Notre Dame's coaching endgame almost a no-win situation in the short term

Let's talk endgame. It is safe to assume that Charlie Weis has coached his last game. The administration has the ball now and a fumble would be disastrous.

I wanted to write a blog to break down the positives and negatives and let the readers fill in the gaps in the comments section below.

To Bowl or not to Bowl?

What is the best case scenario for how the coaching change goes down? A tougher question than many want to believe it is. Nobody wants to go to a crap bowl but the upside is that you get to extend practice time. The best case would be to get the next coach in right away but there is basically a 0% chance of that happening. The only thing keeping it from zero would be bringing in a coach that currently isn't coaching. Someone like Dungy, Cowher or Tuberville which just isn't likely or in some ways advantageous.

So do you leave Weis in as coach to collect your bowl money and keep the players in the football state of mind longer? Maybe. The easy answer is "no" but what is the downside in him coaching it? If you announce that he is gone at the end of the season does it really hurt for him to coach one more game? Maybe. You tell me.

The likely coaching candidates are Kelly, Stoops and maybe one of the dark horses mentioned here. All of the candidates on the top of the wish list will be coaching their own teams heading into the bowl season. On the very off-chance that they target a coordinator on a championship contender, that coach would be unlikely to leave their team. Very unlikely.

Retaining Current Players

The current players already have roots to the university but you definitely want to give them the impression that they are in the loop and that you are doing everything you can to get the right coach in to coach them going forward. The players will be loyal to Weis at the beginning, as should be expected, hope but in time they will adapt to the decision. We may lose some players but for most of those players their leaving will most likely be due to reasons that would have existed had Weis stayed.


Recruiting

Yes, I know this is like worrying about the next song the band is going to play on the Titanic but people like to talk about it. Recruits will want to know who the next coach is ASAP. Doesn't mean that they will leave but it will just help them feel more stable about their decision. The good news is that it seems that Weis did a great job on selling the kids on Notre Dame so there shouldn't be a mass exodus, however recruiting can be a very fickle game and better believe that the poachers are already in full poaching mode. It is already rumored that our only 5-star recruit has cold feet.

I think there is really not much damage control you can do on the recruiting front other than to be as transparent and proactive as possible.

The Summary
You want to get the best coach you can, period. Obviously the faster you can get him on campus the better but at this point most of the ND fan base is savvy enough to know that taking the extra time won't really matter if you get the right coach.

Remembering Charlie

I think all ND fans will always appreciate Charlie's hard work as a coach and recruiter. I have never heard anyone question Charlie's work ethic. I also think that almost 100% of the fan base wanted this to work. It just didn't. Charlie did A LOT of things very well. It must be a bitter pill for him to lose so many games by so few points but the fact that so many games were so close tells a story of its own. I wish Charlie and his family the best no matter what happens and I hope he chooses to go out with the same class he showed as head coach.

We have an exciting time ahead of us as Notre Dame fans and A LOT of potential scenarios in the next three months. I guess it is time to hang on and enjoy the ride as much as possible and pray that Father Jenkins and Jack Swarbrick know how to protect the ball.

Please continue the discussion in the comments section below