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Charlie Weis back in August had high expectations for the Notre Dame football team. Those expectations were not met and as a result he was fired over the weekend. The official announcement came Monday afternoon. (Daily Star Photo/File)
By SCOTT NOVAK
Niles Daily Star
After five seasons, Notre Dame has parted ways with head coach Charlie Weis.
The announcement came Monday afternoon, first from an unnamed source and then via a press release from Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick.
Swarbrick said that he made the recommendation to university president the Rev. John Jenkins on Sunday night and he accepted the recommendation.
The decision and finally the announcement that Weis would not return ended weeks of speculation that he would not continue to coach the Fighting Irish past this season.
Weis was informed of the decision following the Stanford game.
“Charlie and I met regularly and talked regularly throughout this period, so I think in fairness it was a bit of an evolution over time.” Swarbrick said. “He knew in advance of the recommendation that I made on Sunday that I was going to make that recommendation. We confirmed it on Saturday after the Stanford game, and so he knew it then.”
After back-to-back appearances in BCS bowl games and a record of 19-6, Weis’ teams were unable to recapture that magic over his final three seasons.
In fact, Weis lost more games than any other Notre Dame coach. The Irish are 16-21 the past three years, which by even his own accounts isn’t good enough.
With a softer schedule, Notre Dame was supposed to win nine or 10 games this season and return to the BCS landscape.
A 6-2 start to the 2009 campaign had Notre Dame faithful ready to believe that Weis was truly the man to return the team to the top of the college football world.
But four straight losses, including a second consecutive loss to Navy at Notre Dame Stadium, and the fans began to waver and Weis was back on the hot seat.
This time he was unable to escape the inevitable.
“We have great expectations for our football program, and we have not been able to meet those expectations,” Swarbrick said in his press release.
Monday night at a press conference, Swarbrick said that decision was not an easy one.
“I would say to you that the decision was harder than you might have thought, principally because of the man in involved,” he said. “Those of us who had the opportunity to work closely with coach Weis or play for him couldn’t help but develop a great affinity for him.
I have said often in recent days that I’ve never met anyone for whom there was a bigger gulf between perception and reality, and I think that is true of our departed coach. I hope we can find someone who loves this university as much as he did, does, and who care as much about his student athletes as he does,” he added.
Assistant coach Rob Ianello, who also is in charge of recruiting, will run the day-to-day football operations until a new coach is named.
Swarbrick then had to address the rumors of potential Irish coaches.
He was firm in saying that Notre Dame has made no contact with coaches.
“The search for a new coach has effectively begun,” he said. “I have been reaching out to a number of people to get their counsel, their advice, talking to people familiar with this University about the characteristics they think I should focus on in a new coach, and also reaching out to people in the industry, the collegiate football industry and the professional football industry, to get their assessment of coaches who are working today.
“The result of all of that has led me to conclude that this is a job in which there is great interest. It is a job in which people understand the potential that is here to return Notre Dame to a position of prominence in college football, and I am excited to embark full bore on the process of finding the right next successor to the legacy of Rockne and Leahy and Parseghian and Holtz.”
With the search for a third coach (fourth if you count George O’Leary) in the past 13 years, many wonder if Notre Dame is still a viable member of college football’s elite.
“Well, I think Notre Dame remains a critical piece of the college football landscape,” Swarbrick answered. “There is no denying our recent struggles, but that doesn’t change the equity of the brand or the importance of Notre Dame being able to succeed.
“We need to prove, as I was quoted as saying recently, that universities who are committed to integrating the student-athlete, first and foremost, into the university of students, can also have them achieve optimal football success as athletes. It’s important for the entire industry that we be able to do that. We have the background and I believe the equity to do it, and we now have the foundation laid and the improvements made in the program in recent years to put us in a position to do that.”
Swarbrick said that the search for a new coach would have “its own pace.”
Among the names being circulated are Bob Stoops at Oklahoma, although he denied interest in the job on Monday; Brian Kelly at Cincinnati; Butch Davis at North Carolina; Will Muschamp, defensive coordinator at Texas; and Gary Patterson at Texas Christian.