ELKHART -- It didn't take long for the word to reach the Irish fans around Michiana -- Charlie Weis was fired and the head coaching position at Notre Dame was again open.

And it wasn't long before many of them had an opinion about it.

The bar at Wings Etc. in Elkhart was sharply divided about Weis' departure. Some believe Notre Dame is jumping the gun in letting him go, but others think it's about time.

Drew Godfrey of Elkhart was happy to speak up in defense of Weis.

"Charlie, he's getting a bad deal," he said.

Godfrey has been a Notre Dame fan for 38 of his 40 years, thanks largely to his parents. They watched games all the time, and he's seen 15 to 20 games live.

Godfrey believes Notre Dame is pouring money down the drain by getting rid of Weis, who will reportedly be paid close to 3 million dollars for the next six years. The money, he said, could be better used elsewhere.

"How much money have the alumni put into getting rid of coaches because they don't have a winning season?" he asked. "Unbelievable."

There's another factor behind Notre Dame's mediocre seasons, Godfrey said, and that's the players. They're the ones, he reasoned, that are throwing and kicking the football.

"If they can't execute, it's not Charlie's fault," he said.

Eric Willings, 27, of Elkhart, sat two chairs down from Godfrey and completely agreed with him.

"I think he's a fine coach," Willings said. "I don't think they're giving him enough time."

Willings thinks Notre Dame is developing a bad habit of firing coaches before they have a chance to find their groove. Willings couldn't even remember the name of Tyrone Willingham, Weis' predecessor.

"Every time one of them starts to get a grip on what they're doing they throw them away," he said.

Patrons at the other end of the bar were less enthusiastic about Weis' coaching ability. Thirty-year-old Jeremy Davis lives in Elkhart but is originally from Ohio and is a big Ohio State fan. Davis said he's sorry to see Weis go as he believes the team may now win more games.

Shannon Grady, 27, and her mother Joy, 58, are among those happy to see Weis go.

"He's not a good coach and I don't think he should have been coach at Notre Dame," Shannon said. "Look at how much they lost."

Joy has also been disappointed by Weis' coaching ability. She doesn't feel he was connected enough with the players and what they were doing on the field. She's also unhappy with what Weis leaving means for the university's pocketbook.

"I think he wanted the money more than anything," she said.

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The news had been out for only a matter of hours at Between the Buns in Osceola, but patrons were already acutely aware that Weis was fired.

"It's time," Dave Thomas, of Osceola, quietly said. "I don't know, but it's time for a change."

Few at the sports bar deviated from that opinion.

"I saw it coming," said Jeremy Seibert, a proud fan since the age of 3. "Notre Dame is a high expectation school. So if you can't keep your win-loss ratio at least in the green, you're going to go."

The scorn of Notre Dame's record was evident throughout the bar, but not everyone believed firing Weis was an easy fix. As some watched TV and quietly ate and drank, they simply pointed to the $18 million left on Weis' contract and left it at that.

There were other concerns, too, among the mixture of fans.

"The biggest shame of it is that he will probably lose three or four of his best players. I doubt that they will return," said Bart Bottorff, who rated his devotion to the team at a 6 out of 10. "Those guys that are seniors that have an opportunity to play in the NFL probably don't want to play for a new coach."

Others though, questioned the impact of Weis' firing among the community.

"One of my concerns is for the Hannah and Friends Foundation," said Sherry Wagley, as she sat with her husband. The Mishawaka resident said the foundation, which was founded by Weis and devotes itself to children with developmental disorders, is dear to her heart because her daughter is handicapped.

"It is an important thing to me, that Hannah and Friends stay a viable part of the community locally."

While Wagley valued Weis' efforts off the field, she wasn't afraid to criticize his career on the field.

"I will say that Charlie blew himself up to be this savior of all saviors and he couldn't live up to it," she said.

While the opinions differed between patrons, their ideas on future coaches were always preceded with an "It's hard to say," or ended inevitably with, "we'll see."