What Tate George's shot against Clemson in the 1990 NCAA Tournament meant to the long-term credibility of UConn basketball, that's what Andre Dixon's scamper over four yards of sacred college football real estate in South Bend, Indiana last Saturday meant to the credibility of the Huskies' football program.

Maybe it means even more, because the thought of UConn's now seven-year-old Division 1-A team playing Notre Dame, even a few years ago, was little more than a pipe dream.

But beating them?

Off the charts.

Of course, this edition of the Fighting Irish had long been exposed as a fraudulent player on the national scene, as it has pretty much been since the last national title under Lou Holtz 21 years ago.

Can the Irish be fixed, or is the revered/reviled program in a sort of permanent limbo, where it's best days are in the rearview mirror, and the lure becomes going to the Grotto, taking pictures of Touchdown Jesus and spotting Regis Philbin?

That may be, and a lot is riding on the next hire, be it Urban Meyer (you're cold), Bob Stoops (colder) or Brian Kelly (you're red hot, Doc!), but this time Notre Dame needs to get it right or it could be all but finished as a major program.

Regardless of those truths, the Huskies stand to reap millions worth of free publicity from their big-time victory.

What it will mean to recruiting, well, that's up to Randy Edsall, who hinself is now a comer on the national radar, and not only for the biggest win of his head coaching career, but for the extraordinary class and dignity with which he's handled his program since the tragic loss of Jasper Howard.

Edsall could coach my kid and my team anytime, and UConn is going to be hard-pressed to keep him when the real big boys begin to knock on his door.

That day is approcaching.

Next year will mark the 20th anniversary of George's shot; things haven't been the same at Storrs since.

In 2029, it will be quite interesting to see if we'll look back upon what transpired last Saturday and have the same feeling, that things were never the same after the Huskies went into South Bend and took down college football's most storied team.

While the win signaled the coming-out nationally for Edsall, it brought to an unofficial end the tun of Charlie Weis' in South Bend; in fact, Athletic director Jack Swarbrick and the rest of the powers-that-be would have been better off putting Weis out of his misery by calling it a day and letting an assistant run the team for the season finale at Stanford this Saturday, a game after which the Irish will likely be 6-6 and bowl eligible only if a slot needs to be filled by a fourth-rate game, an offer they would be wise to repel.

In this columnist's opinion, the turning point for both coaches and both programs came early in the second quarter with the Irish ahead, 14-0.

All season long, Notre Dame has been shooting itself in the foot with bad penalties at the worst possible times; we're talking about drive-killers or second-chancers here.

UConn was going nowhere offensively to that point and on third-and-four at the Huskies' 31, quarterback Zach Frazer threw a pass that was badly incomplete to Michael Smith on the UConn sideline.

As Smith was easing up, Irish defensive back Sergio Brown, a senior who should have known better, took a vicious shot at Brown that immediately - and justifiably - drew a flag and a 15-yard personal foul penalty, saving the drive and as it turned out, marking the beginning of the end for the Irish.

Given the second chance, five plays later, Jordan Todman's 43-yard run put UConn on the scoreboard, and Notre Dame never really recovered.

Now what for Weis?

Things will work out for Weis, who is one of the better offensive minds in the game; I can think of more than a handful of NFL teams who could put his play-calling and quarterback-developing skills to very good use, such as the Jets, who need a proven offensive mind to work with and develop Mark Sanchez.

With $50 million, a new stadium opening next season and the future of the franchise at stake, are Woody Johnson, Mike Tannenbaum and Rex Ryan really going to entrust Sanchez to Brian Schottenheimer and Matt Cavanaugh?

Weis joining Gang Green might also add some additional fire to the once-again contentious rivalry with the Patriots.

Even thought his tenure at Notre Dame will be regarded as a failure, it didn't begin that way for Weis, and it leaves one to ponder how much differently things might gone had the officials caught the "Bush Push" in 2005, completing what would have been an epic upset of USC in his first season.

One play, one moment can change it all.

Twins' catcher Joe Mauer, a sure-fire Hall of Famer at his current pace, was a well-deserved AL Most Valuable Player winner, but by that huge a margin (387-225) over Mark Teixeira, with Derek Jeter even farther back in third place?

Methinks Mauer would trade the plaque in a moment to have joined Tex and Jeter in the parade down the Canyon of Heroes a few weeks ago.

Who knows, Mauer might get that opportunity; he's a free agent and 27 years old after next season and the Yanks and - of course - the Red Sox are exected to be in on the bidding if the Twins are foolish enough to let Mauer get to that stage.

For either team, it's going to take a lot of lettuce to get Mauer (who loves all the great things there are about being Minnesotan, excluding Al Franken in the Senate), to leave his hometown team, especially with the gorgeous new Target Field in downtown Minneapolis providing new revenue streams.

As great as Mauer has been, Albert Pujols is mind-bendingly off-the-charts great.

In winning his third NL Most Valuable Player Award, the Cardinals' great was a unanimous winner, with hanley ramirez of the Marlins a distant second.

At only 29, Pujols is this generation's answer to DiMaggio, Mays, Mantle, Williams and Aaron, rolled into one, a great hitter for power, for average who fields his position well.

Not hurting either is that they are fan-friendly icons in great baseball towns who are all about the game and winning instead of personal glory.

It also doesn't hurt one bit that both Mauer and Pujols appear to be putting up clean numbers.