Is This The End Of The Charlie Weis Era?

With today's loss, Notre Dame fell to 6-5, and next week will travel to Palo Alto to face a Stanford team that figures to be favored by a good margin. So, after unspectacular results the past few seasons and with his program staring down the barrel of yet another .500 record... Have we seen the last of Charlie Weis?

Pete Thamel of the New York Times investigates:

...A program steeped in lore is at a crossroads, its uncertain future again clashing with its mystical past.

Connecticut beat Notre Dame, 33-30, in double overtime Saturday, the latest setback for a program that has plunged into mediocrity.

This loss could be a defining one, the symbolic end of the Charlie Weis era after five seasons in South Bend. Weis has six years left on a contract that is probably going to cost the university more than $15 million to buy out. But a three-game losing streak, a second consecutive loss on senior day to a middling opponent and a trend of playing down to the competition have made Weis’s departure all but inevitable.

“Today’s not the day for me to reflect on things like that,” Weis said. He added that he would contemplate his future during his news media briefing Sunday afternoon. [...]

For Notre Dame, emotions and questions will be swirling until Jack Swarbrick, the university’s second-year athletic director, decides Weis’s fate. The decision could also affect the status of quarterback Jimmy Clausen, who has thrived this season and finished Saturday with 329 passing yards and 2 touchdowns.