Brady Quinn is standing by his former college coach and says that Notre Dame should too.

From ESPN.com:

“Personally I think it would be a horrible decision if they did make that change,” Quinn said. “I think there are a lot of circumstances that play into seasons like this. Hopefully he’ll have an opportunity to have another year with the guys.”
Quinn said it’s tough to pinpoint why the Fighting Irish have slipped nationally.

“I know as a player there, one of the things we prided ourselves on was winning games and not worrying about stats or individual accolades, but pulling through tight games and winning games and going in there and fighting every week,” Quinn said.

“I think if you’ve got enough talent on that team, there’s guys that need to pull together and start finding ways to win.”
One of the arguments often given for Notre Dame’s struggles is that the school’s high academic standards make it difficult to recruit. Quinn sees it differently.

“It plays to their advantage, too, that smart players on the team are able to do a lot more from a schematic standpoint and prepare for teams in better fashion than other teams,” he said.

It’s nice of his former player to stick up for him in the media, but Weis is done. It’s apparent that he can’t get Notre Dame to where it wants to be and he can’t recruit on the defensive side of the ball.

The real question is whether or not Weis will wind up back in the NFL or if he’ll stay in the college ranks. He’ll find a job somewhere (most likely it won’t be as a head coach), so it’ll be interesting to see where he winds up. My guess is that he’ll take over as an offensive coordinator back in the pros, but who knows at this point.

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Charlie Weis has been informed that his West Coast recruiting trip has been canceled and that he’ll return to South Bend following the Irish’s game with Stanford on Saturday.

From FOX Sports.com:

Athletic director Jack Swarbrick said Tuesday during a taping of his radio show for WLS Radio 890 in Chicago, which normally airs on Saturday, that Weis will fly back with the team.

Weis had said Sunday he planned to stay on the West Coast recruiting, just as he had last year when he and Swarbrick met to discuss his future after the regular-season finale at USC.

A message seeking comment was left for Swarbrick on his cell phone Tuesday evening by The Associated Press. Swarbrick’s comments became public after Weis’ weekly news conference on Tuesday.

Weis wasn’t in a reflective mood at what could be the final weekly news conference at his alma mater. Two days after saying he couldn’t argue if Notre Dame officials decided to fire him with a 6-5 record, Weis set the tone with his opening comment: “I have a news flash. We have a football game this Saturday evening against Stanford, so let’s see if we can’t talk about that,” he said.

The writing is on the wall: Weis is done in South Bend regardless of how the team does this week at Stanford.

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Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports thinks so:

Anyone who thinks Notre Dame isn’t still an elite job doesn’t know anything about how college football works. By beating USC, Florida and Texas for more than his fair share of coveted prospects the last few years, Weis dispelled the theory that top talent no longer want to play at a tradition-rich, academically strong school that’s on national television every week.
He had enough players to go 10-2 this year. He just couldn’t coach them.

Weis’ recruiting work is why this is actually a better job today than five years ago.

I don’t think there’s any question that Notre Dame is still an elite job. The program is always in the national spotlight and a head coach could become one of the kings of college football if he wins in South Bend.

But the problem is that the job has become a black hole for failure and the microscope that head coaches are constantly under while coaching at Notre Dame can certainly wear on someone. (Although maybe that was only true for Weis given the way Tyrone Willingham was ushered out before him.)

Wetzel references Cincinnati’s Brian Kelly as the perfect replacement for Weis. Given how Kelly has won everyone he’s gone, that certainly wouldn’t be a bad fit – especially if Jimmy Clausen (who could put up even better numbers in Kelly’s offense) sticks around another season. Plus, considering the way Kelly had no qualms about leaving Central Michigan in the lurch to join Cincinnati, I’m sure he’d have no issues about pulling the ripcord on the Bearcats in order to coach in South Bend.

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