Awkward's the word if Irish-Cardinal game is Harbaugh audition

Rarely has a coach been marked for the chop as soon or as aggressively as Charlie Weis. I mean, it's been three years now, more or less, and that's a long time for people to force themselves upon a fella and shove cosmetic mirrors under his nose to check for steam.

Now we could get into a long and tedious dissertation about Notre Dame and the massive disconnect between what the school's place in the football universe is and what its fans and pundits think it should be. But why bother? It would be like preaching to a dumpster -- if there was anyone actually inside, the chances of them listening would be minimal.

Jim Harbaugh is just one of many names floating around -- but he's the only one facing the Irish in the (very) near future. (US Presswire)

No, this is about the potentially weird setting of a man finishing out his career with a game against one of the candidates to succeed him, in this case flavor of the month Jim Harbaugh of Stanford.

Harbaugh is not the front-runner here, at least not yet. The clubhouse leader has changed over time, from Urban Meyer to Steve Mariucci to Jon Gruden to Brian Kelly to Bob Stoops, plus vague mentions of other favorite sons here and there. Everyone speaks with absolute certitude about the job's future holder, with the added benefit of never being called to task when it is not so.

That's the beauty of it. There are so many names being thrown about that one could say "Kristen Stewart" and get three or four people to nod knowingly and say, "I hear they've had preliminary talks."

Harbaugh, though, has not yet actively been linked to the job, even though he will never be a more cuddly candidate than he is right now. Beating Oregon and USC in succession will do that for you. So will having Toby Gerhart, Heisman Candidate in Training, and Andrew Luck, The Next Big Quarterbacking Thing.

But Harbaugh will become a more prominent part of the conversation because, as we have seen, people get on and off candidates pretty quickly. Plus, there will need to be some level of hype for the Notre Dame-Stanford game, since most bowl scenarios will have sorted themselves out by then, and the Heisman will have shaken itself out to Tim Tebow, Colt McCoy, C.J. Spiller, Mark Ingram and Gerhart or Jacquizz Rodgers.

Besides, nobody does the not-a-candidate-candidate thing quite like Harbaugh. He's as subtle as a bag of padlocks to the groin in everything he does, most notably of late the two-point conversion try against USC in an attempt to widen a four-touchdown lead with six minutes to play last weekend. It was such a trouser-dropping that Harbaugh's explanation ("We were running well, and we just wanted to punch it in there") has been interpreted widely and correctly and accurately as "I wanted to jam a golf umbrella in Pete Carroll's nose and open it three or four times, just because I could. What of it?"

Harbaugh's is that combination of attitude and unexpected success that causes potential job posters to drool. Classic good looks with a smile that says, "I'm about to deny what you just saw me do and I'm going to make you take my side." He has snapped the once-comatose Stanford program back into regular sinus rhythm. He makes alums think, "That's what we need around here."

He hasn't convinced fans to turn Stanford Stadium into a happening place yet (the Cardinal are ninth in the Pacific-10 Conference in attendance, ahead of only Washington State, which is averaging a win a season over the past two), but there are some tasks that take too long and in any case are truly the provinces of others.

Oh, and he is looking to find another more attractive port of call no matter what he says because, while he and athletic director Bob Bowlsby are talking contract extension, it will be one with enough out-clauses to make the coach's departure fairly painless for him. Harbaugh is, after all, nobody's fool.

So, Notre Dame, The Job That Is Always Open, Even When It Isn't, will be staring Jim Harbaugh in the face in 10 days. If he can resist the urge to go onside on the opening kickoff, or go for two up 20 in the final 48 seconds, and if Urban Meyer decides that owning Florida is enough, and if Bob Stoops finds out what kind of fan base he would be inheriting, and if Jon Gruden would rather stay in the NFL, and if Brian Kelly is either too Irish-sounding or not Irish-sounding enough ... well, that could be some postgame handshake at Stanford Stadium on Nov. 28.

As in, "What's your deal?"

"My deal is your deal."

Now that wouldn't be too weird, would it?

Ray Ratto is a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle.