Coach Charlie Weis said he briefly considered leaving Notre Dame late last season and that he worried about abuse his son would get as the season went sour, even having him skip three days of school after a loss to 2-8 Syracuse, the Chicago Tribune reported Monday.

Weis, who was 19-6 after two years at Notre Dame but now is 29-21 after four, said he considered returning to the NFL as a coordinator but decided against it.

"We talked about all that as a family, and we felt that we didn't want to leave that way," Weis said, the Chicago Tribune reported. "That would have been the easy way out. That's not why we came here."

Weis said he didn't read criticism in the newspapers but that he was aware of the discomfort it caused his family.

"I have tunnel vision," he said, the newspaper reported. "Not that I don't care about what's being said, but I don't listen to it. I don't read it. I don't watch it. I don't go online. I don't do any of those things."

Emphasizing that point, Weis added: "After the Syracuse game, I'm worried more about my kid having a breakdown."

Weis said he and wife Maura decided to it would be better for Charlie Jr., a sophomore at St. Joseph's High School in South Bend, Ind., to stay home for three days following the game.

"He must have had 50 kids come over to the house during those three days who said, 'Hey, Charlie, we've got your back. We've got you covered. We're worried about you,' " Weis said, the Tribune reported.

"By the end of the week, he had come out of it. And then we go to USC and it starts all over again. I sat with him Saturday after the (USC) game and said: 'You're going to school on Monday.' "

Weis said he thought the school might fire him after the 38-3 loss to USC.

"I thought there was a chance," he said, the newspaper reported. "I can tell you that Saturday night's sleep was not the best I've ever had in my life."

The next day, Weis told school officials that he needed an assurance before he visited recruit Shaquelle Evans, a receiver from Inglewood, Calif.

"I said: 'I have to be able to look him in the eye and tell him I'm the football coach,' " Weis said, the Tribune reported. "They said: 'That's what you should be telling him.' "

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