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Weis has not met with the team since they returned from Stanford but has been in touch with some players.

Star receiver Golden Tate said Weis has indicated he might attend the team banquet Friday night. University spokesman John Heisler confirmed Weis might attend and said he would be welcome.

Center Eric Olsen said he was heartbroken to hear Weis was fired.

"It's tough for me with my personal relationship with Coach Weis," he said. "But I know he's going to be fine."

Tate said he and his family plan to meet with Weis on Friday about whether the junior should enter the NFL draft. Tate said quarterback Jimmy Clausen also plans to talk with Weis on Friday.

Olsen said he texted Weis after the firing was announced Monday and Weis responded.

"He was like, 'Don't worry about it,'" Olsen said. "It's a tough thing to swallow."

The Fighting Irish are eligible to play in a bowl game, but Swarbrick has said he wants to hear from the players before deciding if Notre Dame will go to a minor postseason game.

Following a 6-2 start this season, Notre Dame began a winless November with the second upset by Navy in three years. Then came losses to Pittsburgh and to Connecticut in double overtime on senior day in South Bend. By the time Stanford beat the Irish, speculation about who would possibly replace Weis was rampant.

Among the top names mentioned, Florida's Urban Meyer and Oklahoma's Bob Stoops have already said they plan to stay where they are. Speaking on a conference call Monday, Stoops said: "I'm going to be at Oklahoma next year, so I can't be at two places at once."

Cincinnati's Brian Kelly has also been mentioned, along with Stanford's Jim Harbaugh and TCU's Gary Patterson.

Weis, meanwhile, has told people in South Bend that he's already heard from roughly six NFL teams about becoming their offensive coordinator next season, sources told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter.

Kansas City Chiefs coach Todd Haley insisted Monday, however, that the team has not contacted Weis about joining the staff. Weis and Haley worked together as assistants with the New York Jets. Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli was the Patriots' vice president of player personnel when Weis was the offensive coordinator in New England.

Haley, who says there will be no coaching staff changes for the Chiefs (3-8) until after the season, contradicted reports that the Chiefs had already contacted Weis about a position.

"I can say with clear conscience there's been no contact," Haley said. "The focus in this building is putting this team in the best possible position to succeed each day and each week and that's where the focus is. As far as staff goes, that would be something I would have -- that would be a decision I would have to make."

A self-confident offensive coordinator with the NFL champion New England Patriots when he was hired, Weis raised Irish expectations with back-to-back appearances in BCS bowl games in his first two seasons.

Since then, though, Notre Dame has gone 16-21 -- the most losses by the Irish in a three-year span.

Weis' record is worse than his two predecessors, Tyrone Willingham and Bob Davie, who were also fired. Notre Dame is now looking to hire its fifth coach this decade.

Weis received a new 10-year contract midway through his first season, shortly after a thriller against top-ranked USC that ended in a 34-31 Notre Dame loss.

Even though the Irish fell short, playing nearly even with Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush and the mighty Trojans had the Notre Dame faithful hopeful they had found a coach capable of returning the program to its past glories. The Fighting Irish have won eight AP national titles, more than any other school, but none since 1988.

Yet the USC loss turned out to be the highlight of the Weis era. Because Weis' tenure began so promisingly, his final three seasons in South Bend were especially painful for the legion of Fighting Irish supporters nationwide.

With Brady Quinn, Jeff Samardzija and other key players gone in 2007, the Irish started 0-5 for the first time in school history. They finished 3-9 and were last in the NCAA in total offense just three years after Weis said at his introductory news conference that when it comes to X's and O's "we have the greatest advantage."

Notre Dame fans who celebrated Weis' cockiness when he was winning grew tired of his Jersey attitude when the Irish started losing, with many calling him arrogant.

The now-former coach said a day after the loss to Connecticut that he would have a hard time arguing against his dismissal "because 6-5 is not good enough" -- an echo of his words when he took the job.

Swarbrick said he believes it's still possible to turn the Irish into a consistent winner.

"Is it harder for us? Yes, because of the standards we choose to apply to the program ourselves," he said. "That doesn't mean we can't get there."

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish coach Charlie Weis fired - ESPN