Nothing in common

Remember when Notre Dame and Michigan football stood for something special?

Two weeks into the season and the Irish and Wolverines have played four games, with zero wins between them. The two winningest programs in the history of college football will meet Saturday (in Ann Arbor) as winless teams for the first time, not counting season-opening meetings.

And the losses have been anything but pretty. Michigan, which was stunned last week by Appalachian State, was pounded again at the Big House Saturday, 39-7, by Oregon.

Michigan now has lost four straight games for the first time in 40 years.

"We'll be all right," said Michigan running back Mike Hart. "I'm not worried about it. We'll bounce back. I guarantee we'll win."

When told Michigan quarterback Chad Henne was doubtful to face the Irish after suffering a lower leg injury, Hart conceded he might have to reconsider the guarantee.

But maybe the Wolverines will beat Notre Dame, which looked almost as bad as Michigan in losing to Penn State, 31-10, after dropping its opener to Georgia Tech a week ago.

How bad are the Irish? Well, freshman QB Jimmy Clausen didn't hurt, but he didn't help a lot. A prime reason for the woes is the Notre Dame running game. In two games, the Irish have a total of minus-8 rushing yards.

And one more thing. Former Notre Dame coach Tyrone Willingham was fired after his third season at Notre Dame. Let's look at the record: Notre Dame was 10-3 in Willingham's first season in 2002 and lost to North Carolina State in the Gator Bowl.

The Irish went 5-7 in Willingham's second season.

They went 6-6 in Willngham's third season and lost to Oregon State in the Insight Bowl.

That's 21-16 and two bowl bids.

Under coach Charlie Weis (with players largely recruited by Willingham), Notre Dame went 9-3 in his first season in 2005 and lost to Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl.

The Irish went 10-3 in his second season and lost to Louisiana State in the Sugar Bowl.

Now they are 0-2, travel to Michigan, then host a Michigan State team that is 2-0 and has beaten Notre Dame seven of the last 10 times the teams have met.

Then it's a road game against 2-0 Purdue, a road game against 2-0 UCLA, a home game against 2-0 Boston College, and a home game against 2-0 and No. 1 ranked USC before the schedule lightens up with Navy, Air Force, Duke, and Stanford.

Now Weis is in no trouble - he signed a longterm extension last year, and the consensus is he has recruited well the past two years, which means Notre Dame should get better.

But if you assume a worst-case scenario, the Irish could finish 5-7, which would make his three-year record in South Bend 24-13 with two bowl bids.

According to coacheshotseat.com, Weis is now No. 5 in the rankings and moving up, trailing Virginia's Al Groh, Michigan's Lloyd Carr (who probably should be No. 1), Mississippi State's Sylvester Croom, and Arkansas's Houston Nutt.

Really Big East

The Big East?

You bet.

The Big East is 14-2 after the first two weeks of the season, with the only losses suffered by Syracuse, a truly bad team.

Granted, some of the Big East's opponents have been cupcakes - Rutgers has pounded Buffalo and Navy, Louisville has trounced Murray State and Middle Tennessee State, and West Virginia has knocked off Western Michigan and Marshall.

But if you go by signature wins, and more significantly signature road wins, the Big East was 2-0 this weekend.

Cincinnati trounced an Oregon State team that beat USC last year and is regarded as one of the sleepers in the Pac-10 this year, 34-3, and South Florida claimed a gutsy 26-23 overtime win at Auburn Saturday night.

No other conference can top that.

Conference calls

The Atlantic Coast Conference and the Big Ten both deserve downgraded ratings right now.

Let's look at some games in the ACC:

Nebraska 20, Wake Forest 17 - Solid effort by the Deacons.

Oklahoma 51, Miami 13 - Embarrassing loss for the Canes.

Clemson 49, Louisiana-Monroe 26 - This win gets Clemson no style points.

Georgia Tech 69, Samford 14 - Nice scrimmage for the Yellow Jackets before Boston College comes to town.

Florida State 34, UAB 24 - Worth a W, not much more.

East Carolina 34, North Carolina 31 - East Carolina may be the best "Carolina" team this year.

Maryland 26, Florida International 10 - See Florida State-UAB.

Louisiana State 48, Virginia Tech 7 - Ouch.

Then there were the Big Ten results:

Northwestern 36, Nevada 31 - A nice win, but nothing special.

Michigan State 28, Bowling Green 17 - See above.

Minnesota 41, Miami of Ohio 35 (2 OTs) - Another struggle with a MAC team?

Ohio State 20, Akron 2 - It was 2-0, Akron, after the first quarter.

Oregon 39, Michigan 7 - Double ouch.

Eagles update

BC came out of its 37-17 win over North Carolina State Saturday with another injury, as defensive end Nick Larkin hurt his knee in the second quarter. Larkin will miss at least Saturday's game against Georgia Tech.

"He will take one more test [today]," said coach Jeff Jagodzinski yesterday. "He will not be playing this week."

With defensive tackle B.J. Raji out for the season with academic problems and linebacker Brian Toal taking a medical redshirt this season, the Eagles are indeed shorthanded. But you could hardly tell it through the first two games as they have forced 11 turnovers in victories over Wake Forest and North Carolina State.

"Our defense has picked up where it left off last year," said Jagodzinski. "We're getting the same kind of production from our guys. It's something we need to do."

Of Saturday's six dropped passes, one of the only Eagle concerns, Jagodzinski said he has told receivers coach Ryan Day to emphasize to his unit that it concentrate.

Jagodzinski was pleased with the way BC ran the ball (231 net yards on the ground vs. N.C. State), but he added, "We're going to get better at it. I'm always challenging the group up front." He said the ideal is 150 yards rushing, 250 passing.

BC's 2-0 start has caught the attention of the voters in the polls. The Eagles made their initial appearance in the AP Top 25 at No. 21, and went from 25 to 19 in the coaches poll.

But what to make of the BC fans, who continue to arrive late and leave early?

If you want Top 25 respect, you have to act like a Top 25 program on the field and in the stands.

Takin' it from top

After watching Oklahoma take apart Miami and LSU demolish Virginia Tech, the pecking order at the top has become established: 1) USC (which was idle); 2) LSU; 3) Oklahoma. After that, it looks like jump ball among eight or nine teams for the rest of the top 10. How things have changed at Oklahoma. In its rout of Miami, none of the Sooners' 51 points came on the ground . . . Texas Christian's hopes of being this year's Boise State ended with its 34-13 loss to Texas . . . Boise State's hope of becoming this year's Boise State disappeared with its 24-10 loss to Washington. . . .

Mark Blaudschun can be reached at blaudschun@globe.com.