What Charlie Weis's Firing Says About Notre Dame

Katharine Rust Nov 30, 2009

Since the beginning of the season, Fighting Irish fans have been calling for the head of Notre Dame head football coach Charlie Weis. On Monday, they got their wish when Weis was let go by the University after losing to Stanford on Saturday and bringing the team's record to 6-6. Though Weis's firing is not surprising to most college football fans (in fact, many have been speculating who his replacement will be for weeks), sports bloggers are using the recent development as a chance to chastise Notre Dame and its alumni for being, well, Notre Dame. Here's how the intertubes are taking Our Lady down a peg.

You Get What You Create According to Deadspin's Dashiell Bennett, Weis was a "living monument to the hubris and folly of his school and its supporters...Just seven games into his first season as head coach, Notre Dame handed Weis a nonsensical ten-year contract extension lashing themselves to his rather prodigious anchor until 2015...It will now reportedly cost the school around $18 million just to run him out of town, while they naively cling to the belief that the Fighting Irish name alone will be enough to persuade A-list college coaches to ditch their actual successful programs to come run this terrible one. Good luck with that."

No One To Blame But Yourselves While reflecting on Weis's firing, Sports Illustrated's Michael Rosenberg simultaneously praises the fallen coach's dignity while slamming the University for its failure to evolve with the game. He says, "Weis always blamed himself first. He did not complain that Notre Dame fans were living in the 1940s or that the academic standards at the school were too high."

Get With The Program Scott Lemieux at the blog Lawyers, Guns and Money mocks the University for holding onto its traditions, while calling it out for giving Weis his ludicrous contract extension. He says, "I'm sure Notre Dame -- who remain relevant as a major football power! Really! -- will rue the day they let this great coach get away. (Seriously, what gets me is not the hire, which was reasonable, but the ridiculous extension midway through his first year.)"

Unrealistic Expectations Diving into the problems with Notre Dame and, more importantly its fan base, ESPN's Jon Greenberg says the reason no one can success there is because it's the hardest job in college football. And the University makes it that way. He says, "There is no question that being Notre Dame's coach is a difficult job. Notre Dame is a private school with actual educational standards. It relies exclusively on national recruits, has no conference affiliation, and has to please peacocking fans who expect nothing but top-10 finishes and BCS bowls....Because Notre Dame is a place that will lionize you if you win and pillory you if you lose. Six and six, or 7-6, will never be good enough. Weis knew it then and definitely knows it now."

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at krust at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.