"Better than they thought they were..."

From Gene Wojciechowski's column (on the front page of ESPN.com) this morning:

You could see Weis' smudge marks all over this Notre Dame team, especially on offense. The Irish led 35-13 at halftime, scoring more points in two quarters than the Irish scored in 10 different games last year. So Patriot-like was the offensive efficiency that a Boston Globe writer, here to cover Weis's first game, couldn't help himself after the Irish scored their fourth touchdown.

"I saw this in January," said the writer, referring to New England's 41-27 win against the Steelers in this same stadium.

Even Weis was willing to admit that the Irish occasionally flirted with perfection in those first 30 minutes.

"I think by halftime the players started to realize they're better than they thought they were," he said.

It will take more than the Patriots' playbook and this stomping of Pitt to revitalize Notre Dame football. After all, the Irish haven't been in a BCS bowl since the 2000 season, haven't won a bowl game since 1993, and haven't won a national championship since 1988. That's when Lou Holtz still referred to one of the service academies as, "The University of Navy." But Saturday night's game is a pleasant start, though it's probably wise to remember that Tyrone Willingham won his first eight games as Notre Dame's coach, and look what happened to him: canned last season with three years remaining on his contract.