Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis just concluded his weekly press conference, and like his UW counterpart Tyrone Willingham, he downplayed as much as he could the coaching matchup in this week's game.

"I think the only time that really in my case came to play was when we were playing them back in 2005 because it was so soon after the changover,'' Weis said of whether there is any special meaning to facing Willingham, who was his predecessor at Notre Dame. "But I think once we got past that game that both he and I were happy to be past that game. As far as ourselves, we have gone our separate ways from there. That was probably the one hurdle we had to get through, but he's gone his way and I've gone my way as have the programs as well. That was the bigger hurdle to get through.''

Weis admitted that in 2005, there was some extra meaning to the game because of the proximity to the coaching change --- Notre Dame won that game 36-17.

"In 2005 it was definitely there,'' he said. "You could act like it wasn't there, act like it's this dog and pony show and act like you don't feel that way (but it was there). But now it's the second half of the season, we've had a nice, long weekend off to get off to a good start and Washington happens to be the team we are playing.''

Weis said he and Willingham are not close and don't regularly talk, though they did see each other at the coach's convention in January.

Asked if he would ever consider talking with Willingham about his past ND experience (or Bob Davie, who is part of the broadcast team for this week's game), Weis said he prefers to talk with former ND coaches who had success at the school.

"When I call people up, I usually like to call the guys who left here with a good taste in their mouths than the guys who leave here before they are ready to leave here,'' he said. "They are not the people that would be the best people for me to talk to. Not that we are not cordial, just that it's not the best situations. I don't want them to feel like they have to say something and I don't really want to ask them. So when I want to talk to someone who was in this boat, I call Ara (Parseghian) or Lou (Holtz). I feel like they can guide me the best. Bottom line is when people leave before they want to leave, it's never a good conversation.''