Opinion: Should Notre Dame Fire Head Coach Charlie Weis?

Notre Dame was ranked at the start of the year, but a crushing loss to Michigan in the Big House and an injury to top WR Michael Floyd seemed to begin a downward spiral for the Irish that culminated in losses to average teams UConn and Navy.

Now after the UConn loss, Charlie Weis is on the hot seat and many people have opinions about whether or not Weis, the Irish's head coach, should be fired.

Charlie Weis continues to recruit well for Notre Dame but his team hasn't made nearly the progress everyone expected.

So, should Charlie Weis be fired after the season?

Opinion: Should Notre Dame Fire Head Coach Charlie Weis?

With a huge long-term contract for Head Coach Charlie Weis and a ton of money invested in top assistants like defensive coordinator John Tenuta, it seems like Notre Dame was all in for Weis and behind him 100%.

And that's exactly why it will be so costly to fire him. Notre Dame will eat a ton of Weis' salary and estimates as to how much it will cost to get a new head coach in for Notre Dame if Weis is fired have fallen in the 30-50 million dollar range depending on what they do with the assistants.

Notre Dame has been dying to become a national power again and now the question is whether they can afford to wait one more year.

Weis seems like he knows he will be fired in his press conferences with the glum fashion in which he conducts them, and firing Weis would be the right move from a football perspective because of the lack of improvement shown on both sides of the ball despite great recruiting classes.

If ND had beaten Navy and UConn I could see keeping Weis but now firing him makes too much sense.

ND could easily finish 6-6 this year and that is unacceptable with all the talent they have, especially on offense which is Weis' specialty. But the offense as well as the defense have underachieved under Weis all year and the schemes on offense seem stale and predictable.

If ND wants to win now, they will fire Weis and try to bring in Urban Meyer or Brian Kelly. But if they want to save money they could roll the dice and keep Weis one more year. It would help keep recruiting stable and set them up for a big 2011 with a big name coaching hire.

Personally, whether or not ND fires Weis could hinge on whether or not ND can get a big name coach right away. I predict that they will fire Weis even in an awful economy.