Willingham, Irish out of Luck - Defeat a blow to title hopes

(SOUTH BEND, Ind. - 11/2/02) - Notre Dame coach Tyrone Willingham probably thought it would be a nice way to show solidarity with the students and crowd when he pulled out those lucky green jerseys that had been in mothballs since the 1999 Gator Bowl.

In the end, after Boston College taught the Irish a lesson in humility here Saturday with a 14-7 victory, all he did was leave himself open for second-guessing. Some of those same fans were wondering whether he had gotten too full of himself after pulling a gimmick that only served to wake up and then enrage a 5-3 team whose biggest win had been against a struggling Stanford team.

Save that stuff for the bowl game from now on, Ty.

Willingham may still be national coach of the year for the job he has done resurrecting this stately program. But the honeymoon is over.

It may take a miracle for the Irish (8-1) to get back into the national championship sweepstakes. Even though three other unbeatens - Georgia, Virginia Tech, North Carolina State - also lost, there are still three teams from BCS conferences (Miami, Oklahoma and Ohio State) that have perfect records.

And the Irish, who dropped to No.9 in the AP poll and 10th in the coaches' poll, suddenly started showing some warts.

Notre Dame won eight straight with the 107th-ranked offense in Division I-A because its defense was able to create turnovers, capitalize off them and stuff the run.

Against BC, they did none of those.

In fact, the Eagles forced the Irish into five turnovers, converting two of them into touchdowns. The Irish, who came into the game with 24 takeaways, only had one."That was a big strike against us for what we were playing for," Notre Dame linebacker Courtney Watson said. "We weren't ourselves."

The Irish can regenerate some steam the next three weeks with games against Navy and Rutgers before finishing their season Nov.30 at USC. Notre Dame could still make it to a BCS game if it wins out and finishes in the Top 10. But this is no longer Ty-tle town after the Irish let a giant opportunity to surpass Miami in the BCS standings slip away.