NOTRE DAME -- In Saturday's season-opener against San Diego State, Notre Dame can officially "move forward" from a 2007 that likely still has Knute Rockne rolling in his grave.

That said, Charlie Weis was "master of the obvious" in his first Game Week press conference!

"I think we're all ready for a game," said the fourth year coach.

That line goes down as the understatement of the summer. After an embarrassing 3-9 campaign, Saturday can't get here quickly enough.

"I just think that it's been a long training camp, a long and grueling training camp. School is back in session. It feels like you should be playing football games. It was a long off season. Seemed like an eternity from when you walked off the field against Stanford until now," Weis said.

What NOW actually is remains a mystery. How much better is QB Jimmy Clausen? Will his offensive line protect him for longer than two seconds? Has Jon Tenuta's presence made the defense nastier?

Questions that will be answered in due time.

"I think there's a lot of guys that have put in a lot of hard work between then and now. And I think that it's time where they should go out and be able to go out and have a little fun for a change," added Weis.