Charlie Weis last coached at Notre Dame in 2009. But as a result of an ill-advise and lucrative extension, he remained on the Fighting Irish’s payroll into 2017.
Notre Dame’s buyout of Weis is finally complete. As a result of his tenures at Notre Dame and Kansas, ESPN’s Darren Rovell noted that Weis made $64.5 million as a college football head coach, all while posting a losing record.
With Notre Dame buyout complete, Charlie Weis, including Kansas buyout, got paid $64.5 million for a head coaching record of 41-49.
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) May 15, 2017
For those of you interested in that sort of thing, that’s an average of nearly $717,000 per game and better than $1.5 per win.
Amazingly, even that doesn’t tell the full story.
In 2005 and 2006 — Weis’ first two years as Notre Dame’s head coach — the Fighting Irish posted a combined mark of 19-6. In his three subsequent seasons in South Bend, Weis was 16-21, topping out at 7-6 in 2008. Things were even worse with the Jayhawks. In his first two years in Kansas, Weis posted a combined mark of 4-20. He was fired in his third year with the school after a 2-2 start.
If he could have milked it for a few more years, we’d call Weis the Bobby Bonilla of college football coaches. As it is, this is still darn impressive.
As the record shows, plenty of men were better coaches than Weis. But it’s hard to imagine anyone getting more for less than Weis got. As a result, he and his family will be secure for generations to come.
Not bad for 41-49.