Notre Dame will keep Weis as coach

There’s no better indication that a coach is on the “hot seat” than when it becomes big news that he’s *not* fired and will keep his job.  Such is the case at Notre Dame, where Charlie Weis will get at least one more season at the helm of the Fighting Irish.  Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick made it official, saying that the “best course of action” is to keep Weis as head coach for the time being.

Weis might never be a legendary coach at Notre Dame, but he could have a promising career in sales and marketing.  According to Swarbrick, the decision to retain Weis was made due to a productive meeting between the two men where they agreed on what steps needed to be taken to return the Irish to their expected level of success.  Swarbrick expanded on the “common ground” that the two men found during their two hour meeting:

"The question you're ultimately asking yourself is: Is he in a position to help direct the changes in the program, to help steer it back to where he and I really want it to be? That really focused on a discussion about a series of very specific things that constitute the plan going forward."

Translation—Weis deftly deflected the blame for the substandard performance of Notre Dame football under his watch elsewhere. 

Swarbrick denied rumors that Weis was retained due to a buyout clause in his contract that made it financially burdensome to get rid of him.  He also denied that the decision to keep Weis was only made after testing the availability of high profile replacements and finding that few were interested in the job and/or on the market.  He brushed off suggestions that there had been any talk at all about a potential replacement for Weis by simply stating "It absolutely didn't happen" and then adding this cryptic comment:

"Decisions about our programs are ones I'm asked to make and I make them in the best interest of the student athletes. There's been speculation in the past that hasn't always been true at Notre Dame.

Many thought this statement was in direct reference to former AD Kevin White, who intimated that the decision to fire Ty Willingham was made by Notre Dame President Rev. John Jenkins. While it’s unclear why Weis felt it necessary to throw the former Irish AD “under the bus” in this manner, it may just be part of the “blame everyone and everything else” tact he took to save his job.

Swarbrick concluded with something of a backhanded compliment of Weis, praising him for his ability to handle the distractions when things aren’t going well:

"I think he's very good at sort of shutting out external distractions and focusing on what needs to be done. I think one of his real strengths is that when things don't work, he's very willing to examine them and look for alternatives. He's very flexible."

Flexibility and finding alternative solutions are admirable traits for anyone to have, but at Notre Dame what really matters is winning football games.  Weis will get at least one more year to prove that he can do that.