The Fat Lady Has Not Sung at Notre Dame for Weis According to Swarbrick

According to sources close to Jack Swarbrick, the Notre Dame athletic director said, "Anyone who has said Charlies Weis will not be our football coach next year is being irresponsible and does not have the facts. Charlies Weis has a contract than runs until 2015 and Notre Dame has every intention of honoring that contract."

That sounds like something a lawyer might say, which was Swarbrick's first occupation before becoming Notre Dame's Athletic Director. Of course they'll honor that contract, but only because they'll be legally obligated to do so.

Nothing makes an administration more eager to keep a coach than the prospect of simply losing millions of dollars and would the Irish be willing to pay Weis more than $20 million to sit home and barbecue on Saturday while paying out another $20 million to a new coach?

And that does not include the contracts of the assistants that are sure to be gone as well. This could become the most expensive firing in history were it to happen.

A source inside the Notre Dame athletic dept told me that Swarbrick was not happy with the mess that he inherited and the Weis contract that was already enforced, but could ride out the storm should Weis prove he could turn it around with a very strong finish.

And it is possible that Weis could still pull out a 10-win season and a respectable bowl. No team would fire a coach for bringing his team up to that standard.

However, to accomplish that feat, Notre Dame would have to do something it has so far seemed incapable of doing, being consistent and beating a few top-20 teams.

They would have to beat No. 12 Pittsburgh, a Connecticut team that came within two points of upsetting No. 5 Cincinnati, and the always pesky Stanford Cardinal plus a major bowl opponent.

One thing is for sure, unless he brings home a National Championship, no coach will ever be given a "Charlie Contract" without first earning it.

As for now, Swarbrick is taking line you would expect not only an athletic director, but a lawyer to take. Notre Dame has a head football coach, we have a contract in place and we are honoring that contract.

The players love Charlie and hear all the talk that's being bandied around and hate it. They would like nothing more than to rally and save their coach's job.

"We have pride to play for every game," Jimmy Clausen said this week, "But also want to win for Coach Weis". 

If only he had felt that way before losing to unranked Michigan and Navy, perhaps this talk wouldn't be needed.

But if Weis can rally the troops and finish with a nine or 10-win season, that may be enough for the press to kick him around for at least another year. Whether he deserves it or not is a different question than the one that asks:

Can Notre Dame afford to fire him?