Notre Dame seat too hot for some

In a normal year, preseason talk regarding Notre Dame football relates to whether the Fighting Irish can contend for a Bowl Championship Series bid, whether they can remain competitive with the beef of their schedule and whether they can talk about one of the most scrutinized jobs in collegiate sports – Notre Dame football coach.

Politics are normal during football season for the Golden Domers, especially now, as yet another Irish coach is on the hot seat.

But this year it’s about more than just the future of a coach. It’s about the future of the program and whether Notre Dame can ever reclaim the football prominence it was once so accustomed to.

Charlie Weis, who will begin his fifth season as Notre Dame’s head man, faces a do-or-die situation. After Ty Willingham’s firing in the winter 2004, critics made the argument he never had time to establish his West Coast, pocket-passing system with the appropriate players.

That’s not true with Weis.

With his first recruiting class academic seniors this year, results are the only thing that can save the current regime in South Bend.

And why not?

When Weis came in, he was the self-proclaimed king of the offensive play sheet. He inherited Willingham’s players and had immediate success, leading the Irish to upset wins at both Pittsburgh and Michigan. Don’t forget the controversial nail-biter with eventual runner-up University of Southern California and the Fiesta Bowl bid.

Now it’s time for Weis to talk the talk and show he does belong in the college game after two sub-eight win seasons. If 10 wins aren’t tallied this year, barring egregious circumstances, I don’t see why Notre Dame would financially compete with the NFL to keep a coach who belongs in the pros.

If Weis is in fact axed at season’s end, who of the many qualified candidates would want to take on such a task? Urban Meyer called Notre Dame his dream job right before turning them down. That’s not a double standard. Sure, it’s many coaches’ aspiration to assume the coaching position at Notre Dame.

Is it any coach’s dream to be watched over their shoulder by people who determine their future and want results in three years? These days, the war that is recruiting and national exposure for teams across the country makes drastic turnarounds a four-to-five-year job.

I don’t blame Meyer a single bit for turning down the Irish. How does the job seem appealing after seeing how Willingham, who won his first eight games at Notre Dame and had a better start than Knute Rockne, was fired after just three years?

Because of the magnitude of the job, why would an established coach such as Meyer leave a powerhouse school to rebuild a has-been program that doesn’t carry the same lore it once did? That leaves young coaches, or aspiring assistants, to be put in the same pressure-cooker situation.

Maybe the best thing that can happen to Notre Dame is elevating the program to an annual 8–9 winner each year for the time being, and making the job seem more appealing.

As said in the movie “Field of Dreams,” “If you build it, they will come.”