An article in Sunday's Chicago Tribune reported that Charlie Weis considered leaving Notre Dame after last season, but the Irish coach clarified that statement after his Wednesday press conference.
The article said Weis briefly contemplated a potential return to the NFL as a coordinator, but Weis said that while he addressed the possibility of a job change with his family, he fully intended on staying with the Irish.
"Not that anything that was in the article was totally wrong. I think that the interpretation of what the intent and from my end and from the story are just a little bit different," Weis said. "The question was clearly asked to me 'Did you talk to your family about leaving.' I said 'Well, yeah.'
"Like anyone who has a situation that is uncertain, as any husband and father would do, you know, you address it with your wife and address it with your kids and you talk about the what-ifs."
Weis said if he hadn't addressed the situation with his family, he would have been "negligent in [his] responsibility."
"Did I think I was going to quit and walk out the door? That's not what I came here for,"?Weis said. "Even in that article, it said very clearly that that's not why we came here. We came here to get Notre Dame back to the top of the heap and that's what we intend on doing."
Steaks or hot dogs?
It's not a done deal, but Weis said there's a good chance the Blue-Gold game will feature the added incentive of a friendly wager.
Last year, the offense won on a last-second touchdown, and to the victors went the spoils - in this case, steaks as the post-game meal. The defense had to manage with hot dogs.
So will Weis, who will call plays Saturday and during the season, be hoping the offense can work the defense up and down the field?
"Hell yeah,"?Weis said. "When I'm the offensive coordinator, you betcha I do.
"I'm a sore loser. I don't want to eat hot dogs,?OK?"
Ones versus ones
Asked how much of Saturday's game would feature the first-team offense against the first-team defense, Weis simply said,?"the majority."
Last year, the lack of a backup quarterback to Jimmy Clausen forced the Irish into an offense versus defense scrimmage. This season, it is a shortage of offensive linemen - or rather, the lack of two complete, cohesive units, Weis said.
"We had 10 guys to put out there, but a couple of the guys that you would have put in that second offensive line, it would have been a fire drill," Weis said. "So what do you do, go put Dayne out there and then every time he goes to pass the ball he's getting hit in the face by somebody right there?
"We just didn't think that that made a lot of sense."
Manning the sidelines
The addition of several new coaches to Weis' staff made headlines this spring, but on Saturday, there will be four even new facers on the sidelines.
This year's honorary coaches are Justin Tuck, Bertrand Berry, Jeff Faine and?Reggie?Brooks. They will address the players during?Friday's team meeting, Weis said.
