Notre Dame’s 45-38 loss to Stanford on Saturday night likely will go down as the final nail in Charlie Weis‘ South Bend coffin. The Irish, once 6-2, closed the regular season with four straight losses, running themselves to the brink of bowl eligibility.
Weis’ 35-27 overall record won’t be enough to save his job. Notre Dame’s schedule this season was tailor-made for a 9-3 or 10-2 season and a BCS bowl. But this was a failed experiment from the start and goes much deeper than one end-of-the-season tank job.
Remember, Weis wasn’t Notre Dame’s top choice — that honor goes to Urban Meyer, who instead signed with Florida at the end of the 2004 season. And remember, the Irish — after originally signing Weis to a six-year deal through 2010 — replaced that with a 10-year contract through 2015 only seven games into Weis’ tenure. This despite the fact that Weis’ senior-heavy roster was built with players not recruited by him, but by fired predecessor Tyrone Willingham.
The real issue, however, is pedigree. Weis, after all, is a Bill Belichick disciple. Belichick’s hallmarks are out-scheming opponents (see: Giants over Bills in Super Bowl XXV and Patriots over Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI) and winning close games (his three titles all were won by a field goal).
But Weis, once lauded for being part of the Belichick coaching tree, has been anti-Belichick at Notre Dame. His Irish are 0-5 against rival USC. They are 13-12 in games decided by a touchdown or less. They lost their last four games this season by a combined 17 points. What began as auspicious ends with mediocrity at Notre Dame, which should be blaming itself as much as it blames Weis.
Sometimes, the marriage just goes bad.
