Yesterday, word came out that Charlie Weis would return to Notre Dame next year as head coach of the Fightin' Irish.  This was despite losing 4 of their final 5 games, including huge losses to Boston College and USC and an embarrassing loss to Syracuse.  Weis will enter his 5th season next year and his first recruiting class will be entering their senior year.  It will be make or break time for Weis.  But what are the long term ramifications of this decision?  Will Weis survive next year and if he does, how much time does he buy himself?

Next year Notre Dame will be returning 14 of their 22 starters from this year's team.  Among those returning will be 4 of their offensive lineman and quarterback Jimmy Clausen.  There will be reason for excitement in South Bend next season.  A quick look at the schedule looks like it is rather soft too.

2009 Notre Dame Football Schedule
Sept. 5     NEVADA
Sept. 12     at Michigan
Sept. 19     MICHIGAN STATE
Sept. 26     at Purdue
Oct. 3     WASHINGTON
Oct. 10     Open Date
Oct. 17     USC
Oct. 24     BOSTON COLLEGE
Oct. 31     vs. Washington State (at San Antonio, Texas)
Nov. 7     NAVY
Nov. 14     at Pittsburgh
Nov. 21     CONNECTICUT
Nov. 28     at Stanford

Nevada, Michigan, Purdue, Washington, Washington State, Navy, and Stanford all look like easy wins right now.  That's 7 wins right there.  That alone though, probably would not save Weis's job.  Michigan State, Pittsburgh, UCONN, and Boston College all look like winnable games as well.  Its possible that Notre Dame could win 11 games next year and get a BCS bid.  That would most definitely save Weis's job.  Most likely, Weis will survive 2009 and be coaching in 2010.

So how much time does this buy Weis?  Two BCS blowouts early in his career have saved himself from these past two awful years, so one would imagine at least another year or two.  Its known that Weis isn't popular around the Notre Dame campus, but winning makes everything okay.  The Notre Dame A.D., alumni, and other big wigs will put up with Weis's ginormous ego if he's winning games, which should happen next year.

While its too early to judge Notre Dame's 2010 schedule, it doesn't appear to much more difficult than their 2009 schedule.  By that point, Weis's current highly tauted sophomore class will be seniors, so Notre Dame should have another successful season.  It appears that Notre Dame's decision to keep Weis may allow the talent he has accumulated to save his job and even eventually buy him some job security. 

Weis doesn't appear to be a good enough college coach to actually win the big games though.  He may be well on his way to being the next Lloyd Carr or Les Miles who have attained success (and a national title each) due only to the massive amounts of talent they had.  However, neither guy is or was able to coach his team to victories over equally or more talented teams.  Eventually, schools get annoyed with these guys, but it generally takes years upon years for this to occur.  If this scenario plays our for Weis, he may be around for a very long time.  He'll probably put up some very good years, but to the delight of Notre Dame haters he probably won't be reeling in any major victories.