believe there’s going to be a payoff,” Weis said. “At this point, there’s been no payoff. But you keep on working for the next one. Because there is going to be one.”
For a half, the Irish maintained hope, trailing just 17-14. The offense produced its first two touchdowns of the year, including a 3-yard run by Hubbard graduate Robert Hughes at the end of an 80-yard drive.
“At least we looked like a football team out there,” Weis said.
Then, in short order, they reverted to poor form. Michigan State (4-0) returned the second-half kickoff 52 yards and scored on that possession, despite facing a third-and-9 and a third-and-17 on the drive, both of which the Spartans converted.
And consider this: The Irish failed on a fourth-and-1 attempt on the next possession. On the game-clinching drive shortly thereafter, Michigan State twice converted fourth downs, including a fourth-and-2 that turned into a 30-yard touchdown pass from Brian Hoyer to Kellen Davis.
Thus began a funereal march toward infamy: the first 0-4 start and the second-longest losing streak in school history, not to mention a sixth straight win for Michigan State on Notre Dame’s home turf, which prequalifies the Spartans as co-signers on the stadium deed.
“You’ve got to keep fighting,” Irish tackle Sam Young said. “If you quit, where’s that going to get you?”
Said Laws: “Frustration, seeking answers, don’t know what to do. Something has to change. We’re not as bad as we’re playing. And I’ve got to try to figure out why, and so do we all. We do have good players on this team. For some reason, we can’t put it together.”
Laws, clearly eviscerated by this day and those before it, absently twirled sunglasses in his hands as he spoke. His eyes wandered to nowhere in particular. Someone asked him if he ever thought it possible that he would be part of the first 0-4 Notre Dame team ever.
He didn’t answer.
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bchamilton@tribune.com
