Not sure about the purpose of your post.
All the top teams lose players - to the pros, to injury, to graduation. USC and all the other top schools simply reload. USC lost 15 starters a few years ago and reloaded w/ Leinart, Bush, White, Steve Smith, Dale Jarrett, Lofa Tatupu, Mike Patterson, etc.
Weis should have used a brain cell and played his younger players more. Let's take an honest assessment - how many of Weis' recruits are significantly better than when they arrived in South Bend? Doesn't seem like many.
Here's a pretty intersting article that hits the nail on the head about Weis ... he took all the credit for ND's previous victories and he's been masterful about dodging critcism on all of the big-game losses.
http://msn.foxsports.com/cfb/story/7243060
As an aside, love the fact that Jimmy Clausen was held back twice. Didn't start kindergarden until he was 6 then he repeated the sixth grade. Sounds like a winner.