FanHouse TomOBrien

There was a ton of speculation this week that Charlie Weis, after meeting with his boss on December 8, might be out as the head coach of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Of course, that didn't stop Weis from telling potential recruits that he would still be in charge of the football team.

Turns out ... he was right.

Sources have told Irish Eyes that athletic director Jack Swarbrick will publicly announce, most likely within the next 24 hours, that Weis will be back for his fifth season in South Bend.

There has been some uncertainty about Weis' future since the 38-3 loss to USC, but it appears Swarbrick will be sticking behind Weis.

"Uncertainty" is a nice way of putting it I suppose; it seemed almost guaranteed that there would at least be some sort of ultimatum put on Weis regarding win totals in the future, at the very least.

But there's been no official word of that and presumably, Sportscenter's reporting of this information can count as "confirmation", right? (Assuming, of course, that Scoop Mortensen isn't behind this story, in which case Weis is almost assuredly fired.)

The fact of the matter is that it would be incredibly difficult for the Irish to actually let Weis go given the, ahem, weight of his contract, and the best case scenario -- with potential replacements Skip Holtz, Tom O'Brien and Brian Kelly all staying put -- seems to be letting the big man ride out his whale of deal.

NC State football has not been what you would call "great" this year; Russell Wilson has been a pleasant surprise and the team is showing some improvement under Tom O'Brien, particularly as the year closes out, but, yeah, it hasn't been the greatest season for Wolfpack fans.

But that doesn't mean that the game this week against North Carolina has lost any importance -- it actually gives State, with wins already over Wake Forest, Duke and East Carolina -- a shot at "sweeping the state." But, please don't try and tell Tarheel coach Butch Davis that it really matters.

"At the end of the season," North Carolina coach Butch Davis said Monday, "they're all insignificant, it's just the number [of wins]. During the course of the season, certainly there's games -- home games take on more importance than road games sometimes, conference games take on more importance than other games. Marquee games against Notre Dame take on a certain amount.

See, I tend to disagree ... but then again, I'm not a hired gun just looking for the next marquee job Butch Davis, so how can I really know? The truth is that for as much as someone like Davis would like to downplay the idea that State and Carolina aren't rivals (there's a distinctly elitist and somewhat delusional approach to this rivalry from the Chapel Hill side), such a meme only exists in the basketball world.

In football, this is very much a huge game, and while it probably hurts to admit as much coming off a loss to Maryland, Butch should probably own up to the fact that Notre Dame would be the worst team he's played all season if he hadn't been so full of foresight as to schedule McNeese St. instead of App.

Like any blogger, I like a little smack talk between teams. Both the intended, and unintended. Either way, it generally makes for a good post game interview because someone always loses. But what I don't understand is why Tom O'Brien thought he needed to take a shot at South Florida's defense.

USF's defense took a shot from N.C. State coach Tom O'Brien last week when he told reporters he saw no reason to consult with the Bulls about stopping the spread offense...

"Did you watch them against Oregon?" O'Brien asked, referencing the Ducks' 56-21 trouncing of the Bulls in the Sun Bowl in El Paso. "Go look at that game. That was the spread that they were defending. I'm not saying anything about South Florida's defense, but if they're the gurus, we'd better go somewhere else."

Is he right? Kind of. Something did happen to the South Florida defense toward the end of the year. They weren't nearly the same unit that was shutting down Auburn and West Virginia at the beginning of the season when they faced Oregon. But the fact still remains that they did have a lot of success last year before the wheels feel off. Another fact that they would like everyone to remember is that Tom O'Brien and NC State were watching that game because they didn't make a bowl last year.

"Here's the way I feel about it: He's right. We're not gurus," Burnham said. "On the other hand, we try to handle things professionally and not say anything ... with class, not say anything about anyone else's coaching staff. He can say what he wants to. The other thing, I forget what bowl game they were in. That's all I've got to say."-USF defensive coordinator Wally Burnham

Zing! A look at the schedule says these teams do in fact play this weekend. Maybe O'Brien would like his quarterback to know George Selvie a little better. I can't imagine why, but you can bet something bad is going to happen in this game. I don't expect anything dirty out of South Florida, but a goose egg for the home team might be in store.