Stewart Mandel wrote it. It's an excerpt from a column he threw up late Saturday afternoon. And I didn't take it that he necessarily wrote that Weis was definitively going to be fired after this season. Only that it's clear that, whenever it happens - this season, next, the one after that - that this is going to end badly.
Since when is job status speculation out of bounds for columnists? Did you ever think that the reason that there's no straight reporting on this is because there's not really anything to report yet? Why would Notre Dame fire him this week? What if they go into USC and somehow, miraculously win? And you just committed seven figures to fire the head coach? What a bonehead business move that would have been.
Assuming, then, that doesn't happen - with apologies to write then drink for taking a talk radio turn here - I wouldn't dismiss the idea of them getting a top-shelf college coach in there. Pete Kerasotis (sp?) at Florida Today wrote a pretty convincing column last week about why he still thinks Urban Meyer ends up in South Bend. That's not a fanboy writing on a blog straight from his Chicago basement. That you have to kind of raise an eyebrow to.
If North Carolina can land Butch Davis, why is it out of the question that Notre Dame, flush with money and player talent, could draw a big name?