Notre Dame Loses Kyle Rudolph For Rest of Regular Season

While I'll talk about whether or not the Notre Dame Fighting Irish should part ways with their "decided schmatic-advantage" head coach Charlie Weis tomorrow, now I'm going to take some time to kick myself while I'm down.

The sting of losing to Navy at home is one that I'm most definitely feeling, but the Irish found out on Tuesday that they've lost more than just a game - and their dignity, their BCS hopes, etc -- as news came on injured tight end Kyle Rudolph.  Rudolph hurt his shoulder while making a catch on Saturday, and now we find out that the sophomore tight end is going to miss the rest of the regular season because of it.

Irish coach Charlie Weis made the news official Tuesday, saying the sophomore tight end is likely done until a bowl game. Rudolph injured his left shoulder on a catch along the sideline in the Navy loss last Saturday and Weis said the injury involves some muscle issues in the shoulder.

"Rudy probably won't be back for the rest of the regular season," Weis said. "They feared a collarbone being broken and that's not it. In all likelihood -- (doctors) said Stanford is a possibility, but I think that's a reach. I think he'd be able to practice again in December."

 What these muscle issues are exactly, I don't know, nobody's saying.

What I do know is that this is a huge blow to the Irish offensive attack.  Yes, they just got Michael Floyd back this week, which is a huge boost, but the combination of Floyd and Golden Tate is a lot more dangerous with Rudolph stretching the middle of the field.  Now teams will be able to focus their coverage on stopping Floyd and Tate, and though they're both so amazing they'll still be able to get open, there probably won't be nearly as many opportunities for big plays.

Which could haunt the Golden Domers over their final stretch of three key games.