SOUTH BEND, Ind. — When Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick chooses the adjective “important” to describe his football program’s 2009 season, and when he’s asked to elaborate on that choice, it kind of begets another question.

Specifically: How isn’t it an important season for the Irish?
“Football at Notre Dame has to succeed,” Swarbrick said. “All of us engaged feel an equal obligation to get us back there, to where people view us as one of the better teams in the country.”
When Swarbrick recently sat down to chat with the Tribune, the focus was on Irish football and coach Charlie Weis. And the bar for this year and the future was clear: Be in the conversation to play in January, or face the consequences of disappointment.
“At the end of the day, our goal for the program, stated by Charlie, stated by me, is we expect annually to be in ⁄Bowl Championship Series‹ contention,” Swarbrick said. “You may get just decimated by injuries and you don’t get there, or something else may happen, but you know whether your team is in contention.”
Q: It was said after the post-2008 meeting with Charlie that you and he were on the same page regarding changes. Are you happy with the implementation?
A: Just as I said I wouldn’t go into the details, now in retrospect I can’t say you can see it here, here and here. But I’m very happy with both the shared vision we had and, from that point on, the very thoughtful process of implementing the changes we both thought needed to be made. Some are obvious. Some aren’t obvious, will never be obvious to people. But real pleased.
Q: Is this an important year for Charlie, specifically?
A: Both Charlie and I understand how people look at this, the pressure associated with that job. But it’s about the program. I don’t approach this or any other season as a referendum on an individual. It’s about where we are with the program.
I understand why fans crystallize it down to won-lost and impact on the coach. But from the perspective of the way I manage, it’s not that simple.
Q: So if everyone has the wrong perception about Charlie, what doesn’t everyone get?
A: I can think just off the top of my head right now of five examples of players going to him with personal issues that had nothing to do with football. But he was the person they chose to go to with the issue and talk about it with. And you don’t do that unless you have a relationship with somebody and feel like you’re going to get good counsel.
Q: Are you happy with Charlie?
A: I’m happy with our program. That’s not to dodge that question, but that’s the way we look at it. If you ask me if I’m happy with (Notre Dame basketball coaches) Muffet (McGraw) or Mike (Brey), I’m going to talk about the program. Because I don’t think you think of coach performance separate from the program. And, yes, I’m happy with our program. We went from a very bad year to better to, I hope, significantly better.
Q: So if this season doesn’t approach BCS contention ...
A: We’ll all be disappointed. Again, it’s being in contention, it’s being in the mix, it’s having people talk about whether you’re going to get in. We all shared the disappointment of the end of the season last year, prior to the bowl game. We all experienced that and felt that together.
You want to be better this year than you were last year. Yeah, (if there’s no improvement) the disappointment would be greater.