Charlie Weis is out as Notre Dame's football coach. Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick made it official Monday afternoon.

"[Sunday night] I made a recommendation to Fr. Jenkins that we take our football program in a different direction by replacing our head coach. Fr. Jenkins accepted that recommendation and so, effective December 1, we will move forward in that way," said athletic director Jack Swarbrick.

Weis was fired exactly five years ago to the day that his predecessor, Tyrone Willingham, was also fired. Weis was the coach at Notre Dame from 2005-2009.

Monday, Swarbrick said he believes Weis will have a successful future. "He will go on to have great success, he'll add some Super Bowl rings, no doubt, to the ones he already has as a successful coordinator in the NFL, and we will miss him."

A source told NewsCenter 16 on Sunday that a half dozen NFL teams have already contacted Weis about becoming an offensive coordinator for them next season.

Notre Dame's president, Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., says: "I am most appreciative to Coach Weis for his service to Notre Dame and our community. He and his family have my prayers and best wishes."

Swarbrick informed the team of his decision at a 3pm meeting on Monday. Weis was not there. In fact, the Irish coach has not gone to his office since the team returned from Stanford Sunday morning. Some players talked to Weis over the phone on Monday and he is expected to meet with the entire team Friday before the football banquet.

Irish assistant head coach/offense, wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator Rob Ianello will take over the current responsibility for football operations until a final successor can be chosen.

There is no official word on possible successors. Two names that have consistently come up as possible candidates in the last few weeks are Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops and Cincinnati head coach Brian Kelly. Stoops said today, "I'm not going to say who I have or have not talked to... I'm going to be at Oklahoma next year."

Meantime, Swarbrick said at Monday's press conference that the search for the new coach is just getting underway, but no contact has been made.

"My reaction to all of those reports is that, and it's important to make this known, that they're all inaccurate. We haven't contacted anybody up till this moment, and so it's a bit of an situation to be in to have somebody say i heard you're interested in person x, and person x is now no longer interested in you. Well, none of that happened. So let's let the process run its course, where we can talk to the people we have strong interest in and see what reaction we get," says Swarbrick.

Stay with NewsCenter 16 for the latest on this developing story.