By Brian Hamilton

(MCT)

During five seasons, Charlie Weis was unable to win marquee games for Notre Dame. Photo Courtesy MCT.

In a widely expected move, Charlie Weis is out as Notre Dame’s football coach, athletic director Jack Swarbrick announced Monday.

Swarbrick cut ties with Weis following a disappointing 6-6 season that ended Saturday with a 45-38 loss at Stanford. Weis has six years left on his contract.

“We have great expectations for our football program, and we have not been able to meet those expectations,” Swarbrick said. “As an alumnus, Charlie understands those goals and expectations better than most, and he’s as disappointed as anyone that we have not achieved the desired results.”

Assistant coach Rob Ianello will assume responsibility for football operations until a new coach is hired, Swarbrick said. Ianello has spent the past five seasons on the Notre Dame staff.

Swarbrick recommended the dismissal Sunday night to Notre Dame’s president, Rev. John Jenkins.

“We have established an evaluation process for all of our athletic programs that, in the end, results in a recommendation from Jack to me,” Father Jenkins said. “I accepted Jack’s decision and look forward to working with him on selecting a new head football coach who is the very best choice possible for the University and especially for our student-athletes.”

The search for Weis’ replacement officially begins now_but the rumor mill has churned for nearly a month. It has spit out potential successors ranging from big names such as Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops and ex-NFL coach Jon Gruden to a list of perhaps more attainable candidates such as Cincinnati’s Brian Kelly and TCU’s Gary Patterson.

The dismissal caps a tumultuous five-year run, with Notre Dame football now on the hunt for its fourth head coach since the end of the 2000 season.

In the last three years, Weis’ teams went 16-21 with zero victories against ranked opponents. The continued failures against elite teams coupled with inexplicable, eviscerating defeats (two straight home losses to Navy, two straight Senior Day losses to sub-.500 teams) simply became too much to bear.