Where there is smoke, there is usually fire.

Some strange goings on are happening at Notre Dame right now and it all surrounds the future of embattled Fighting Irish coach Charlie Weis.

Weis’ backside has been firmly planted on the hot seat for quite some time now, but the gas has been turned up to high of late and things are beginning to smell funny.

A case in point was the cancellation of Weis’ normal Sunday presser after the Pittsburgh loss.

The word coming out of Notre Dame was that the plane arrived late and the coaching staff wanted to get an earlier start on preparing for Connecticut.

The interesting thing about that is that Weis had never canceled a press conference before. If something like a late arrival or another issue came up, the presser would usually just get pushed back to a later start, but there always was one.

Weis has been dancing around the issue for several weeks now.
On Saturday, following Notre Dame’s upset loss to Connecticut, he deflected a question about the direction of the program and his future at the school with the skill of an All-Star goalie tossing aside a slap shot.

He said that it wasn’t the time to be talking about him and he was more concerned about the 33 seniors who had just lost their final home game.

He added that he would think about himself tomorrow (Sunday).
So of course, when Sunday’s presser came along, the first question was about the direction of the program and his future.

Again, a kick-save for Weis.

This time saying that he wasn’t being evasive, but he wanted to focus on the upcoming game against Stanford.

Huh?

Isn’t failing to answer a direct question being evasive?

Saturday’s press box was filled with comments and observations about Weis and his plight.

One of the things I heard was that he was going to resign for health issues.

Charlie somewhat addressed that on Sunday when asked if there was any thoughts of going to athletic director Jack Swarbrick and resign.

That was met with a very firm “that’s not happening.”

So Monday was pretty quiet, but things started picking up on Tuesday with more rumors.

This time it was a presser was scheduled for next week to announce that he will not return as Notre Dame’s head coach.

Of course, there is no way to confirm that as the university certainly isn’t going to say anything and Weis started out his regular press conference this week by saying “Firstly I have a news flash.  We have a football game this Saturday, Saturday evening, against Stanford, so let’s see if we can’t talk about that.”

But that was fueled by comments Swarbrick made on his taped radio program for WLS where he said that Weis would not be allowed to stay on the West Coast and recruit as he has done in previous years.

Instead he would be coming back to South Bend to meet with Swarbrick and review how the season went and the direction of the program.

Again, there’s that smoke thing.

Even the topic of Jimmy Clausen getting punched at a local bar wasn’t going to be discussed by Weis.

And when Clausen showed up at practice later in the day, he was wearing a dark visor so the media couldn’t see his face.

Now that’s circling the wagons.

Later Tuesday afternoon an e-mail came out of Notre Dame stating that interviews with players and assistant coaches would be not be held this week, which is highly unusual.

So unusual, it makes you wonder if maybe the team already knows something we don’t and they didn’t want anyone to slip with that information.

According to the e-mail, transcribed quotes would be forthcoming Tuesday evening from select players and assistants provided by the Notre Dame media relations department.

So one would have to believe that something is in the offing and it could come early next week, like say on Tuesday when Weis’ would normally have a press conference.

Scott Novak is sports editor for Leader Publications. He can be reached at 687-7702 or by e-mail at scott.novak@leaderpub.com