CHARLIE WEIS

Age:  52

School:  Notre Dame

Alma Mater:  Notre Dame, 1978

Conference:  Independent

Salary:  $4,200,000

Official Bio:   www.und.cstv.com

Years Coaching:  3

Career Record:  22 - 15   .595

Years at School:  3

Record at Notre Dame:  22 - 15   .595

2007 Record:  3 - 9  .250

2007 Cost per Win:  $1,333,000

Attorney/Agent:  Bob LaMonte    

Contract:  Not Available

December 2008 Buyout:  $5,000,000

Coaches Hot Seat Analysis

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," is how Charles Dickens opens his historical novel, The Tale of Two Cities, which is also a very apt phrase to describe Notre Dame football.  By all accounts Notre Dame should be on top of the college football world, with its energized and wealthy fan base, its own network TV contract, and the ability to get into the home of any recruit in the country.  A botched interviewing process where it became apparent that Notre Dame did not even meet the hiring process of the local 7-Eleven when it comes to checking credentials, the hiring and firing of Tyrone Willingham, and the reach of hiring an NFL assistant coach that had never coached a down of football in the college game.  That's a recipe for disaster, and Notre Dame now enters the 2008 season in full rebuilding mode, with the alumni and fans clamoring for a return to the national stage.  That was not the plan when Ty Willingham was sent packing, but the people hiring and firing football coaches in South Bend (who is that by the way?) have already proved they are not the brightest bulbs on the block.  Charlie Weis and his coaching staff have admitted the mistakes they made in the last offseason, and then they went to work on recruiting which landed them one of the top classes in the country.  Weis hired one of the best defensive minds in Jon Tenuta, and no doubt spring practice and fall camp will look a lot more like what goes on at the University of Florida than the New England Patriots in 2008.  Those are all good, if not great things, and they were all a must for Weis to move the Notre Dame football program forward, but the really hard work begins in a few weeks when the Irish players report for spring practice.  Anyone watching Notre Dame play last season could see that they were not a very tough football team, and in fact at times it looked like the Irish players were cast members in a ballet at Lincoln Center instead of playing the game of college football.  Charlie Weis is not an idiot, and he surely will make certain that when Notre Dame lines up against San Diego State on September 6, 2008 that they starting hitting people early and often.  Notre Dame must begin the resurrection of its football program at its weakest point, and its weakest point in the last 3 years has been the reluctance of Irish football players to line up and whip the guy across from them on the line of scrimmage.  If that changes, Notre Dame will have a chance to improve, but it is only a chance because the rest of the teams in the game have been playing football during the past 3 years, and it is not going to be easy to catch-up.

Coaches Hot Seat Bottom Line

Coaches Hot Seat is predicting a 6-6 record for Notre Dame in 2008.  The '08 schedule starts easy enough with San Diego State and a first-year coached Michigan team at home, but 6 of the last 9 games are on the road and the Irish are going to have to win some of those games to even make '08 an above average season.  In a normal year in Notre Dame football history, the 2008 schedule would provide an opportunity to make a run for the National Championship, but these are "not the best of times" in South Bend.  We believe that Notre Dame will do pretty well at home, 5-1, but they will go 1-5 on the road, with only a win over Navy in Baltimore.  If Charlie Weis wants to reestablish Notre Dame football, the Irish are going to have to do it the old-fashioned way by going on the road and winning some football games.  Great football teams can win anywhere, and Notre Dame has an opportunity to lay down a marker early in the year on the road at Michigan State or in Chapel Hill against North Carolina, but one of the most interesting games of the year which would be a big win for Notre Dame fans everywhere, when the Irish play Ty Willingham and Washington in Seattle on October 25, 2008.  The coaches or schools want say it, but this Notre Dame - Washington game is the grudge match of all grudge matches, with the winner being able to claim that not only do they have the better coach, but that Notre Dame was either right or wrong in giving Willingham his walking papers.  Don't tell us that this game is not about if Notre Dame was right or wrong in firing Willingham, because that is exactly what the Notre Dame - Washington game is all about, and nothing is going to change that undeniable fact.  If there is a game on the 2008 schedule that Charlie Weis must win, it is against Willingham and Washington, and it is going to be great theater to watch these teams play in Husky Stadium, and we wouldn't miss it for the world.  Charlie Weis needs a big season in '08  to quiet the calls for his head, but we don't see a big season in the cards, and no doubt Weis will enter the 2009 season coaching for his job in South Bend.  If the Dickens/Tale of Two Cities analogy carries through, Charlie Weis is not going to like how this story ends, "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far far better rest that I go to than I have ever none."  What does that mean?  That means that if Weis is fired at Notre Dame he can take his buyout money to South Florida and live a very nice, but very frustrated life!

2008 Coaches Hot Seat Prediction:        6-6

Will Weis be back for the 2009 season?        YES