First Head Coaching Job in Pro or Collegiate: Notre Dame

[MrMustang1965]

CHICAGO – New England Patriots offensive coordinator Charlie Weis will be introduced at a news conference on Monday as Notre Dame's new football coach.

According to a source with knowledge of the proceedings, Weis agreed in principle to a six-year contract worth about $2 million per year. He will fly to South Bend tonight, after the Patriots game with the Cincinnati Bengals in Foxboro, Mass., and will address the Irish at a team meeting.

Weis' hiring is effective immediately, but his move may not be complete until February.

Patriots coach Bill Belichick said Friday that even if Notre Dame were to hire Weis, he expected Weis to fulfill his duties with the 11-1 Patriots, who seem headed for a long run through the NFLplayoffs.

"Charlie is here. Charlie is working hard. Charlie, I expect, will continue to be here and carry out his responsibilities through the season," Belichick said Friday.

Weis, 48, has told sources he has almost an entire staff ready to go. It will be charged with handling the recruiting duties while Weis finished his duties with the Patriots.

Notre Dame, according to a source close to the situation, called Bills offensive coordinator Tom Clements on Saturday morning and told him he no longer was being considered.

The other man believed to be a finalist for the position was Washington Redskins defensive coordinator Greg Blache, but according to several NFL sources, Blache contacted Notre Dame officials either late Friday or early Saturday morning and told them he preferred to stay in the NFL.

That left the seven-member search committee – the same group of men who met on the evening of Nov. 29 and made the decision to fire former coach Tyrone Willingham – to decide between Weis and Clements.

The decision in favor of Weis was, according to a source with knowledge of the proceedings, driven by the same men who pushed for Willingham's dismissal – Board of Trustees chairman Patrick McCartan, and the incoming university president, Rev. John I. Jenkins, who will succeed the current president, Rev. Edward A. Malloy, in July of 2005.

Weis comes from within the Notre Dame family. While he didn't play football at Notre Dame, he did graduate from the school in 1978, making him the first graduate to lead the program since 1963, when Huge Devore served a one-year stint as interim coach.

Weis has been coaching in the NFL since 1990 when he was on the staff of the Super Bowl champion New York Giants. His only stint in college was from 1985-88, when he was an assistant with South Carolina.

Weis is widely considered an offensive mastermind who excels in player development, a man who transformed Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, a lightly regarded sixth-round pick out of Michigan, into a two-time Super Bowl MVP.

Notre Dame would be Weis's first head coaching position in either college or professional ranks. His last head coaching experience was in 1989, at Franklin Township High School in New Jersey.

[Peruna_Ate_My_Rolex]

Well, at least they didn't hire a high school coach this time around.