More Navy blues

Weis' Irish stunned for second time in three years by Midshipmen

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Notre Dame's Fiesta Bowl bid and Jimmy Clausen's Heisman Trophy hopes were sunk with a 23-21 loss Saturday to Navy.

Was coach Charlie Weis' career at Notre Dame also sunk?

Weis was asked how he'd handle the media and fan focus now that the best bowl the No. 19 Irish (6-3) can hope for is the Gator Bowl, perhaps against Miami.

''That comes with the territory,'' he said.

''The sad part about it is that's this job every week. You lose a game against Navy -- now, let's not diminish or slight Navy in any way because they deserve a lot of credit for how they played and winning this game. But I think that as I just told the team, I coach the team exactly the same way every week regardless of the situation, whether it's a win or loss. One thing they know from me is I never change -- never, ever change.''

Notre Dame visits No. 14 Pittsburgh (8-1) on Saturday.

''We talked all week; we felt like we had [the Irish] in a perfect situation,'' Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo said. ''There was a lot of talk [in South Bend] this week on BCS bowl games, not from their team, but media thinking about what BCS bowl game was coming up. I know Pitt is coming next week, and they're a phenomenal team. So we kind of felt like we had them in a perfect storm.''

If Weis is fired after his fifth season, losing twice to Navy and going 6-8 in November the last four seasons figure to be factors.

''Those type of things affect the people around you more than it affects you personally because I never change,'' Weis said of such speculation. ''I'm going to roll in tomorrow morning exactly the same way, whether we had won or lost. Does it feel bad? Yeah. Does it hurt? Yeah. But it's not going to change my approach of how I coach.''

The Midshipmen (7-3) counted on Weis and his staff to coach the same way defensively as they did when the Irish beat Navy 27-21 last season.

''I really hope this doesn't come across wrong, but I think the thing that helped us this year was last year,'' Niumatalolo said. ''We knew that they'd line up the same way. We didn't execute very well last year. They did a great job against us last year defensively. So we had a pretty good clue that they were going to come back and do the same things.''

Navy's option offense broke out for 348 rushing yards, including 158 from fullback Vince Murray.

''The first thing you have to do is stop the fullback,'' Weis said. ''That's where the whole defense starts. He had too many yards, some of them easy yards, and he had a couple of big runs.

''One of the plays that stood out for me is we pin them back deep into their own end, and I'm over there talking to Clausen, who had just fumbled the ball on the 1-yard line. Next thing I know, I see the fullback running for 40 yards and changing field position.''

The Heisman talk surrounding Clausen was stopped along with Notre Dame's red-zone offense. Clausen committed two of the team's three turnovers inside the Navy 5.

He was hit hard short of the goal line on the last play of the third quarter, when the Irish trailed 21-7. Clausen also was picked off at the 5 on the team's first fourth-quarter possession. The ball bounced off the back of Irish receiver Michael Floyd, who missed a signal in his first game since missing the last five with a broken collarbone.

''We were trying to get a double cadence, and we just miscommunicated,'' Clausen said. ''He was blocking the screen, and I was just trying to throw a slant, and it went off his back and a guy made a good play on it.''

NAVY 23, NOTRE DAME 21