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No chance at all. Anyone who honestly believes that there was any chance of his taking the ND job that year, is deluding himself. While we could have had a shot at him when he was coming out of Bowling Green, I doubt the fanbase would have wanted a coach of that low level of a school.

First, he knew that we were in for a future world of hurt, given the two worst recruiting classes in all of modern ND history (2004 and 2005, thanks to Ty WIllingham). While there was enough talent to do very well for 2005 and 2006, everyone knew that 2007 and 2008 would be down years.

Second, Florida had some truly excellent recruiting classes under Ron Zook. That roster was absolutely loaded with NFL starting talent, all the way throughout the entire two deep roster.

Meyer didn't want to take any time to rebuild, and instead, wanted quick results.

Finally, and most importantly, the University of Florida gave him complete control over the football program, essentially selling their souls to Mammon himself, just to gain quick results. The University of Notre Dame's Board of Trustees would never cede that kind of power, even to someone the likes of Nick Saban, Bob Stoops, etc.

Like it or not, Charlie Weis was the best man for the job at the time. He helped rebuild this program, at least giving Brian Kelly a well stocked roster of athletes in all of the classes, not just one or two. When Brian Kelly took over, there were far more 4 and 5 star players on this roster, as well as a good number of 3 star players who were definitely Division I material.

We didn't have a roster littered with Tregg Duerson-class players that nobody else wanted.



That being said...

Yes, Charlie Weis was a flawed coach, and simply wasn't ready for the job at the time. While he was able to learn on the job, ND simply isn't the place to do that, since we, the fanbase, are an impatient lot, and want our teams to be contenders every year.

There were several mistakes he could have avoided to buy him some more time, but the most glaring one that essentially killed that chance, was hiring Jon Tenuta, and letting him run that stupid "jailbreak blitz every down" defense.