After Saturday's football game, in keeping with tradition, the Notre Dame marching band played the "1812 Overture" as a tribute to its head coach.
For most of the last four years during that song, devoutly loyal students have further honored Charlie Weis by forming a "W" with their hands.
On Saturday, for the first time, it felt like an honor for a goner.
Some of those hands formed into fists. Some cupped around mouths that booed. Some formed around snowballs and flung them.
Only a handful of those hands formed a "W," with most students instead trying to figure out how to shape an "F."
That's the only letter that suits their coach these days.
"When he came here our freshman year, with all of our blissful Notre Dame pride, we loved Charlie Weis," said Joey Brown, Notre Dame senior class president. "But now I'd say he's lost us."
Thus, when the Super-Bowl-ring-bearing, sarcastic-scowl-wearing boss of college football's most mystical program leads Notre Dame into the Coliseum on Saturday against USC, he will be dead Irish walking.
If Weis doesn't coach a competitive game against USC -- and he won't; his team has already quit on him in ways Rudy never would -- expect Notre Dame boosters to shake a few couch cushions and dig up the $15 million or so that it would take to buy him out.
It could be among the most expensive breakups in the history of sports.
But for those who believe Notre Dame can still be a special football place, it could be worth every penny.
Weis' perceived arrogance has lost the athletic department and alumni. His weekly performances have lost the students and fans.
In his first two seasons, he was brilliant with former coach Tyrone Willingham's players. But in the last two seasons, he has been clearly unable to coach his own.
Maybe it's because of an aloof NFL attitude caused by years of breathing in the harmful second-hand arrogance of New England Patriots Coach Bill Belichick.
Maybe it's because he's just too darn smart to reach his college kids, or too darn impatient to keep trying.
More likely, it's because he's a square pro coach trying to fit into a round college game.
It wouldn't be the first time an NFL coach has failed at the NCAA level. It wouldn't even be the 100th time.
Whatever the reason, a place that fashions itself as a college football nirvana deserves a college football guy, and Weis isn't it.
