Should Charlie Weis Be Fired?

A billboard earlier this year hung high above South Bend for many to see. It was a direct shot to Charlie Weis, the Notre Dame head football coach. It pointed out that Charlie Weis was perhaps given a little too much time to turn about a struggling Notre Dame Football program.

It read ""Best wishes to Charlie Weis in the fifth year of his college coaching internship." Should Charlie Weis be fired? Is there some legitimacy to how this sign symbolizes Notre Dame fans dislike of what he hasn't accomplished in South Bend?

Charlie Weis hasn't exactly set the world on fire. Not the college football world. Finally Notre Dame made it to a Bowl game last year. But that's not enough for some Fighting Irish fans. They want Charlie Weis fired. And they want it now. But the fact is it won't happen until late in the season and the Fighting Irish will have to struggle a lot for Weis to get fired.

There are websites already out there calling for Weis to be fired. Chuckweis.com. One Southern Indiana television website did a poll and 55% believe Weis should be fired. But what will they say after this year?

ESPN was talking on College GameDay about this past Saturday's game against Michigan State being a must win for Charlie Weis. In other words, the Irish need to win these kinds of games from now on and in the future for Weis to stick around. But is there any credibility in someone's opinion who isn't directly related to the Notre Dame football program? As they hype and buzz builds around the future of a coach, so does the reality that he may get fired. If the sentiment continues to grow in other words, it just might happen. Charlie Weis stepped in the middle of a huge mess at Notre Dame. The coaches who followed Lou Holtz didn't exactly build the program back into a dynasty. In fact, the Irish were pretty much at the bottom of the tradition when Weis took over.

Yet the expectations for Weis have been somewhat unreasonable. Some of it has been fair and some not so. It takes a while to get a program turned back around. A few losing seasons is all it takes to screw up recruiting and perhaps put a program on the brink of starting all over again from scratch. That's kind of the shape Notre Dame was in when Charlie Weis took over. He led them to a Bowl Game last season. But that's not enough for Notre Dame fans. They want 10-11 wins and a shot at a national title each year. Weis hasn't done that.

And that program isn't exactly on the verge of that either with a tough loss at Michigan and a very close win over Michigan State this past weekend. Charlie Weis could get fired by the end of the season with a few more losses. There are games on the schedule for Notre Dame that might be a coin flip. Weis will need to win several of those and absolutely not lose to any of the remaining so called easy games. 3-9 and 7-6 in the past two seasons isn't exactly cutting it for Notre Dame fans these days.

A loss at Purdue on National Television this coming week would absolutely put the nail in the coffin. Purdue just lost to Northern Illinois but yet played terrific against Oregon on the road before losing. The Boilermakers are quite capable of beating Notre Dame in West Lafayette if they play well. But Notre Dame tradition says the Fighting Irish should win this rivalry game every year. If Weis loses and the FIghting Irish drop to 2-2 then look for the Charlie Weis Fired rumors to heat up. Especially since USC and Boston College pay visits in the next few weeks.