With the golden dome looming over his shoulder, Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis walks through the team during football practice in South Bend, Ind., Aug. 8. This is a defining year for Weis, who has little room for error after two dismal seasons that infuriated the Fighting Irish faithful and had some calling for him to be fired.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Notre Dame fans were delighted when Charlie Weis showed up with his brash confidence and Super Bowl rings, certain he was the man to end the national title drought that had stretched into a second decade.

Euphoria has since given way to concern, concern to impatience. Beginning his fifth season, Weis still has to prove he's a worthy successor to Knute Rockne, Frank Leahy, Ara Parseghian and Lou Holtz — and he has to do it now.

This is a defining year for Weis, who has little room for error after two dismal seasons that infuriated the Fighting Irish faithful and had some calling for him to be fired. All — well, most — will be forgiven if Notre Dame wins 10 or more games and gets back into the mix for a BCS bowl.

Stagger to another mediocre finish, though, or get exposed by Southern California as a BCS pretender, and the Irish likely will be looking for somebody else to restore college football's most storied program to prominence.

Again.

"I'm not really worrying about the past. Right now, the only thing I'm worried about is the start of this football season," Weis said. "I could sit there and tell you the lofty goals I have, my expectations. But guess what? It's time for us to back them up. That's what we have to do. The only way to back them up is by backing them up on the field."

The reality, though, is that Notre Dame doesn't take losing well. The school's identity is, rightly or wrongly, tied to the football program, and coaches who don't produce don't last long. Rockne, Leahy, Parseghian and Holtz all stayed for more than a decade. Bob Davie and Gerry Faust got five years each, Tyrone Willingham just three.

"I think this is a make-or-break year," said Jack Wysocki, a fan visiting campus with his son recently. "He has to get at least eight or nine wins. Even if he gets seven wins, I don't think they'll be happy."

That Weis is even in this position is surprising.

He was the offensive mastermind behind the New England Patriots' juggernaut that won three Super Bowls in four years, the man who turned Tom Brady from a sixth-round pick into one of the NFL's great quarterbacks. After inheriting a mediocre Notre Dame team, he led the Irish to a 19-6 record his first two years and back-to-back appearances in BCS games.

Notre Dame officials were so enamored of his early success they gave him a new, 10-year contract — before his first season even ended.

There were, though, hints of trouble. Another two losses to archrival USC. A shellacking at home by Michigan. And, after poor recruiting classes in Willingham's last season and Weis' first, a lack of difference-makers who would be veterans in 2007 and 2008.

"If you were at some other universities around the country, you would have gone out and recruited some junior college players to be a stopgap," said offensive assistant head coach Rob Ianello, who has been with Weis since he came to Notre Dame. "That's not what we do here."

Weis didn't do himself any favors, either, declaring he wouldn't use the word rebuilding when Brady Quinn and Jeff Samardzija left. The Irish had good, inexperienced talent, including hotshot quarterback Jimmy Clausen, and would be just fine.

Instead, the Irish opened the 2007 season with a record five-straight losses; even Joe Kuharich (who had a losing record) didn't do that. At 29-21, Weis' .580 winning percentage is slightly below that of Davie and Willingham, both of whom were fired. The 15 losses since 2007 are Notre Dame's most in a two-year span.

But it wasn't the losing so much as the way Notre Dame did it.

The Irish lost to Navy in 2007 for the first time in 44 years — at home, no less. Their 38-0 loss to USC that same season was their worst in the 80-year history of the rivalry. Last year, the Irish were upset by a woeful Syracuse team that had already fired its coach. They were so soundly beaten by USC they managed just four first downs, and didn't cross midfield until the fourth quarter.

The Irish hadn't even left Los Angeles when speculation began about who would replace Weis. Things had gotten so bad, it seemed, that not even the seven years left on his contract, or the fact he was a Notre Dame alum, would save him.

"He started out with two very good years. The last couple of years have not been very good by most people's standards, certainly not by Notre Dame's standards," said Tim Kelley, a 1964 graduate who co-authored a letter from alums to the board of trustees when Willingham was coach, expressing concern about the direction of the football program.

"The question is, do the first two years or the last two years represent the future?" asked Kelley, who still has faith in Weis.