Irish are underdogs against Air Force

Notre Dame (1-8) has lost a school-record five straight games at home.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — Notre Dame at home used to be a good bet. At home against a military academy? Heading into the season, the Irish were 20-1 since 1985.

Things are different this year.

A week after losing to Navy for the first time in 44 years — their school record fifth straight home loss — the Irish (1-8) find themselves 3-point underdogs at home to Air Force (7-3). Even Falcons coach Troy Calhoun finds it hard to believe — and to describe.

“That’s one of those where you could pull my right leg and you’ll automatically get, ’Here comes Santa Claus,”’ Calhoun said.

It hasn’t felt anything like Christmas at Notre Dame this season. Things are so bad the only players coach Charlie Weis allowed to talk with reporters this week were the team captains because he knew there would be tough questions about the home losing streak and this year’s squad possibly being the worst in school history.

“I just thought it was in the best interest of a lot of guys that don’t know how to handle adversity and tough questions,” Weis said. “I thought I’d protect them,”

There’s been no protecting the players on Saturdays, though.

Week after week the Irish have been exposed and embarrassed. A 30-point loss to Georgia Tech. A three-touchdown loss to Penn State. A 38-0 loss to Michigan. A 38-0 loss to USC that was the second-worst home loss in school history.

The Irish could hit a new low today. No Notre Dame team has ever lost nine games in a season. That’s as many losses as Notre Dame had for the entire 1940s.

It would also be the first time since 1944 the Irish lost twice to military academies in the same season.

The Notre Dame captains say they don’t pay attention to any of those things, that the team long ago bought into Weis’ philosophy of focusing on each week and not worrying about the big picture. They say the biggest positive is despite their struggles, there have been no signs of dissension, no finger pointing.

“Obviously we’ve had a lot of disappointing games this year and things have not gone the way that we wanted them to go,” center John Sullivan said. “But the one constant has been this team togetherness and collective will to work hard.”