Will Notre Dame’s new AD make or break Weis’ future?

Is Charlie Weis sweating right now?

No, it’s not because of anything related to his portliness, but because he’s going to have a new boss heading into a crucial season, with athletic director Kevin White headed to Duke.

There’s no doubt that Weis’ seat is just a little warm. They tolerated mediocrity through the Gerry Faust era, inconsistency through the Bob Davie era, and disappointment through the Tyrone Willingham era. So maybe the admins can stomach one really, really bad season, but that bad season can’t be followed up with another one.

Last season, Weis no doubt wish he’d had time to clone Brady Quinn and Jeff Samardzija, as wonder kid Jimmy Clausen didn’t live up to the lofty expectations that had been placed on him, on the way to a 3-9 season.

There are a lot of people who feel that Weis should have been gone after last season, considering that the third year was what did Willingham in.

In my personal opinion, three years is a little early to fire someone, unless they’ve obviously got the program heading into the wrong direction. You don’t like having to start over as quickly as you started over the last time. That not only affects the players that are currently a part of the team, but on recruits that you might be pursuing.

Then again, Florida canned Ron Zook after three years, and look where it got them (and him, for that matter). Did I think that he should have been fired? Honestly, no, since he was building a team full of talented players that I think would have been a contender the next season, but hindsight is 20/20, and national championships are nothing to scoff at.

I suppose you have a little more leeway when you’re coming off of consecutive BCS bowl appearances, which is something neither Willingham nor Davie did during their tenure. What happened in those BCS appearances is another thing, but in his first two seasons, he got them to more BCS bowls than Willingham and Davie did combined (one from 1997-2004).

However, Weis does need to lead the Irish to a much better 2008, and that doesn’t mean 5-7 or 6-6.

He needs to make a good impression on his new boss, and even if it’s short of 9-3 or a BCS bowl, he needs to at least show that the program is headed where it needs to be. If not, he and Willingham (whose Washington team hosts the Irish on Oct. 25), who’s facing a crucial year as well, could very well get the ax at the same time.

Weis has consistently pulled in top talent, so he doesn’t have any excuse in that department. Tough schedule? No tougher than in any other year. Got a problem? Join a conference. Admission standards? Oh please. Notre Dame has no problem getting more than enough talent to compete for BCS bowls and national championships.

The only real question mark might be whether some of the issues could be attributed to the players that came in the 2004 (Willingham’s last class, ranked 30th by Scout.com) and 2005 (ranked 27th by Scout.com) classes, guys who are 5th-year seniors/4th year seniors/redshirt juniors now. But, even so, Notre Dame has the talent to turn that 3-9 around, with many of their starters back on both sides of the ball. And several of those freshmen and sophomores who gained valuable experience last season, like Clausen, should be much improved.

There are other questions to ponder when it comes to ND’s new AD, like in terms of joining a conference and so forth, but most importantly, will the new man (or woman) in charge allow Weis to lead the university’s flagship program to another bad year? Hopefully for his sake, the 2008 team will take any heat off of him, but if the struggles happen again, the questions won’t take long to start flying.

They may never relax their admissions standards (and they don’t need to), but the second they relax their standards on the field, that's when Notre Dame’s really in trouble.