OPINION

By Dave Curtis

updated 1:31 a.m. ET Feb. 5, 2009

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - When Manti Te'o shared his news from Honolulu, Charlie Weis, bad wheel and all, hopped from his conference room chair and pumped his fist. Down the hall, Notre Dame football secretaries screamed with delight.

And Irish assistant coach Brian Polian, a regular on United Airlines Flight 81 (LAX-NHL) the past two months to court the nation's best high-school linebacker, found a cell phone for a quick chat with his newest player.

"You know," Polian said he told Te'o, "you're as close to a man crush as I've ever had."

Yes, joy and Notre Dame football, rare bedfellows in recent years, met again Wednesday as Te'o and 13 others across the country signed and shipped their intentions to help invigorate the floundering Irish. The class, which grows to 17 with three early enrollees thrown in, includes four consensus top 50 national prospects and marks a third straight strong class for Weis and his staff.

But since 2007, these national signing days have leaped from undercard status in the Notre Dame football year to the main event. No on-field victory in the fall produced more reason for high-fives and man hugs as Wednesday, when the program celebrated a collection of teenagers who have never played a snap of college football.

So amid the joy came a reality check on Notre Dame's place in this sport. Like all the other schools looking up at the BCS elite, Notre Dame now needs the hope of signing day, not the faith in a consistent winner, to fuel its football passion through the winter. That's a consequence of going 10-17 in its last 27 games, of losing to Syracuse and Air Force and Navy, of dealing with the fall's uncertainty about whether Weis would return as coach.

Football optimism, once a given in these parts, is couched most of the year thanks to the losing. But for these few hours in February, it swells, maybe to its peak. News of Te'o's signing roared through campus like a snow squall, placing a fresh coat of "It's going to be our year" over the Irish fan base.

But will it be their year? Will four- and five-star recruits already here develop into top-flight college players? Will those guys, aided by as soft a schedule as any national program, distance itself from mediocrity? Or will Feb. 4 go down as Notre Dame football's best day for 2009?

Weis' boss, the man who opted to retain the embattled coach in December, isn't stressing over the rest of the year.

"I'm not bothered by the negative inference," athletic director Jack Swarbrick said Wednesday, "because I'm optimistic about our freshman and sophomore classes."

And some of these pre-frosh can play, too. Weis raved about linebackers Te'o, Carlo Calabrese and Dan Fox, calling them candidates to play as freshmen. Offensive lineman Chris Watt was the Gatorade Player of the Year in Illinois, and running back Cierre Wood and receiver Shaquelle Evans rank as good scores from the West Coast.

The losing didn't seem to resonate with those guys, and Irish coaches said it didn't impede them with prospects. Recruiting coordinator Rob Ianello hearkened to his 1990 season at Wisconsin — the team went 1-10, but the staff recruited the core of a group that would win in the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day, 1994.

"The record," he said, "is irrelevant."

At some point, though, the off-field victories in February must translate to consistent on-field victories in the fall and January. Weis' fist pumps must come in locker rooms, not conference rooms. The players pumped on the Internet as the next great ones in Notre Dame lore must eventually fulfill those 21st century scriptures.

Two years ago, Weis hoped signing quarterback Jimmy Clausen would keep the program as a BCS contender. Now, Weis hopes Te'o can help catapult the program back to those heights. Wednesday's lunchtime celebration, he hopes, was the first of many.

"It was a very raucous crowd, needless to say," Weis said.

Check back in September, when they start the competitions that really matter, to see whether the raucousness remains.

Also on NBCSports.com Rosenthal: Steelers’ struggles could sink their playoff hopes Circling the Bases: Halladay to Cubs? That’s unlikely College Football Talk: Weis to resign? That’s ‘not happening’ Opinion: So far, Nowitzki is NBA’s MVP  |  Fan Ranker Twitter: Follow us @nbc_sports

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