SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- What's the best way to cope with a tough loss? If you're on Charlie Weis' team, you have to get back on the practice field.

A team that loses a Saturday game goes through a process, the Notre Dame head coach said yesterday, five days after his team's crushing, 33-3 defeat at the hands of Georgia Tech. That process begins when players return home from the game, and their families and roommates are miserable. Sundays aren't any better.

"You go to church, and everybody says, 'Well, what happened?' " Weis said.

The players' misery continues through Monday meetings, through dinnertime at the campus dining hall. Weis even has to field questions about the game from his neighbors when he takes out his garbage.

Then 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday rolls around. It's time for the Irish to practice again, to stop dealing with the psychological and emotional effects of their loss and physically kick their bodies into high gear. When Weis met with reporters at the conclusion of yesterday's practice, he was satisfied -- he'd held his team to a high standard all week and kept the practice tempo high.

"It's been one of the most physical weeks that I've seen since we've been here," senior safety Tom Zbikowski said at a press conference yesterday, while seated to the left of senior linebacker Maurice Crum Jr.

At the end of every Thursday practice, the Irish run a two-minute drill. Junior quarterback Evan Sharpley has been running it during the past couple weeks, but yesterday, freshman Jimmy Clausen got the ball because he'll be starting against No. 14 Penn State tomorrow at Beaver Stadium.

Weis knows how loud it will be when Clausen tries to drive the Irish down the field tomorrow night, so he decided to fill the Loftus Sports Center with the blaring sounds of Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen yesterday while Clausen ran the two-minute drill. That, Weis said, forces Clausen to pull the huddle in tight enough for his entire offense to hear what he has to say.

"You can't hear, literally," Weis said of the noise-flooded practice facility. "If I said something to you right here, you can't hear. You actually have to get the huddle really tight."

This year's Notre Dame team is younger than last year's, prompting Weis to change how he approaches the practices themselves. Last year's veteran group could endure a vicious practice. Now, Weis has to pick and choose how he lashes out.
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"You kinda have to feel your way through until you find those buttons that get those guys clicking," Weis said.

While players stretched and warmed up, Weis -- clad in a baggy gray sweatshirt and blue athletic shorts -- twirled his whistle and bellowed to his players, saying things like, "This is how many friends you're gonna have Saturday night," and "There are gonna be white shirts in the Notre Dame section," referring to Penn State's planned, all-stadium White Out.

Now that the misery of last week's loss has been burned away on the practice field, Weis is content knowing that the team improved every day.

"That, we accomplished," Weis said of this week's practice sessions. "Now let's see how that comes to fruition come Saturday night."