"Sometimes," it likely will say, "life is unfair."

The litany of "losing" coaches in the Fighting Irish's electric football history is short — Joe Kuharich (17-23), the only guy with a truly losing multi-year record...Gerry Faust (30-26-1 and also massively unlucky)...Hugh Devore (2-7) a one-year stopgap before Ara Parseghian turned the program into a monster...Terry Brennan (32-18)...and Davie (30-20).

If you get the distinct impression standards under and around the Golden Dome are outrageously high, you probably know the words to the preamble to "The Victory March."

The all-time winning percentage is a Joe Paterno-esque .752, which may or may not explain the Irish old grads' and subway alumni's expectations.

Which brings us to Saturday night at Boston College's cozy little Alumni Stadium, which turned out to be the perfect metaphor for Davie's five-year career, which very likely has only four games to run.

In beating a 3-4 Irish team that self-destructed in the game's final three minutes, 58 seconds after Brian St. Pierre's 20-yard pass to Jamal Burke with 12:32 left, B.C. simply played the role of opportunist/executioner.

Given two and only two chances to score second-half points, the 6-2 Eagles did just that.

They erased a 14-7 halftime deficit when St. Pierre hit game-long Irish nightmare William Green on a right sideline-and-up pattern behind Courtney Watson and late-arriving Donald Dykes for a 70-yard touchdown on B.C.'s second possession of the half, then countered Nicholas Setta's go-ahead field goal with the game-winning 7-play, 74-yard drive.

Burke's TD came on a over-the-middle inside-release play where he had barely half a step on the Irish's best defensive back, corner Shane Walton.

"I should have had inside leverage," Walton admitted. "I thought I was gonna be able to knock it away."

It WAS a perfectly-thrown ball, but Walton insists he could feel the ball's wind as it flew past him and into Burke's hands at the N.D. 3.

And they say baseball's a game of inches.

For Notre Dame under Davie, football has been a game of itches. "I know we're this close to really putting it together, said redshirt freshman quarterback Carlyle Holiday, who re-bruised his right knee picking up two yards on a scramble to the B.C. 33 on Notre Dame's last fateful drive.

"We were able to move the ball (virtually) whenever we wanted to. We're this close..." added Holiday, whom Boston College coach Tom O'Brien called "The closest thing to (last year's Heisman Trophy winner) Michael Vick I've seen."

Notre Dame had three (3) opportunities in those final 12-plus minutes. The results were gruesome, starting with a cleverly-devised and better-executed Holiday option reverse to Terrance Howard, who flipped to David Givens, circling behind him.

With Boston College's defense in full panic mode, Javin Hunter broke unnoticed down the right sideline. But — and this was a classic documentation of how this Irish season has gone — Givens badly underthrew Hunter, who wound up having to make the catch on the ground at the Eagles' 34 on a play that HAD to be a touchdown.

Instead, blessed with a first down at the B.C. 22 two plays later, tailback Julius Jones reached behind him for an errant option pitch from Holiday and it instead wound up in the hands of Boston College tackle Doug Goodwin.

Uh-oooohhhhhh...

"It was a good game plan," insisted offensive coordinator Kevin Rogers. "I think the kids knew what we were doing. The lack of execution in certain situations really cost us, including the two minutes at the end."

Yep, there were two more chances, opportunities typical N.D. teams eat up. The first included a smartly-executed 33-yard foray to the B.C. 25, where it stalled out and eventually resulted in a fourth-and-two Holiday heave to a double-covered Gary Godsey in the endzone.

"It was the same play Jones scored on, but their two guys read it," said Davie, whose fatalistic facial expressions betrayed a genuine attempt at optimism.

"I tried to lay it in there," Holiday said. "They had a smaller guy on him." But, typically, 5-8 Trevor White and 5-11 Doug Bessette somehow tipped the ball away from the 6-6, 270-pound Godsey.

"I had my hands on it and (Bessette) just tipped it away," the heavily-muscled former quarterback said.

Inches...

And yet, quickly a dominant Irish defense — basically victimized by two Green plays, a 71-yard TD bolt that created a 7-7 tie at the end of the first quarter and the 70-yard tying T.D. on St. Pierre's short "wheel" sideline pass, created one final opportunity for a happy ending.

The victim? The least likely — Green. Inside linebacker Tyreo Harrison popped through an ever-popular "A"-gap center/left guard hole and punched the ball loose from a startled Green (who rushed for 195 yards in 28 carries). Harrison recovered at the B.C. 35 with 2:08 left.

But Holiday went down on the next play and although he converted a fourth-and-7 from the 32 to Arnaz Battle at the B.C. 23, sophomore Matt LoVecchio was unable to conjure up another big play. Defensive end Sean Guthrie provided a ceremonious blowout of Notre Dame's flame with a fourth-down sack of LoVecchio.

And it was left for a shocked team, which had dominated both lines of scrimmage with a 2-1 time possession advantage, to try to explain yet again how it was 3-4 with games against three ranked teams — No. 7 Tennessee in South Bend this Saturday, Stanford and Purdue (both on the road) in their final four.

"I felt I was — we were — doing good jobs the whole game," said nose tackle Cedric Hilliard. "(Green) gets the ball and hits the hole faster (than anybody he'd seen). But you try so hard and we were in such good position to win the game."

OK, the Irish played themselves out of the Nebraska game in Lincoln, falling behind when the Cornhuskers rode a thunderous wave of emotion built by their red-clad legions. But then they basically played the nation's No. 3 team and its downhill 18-wheeler offense even for the final fifty minutes.

They had endless chances to put Michigan State away, but didn't, then took a major thumping at Texas A & M. Yet you couldn't help thinking if the gridiron gods were a little less sadistic and Notre Dame were 4-3 right now, they'd SERIOUSLY entertain thoughts of an upset of Tennessee and a run at a bowl not too far removed from the overhyped Bowl Championship Series.

But this is Notre Dame, remember. And the faithful are gathering. The Bob Davie Watch is in full swing now.

IRISH ECHOES | The cottage-industry list of names is down to less than half a dozen, with Oklahoma's Bob Stoops and Oakland Raiders coach Jon Gruden on top. Stoops signed a $2 million a year extension in Norman, but the Youngstown, Ohio, native is a devout Roman Catholic and supposedly has a Notre Dame escape clause in his contract. Gruden, also a native Ohioan and Catholic, has had his name batted around in some very influential circles. Al Davis or "Monk" Malloy (Notre Dame's colorful president). Now THAT would be an intriguing choice.