An Open Letter to Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick

Dear Mr. Swarbrick,

I do not envy you. You're going to be under an intense national spotlight over the next several days as you decide whether or not to continue the contract of offensive genius Charlie Weis. You're going to hear a lot of people imploring to cut your losses now, pay his ridiculous buyout, and move on to perhaps a "real" college coach.

But please, no matter many stats you look at or how many boosters threaten to pull funds - don't fire Charlie Weis.

This is the man that led Notre Dame back to glory. Remember? There's even a book about it. Think of all the good times that Coach Weis has brought. Remember when he almost beat USC in 2005? I know USC has outscored the Irish by 93 the last 3 years, but like I said, remember the good times. The Irish earned all 4 first downs they made last night.

And who can forget the happy faces of the cadets last year when Navy snapped its 43-game losing streak to the Irish last year? And while Coach Weis designed the 120th ranked offense in the country last year, this year, he used his decided schematic advantage to move the Irish all the way up to top 80 this year. Forget his dismal record against teams with winning records. With the joke of a schedule the Irish play every year, that's hardly an obstacle to bowl eligibility.

The simple fact of the matter is that Notre Dame deserves a coach like Charlie Weis. He's brash, arrogant, and hasn't accomplished much of anything lately, just like the Irish. I know he's failed to endear himself to several key university figures and alumni. I know he has yet to accomplish anything with his own players. I know the Irish lost to a 9-loss team this year for the first time in school history. Simply put Charlie Weis is the man to lead Notre Dame back to glory again. He's done it once, and now the program is worse off than it was before he was hired. He'll do it again.

And even if he doesn't, the rest of the country - including myself - will enjoy watching the failure every week on NBC. So please, when you're considering the overwhelming mountain of evidence that suggests Charlie Weis has no clue what he's doing, ignore it all. In uncertain economic times such as these, this country needs all the sources of joy it can get. Watching the Irish embarrass themselves on national television week after week is certainly a good place to start.

Thanks for your time today and I look forward to watching more terrible Notre Dame teams in the future.

- TDG