Unknowingly, Navy might have done Notre Dame a monumental favor despite the fact that the Midshipmen took down the Irish 23-21 last Saturday in yet another shameful loss by the Domers.

Favor? Huh? How could that be?

After all, didn't the Middies embarrass ND for the second time in three years? Yes, that's right.

And didn't Navy expose the Irish as being complete frauds when it came to being worthy of BCS consideration? Check. 

And didn't the Midshipmen, by virtue of their unexpected win, puncture even more holes in ND's diminishing and tarnishing reputation? Absolutely.

So how does any of that work to ND's advantage? Where's the silver lining in such a dismal circumstance? Well, it lies in the fact that though the Irish lost the battle, they may have ultimately won the war.

Again, you may scratch your head and ask how?

Here it is in a nutshell. By humbling the Irish for the second straight time in South Bend, Navy probably did in Charlie Weis. Given Weis' sorry track record, his demise appears almost assured. Did I just hear a chorus of hallelujahs?  

And for shoving Weis seemingly beyond the point of no return, the Irish may be in Navy's debt for years to come. You generally thank those who help rid you of an albatross.

Let's face it, Weis was on borrowed time to begin with. He was given a reprieve last year with the implied understanding that he needed to step up in a big way during his fifth season. Anything short of that would spell his end. Consider Charlie doomed!

This season has devolved into the same frustrating pattern that has plagued the Irish program since 2007. Three years of play that have been categorized by crappy results, inexcusable losses and unfulfilled expectations.

It's time to bring down the curtain on this Weis production. With Weis at the helm, the Irish will never experience a sustained run of success. With Charlie calling the shots, the Domers will always be off Broadway material.

It's not too harsh to say that Irish fans and perhaps now even the administration, have had enough of Weis. His act has grown tiresome and in all honesty, a bit irritating. Nothing changes with Weis. It's a case of the same old mistakes, the same old disappointments, the same old empty rhetoric. If ND keeps Weis on beyond this year, the school is taking masochism to a new degree. It's borderline psychotic to keep tolerating such self-inflicted pain.

Is it really necessary to itemize all the reasons why Weis should be shown the gate? All right, just for the sake of reinforcement, let's hit some of the more pertinent justifications for his ouster. 

To begin with, against ND's fiercest rivals, Weis' record stinks. It absolutely reeks! How does 0-5 versus SC, 2-3 against Michigan, 2-3 versus Michigan State and 1-2 against Boston College strike your fancy? That's not exactly getting the job done, is it?

Moreover, Weis couldn't beat a ranked team to save his life, or his job for that matter. Just look it up and you'll be mortified.

Even more revealing, his ledger against merely winning teams is flat out brutal. The guy can't beat any heavyweights, he struggles with middleweights and on too many occasions, he falls to lightweights. Under Weis' direction, Irish football has become the equivalent of a journeyman fighter and nothing more.

The one single criteria that indicates whether a coach is succeeding or not is his ability to elicit from his team a consistency of performance. That from week to week, his players, both individually and collectively, will function at a relatively high and reliable level. In this area, Weis is sub-par at best and a washout at worst. 

There hasn't been a more unpredictable team in America over the last three years than the Domers. They've become maddeningly erratic. They're like a bunch of Sybil-like beings in cleats. From Saturday to Saturday, you really have no concrete idea of how ND will execute or play. They're competent and exciting one moment, shaky and confused the next.

Of all the knocks against Weis, this is most damning!

There's plenty more ammo that could be fired at Weis to justify his dismissal. This writer could bludgeon you with countless more specifics but what's the point. You get the idea.

The Charlie Weis experiment has run its course. It's time to come up with a new chemist and a better formula. It's time to blow up the current laboratory.

Though no one would ever charge that Weis doesn't work hard and isn't committed to the task at hand, that's beside the point. You can have all the best intentions in the world but when you're earning 4 million dollars per, it's got to come down to results. And in that regard, one could make a very strong case that Weis hasn't come close to earning his pay.

Another point that makes Weis' travails even more aggravating is the undercurrent of arrogance he sometimes demonstrates. Weis would have been much better served if he had kept his ego more in check. After all, what has the guy really accomplished at the collegiate level that would warrant a puffed out chest? By periodically emitting a air of superiority, Weis made himself an east target and cast a poor light on the school he represents. Nothing is more off-putting than a misplaced ego.

It's hard to imagine a scenario short of a 10-3 slate ( Bowl win included ) that could possibly save Weis now. Given the way both Pitt and Stanford are coming on and the tendency the Irish have for imploding, that seems almost an impossibility. If ND gets beyond eight regular season wins, it'll be a minor miracle.

Last year athletic director Jack Swarbrick took the easy way out and kept Weis on-board knowing the coach's inherent flaws and weaknesses. In retrospect, that decision looks to be a most misguided one. Another season is on the verge of disintegration. In the face of this, if Swarbrick has the temerity and stupidity to actually retain Weis, then he has no interest in returning the Irish to the elite. His actions will indicate having the Domers remain mediocre and middling is good enough for him.

But logic and reason scream that what Navy did last weekend was the last straw for Weis. It provided Swarbrick with all the provocation he'll need to kick Charlie to the curb.

Though they didn't know it, the Middies most likely won battles on two fronts on Saturday. They torpedoed the Irish. And they sunk Charlie Weis.