The Notre Dame Fighting Irish, a feel good story if there ever was one, are in a precarious position with regard to their head coach, Charlie Weis. See, in case you missed it, Weis has been stinking the joint up since he got to South Bend. But the Irish just can't punt on Ole' Slim, because they'll owe him an insane amount of money. On the other hand, they've got a pretty good shot of landing East Carolina head coach Skip Holtz, should they pounce now, and frankly, about anything seems like a viable option compared to Weis. But Chuckles doesn't think he'll be gone next year. In fact, he's telling recruits (via the unfathomably awesome Mouthpiece Blog) that he'll be back next year. Specifically, Shaquelle Evans.
"I asked him about his job status," Evans told the web site after Weis visited him Sunday. "He told me he's good to go; he'll be there. He said he made sure he's good before he left and it's just the media spreading that he's going to get fired. He said if he didn't know if he was going to be there or not he would tell me. It makes me feel good that he'll be there."See? I told you he was being honest -- if he knew he was gone, he would tell Evans. But clearly Weis doesn't know if he's gone or not, because he doesn't meet with his boss until December 8. But imagine that you were in charge of a company that was failing miserably and you had to meet with your investors in a week: would you be confident of your job status?
Of course not. Yet, Charlie knows he's got the Irish by the you-know-whats, at least in terms of financial stability. Sure, they can fire him from his dream job and humiliate him personally, but they'll still have to pay him. And they'll lose recruits who believed the coaching staff. Really, it's a win-win for all of us that care so much for the NDers.
However, in fairness to Weis, as R points out, it would be totally ridiculous of him to be telling recruits that he might be gone -- he does care about his job, even if he's not good at it right now, and he certainly doesn't want to harm his future recruiting potential by acting like he might be staring down at the firing squad.
