Posted by ESPN.com's Graham Watson

It's time for Notre Dame to find a new kicker.

As the Irish begin preparations for North Carolina this week, coach Charlie Weis said it might be time to switch kicking duties from Brandon Walker to Ryan Burkhart. Walker, who has been the starter all year, is 1-for-7. His only make was a 41-yarder against Purdue.

"I think we definitely have to explore Ryan kicking field goals," Weis said during his Sunday news conference. "We definitely have to explore that because in Brandon's case, it's not obviously a case of being able to kick it high enough or far enough. When you're 1 out of 7 kicking field goals, it just doesn't cut it."

If Burkhart does win the starting field goal kicking job this week, Weis said he'd yield kickoffs to Walker.

"What I don't want to do is I don't want to overload one guy to put both on him," Weis said. "I would think that if Ryan ended up kicking field goals, I would think that Brandon would end up kicking off. I would think that would be the direction we'd end up going."

Walker missed two field goals against Stanford on Saturday, which Weis said prompted him to pull special teams coach Brian Polian aside to discuss changes in the kicking game.

Weis said in past weeks that he's opened the kicking competition up during practice and Walker always prevails as the best kicker. But when the lights come on, something happens that he can't explain. In all fairness to Walker, some of his woes have been because of bad snaps and poor line play and he's also attempted a kick over 50 yards. But the bulk of his kicks would be made by most FBS starting kickers.

This isn't a new development either. Last year, Walker was 6-of-12 in field goals and he made just one that was longer than 28 yards (48). His play was a big point of contention heading into the season and many thought it would ultimately determine Notre Dame's success. Although a missed field goal hasn't hurt the Irish so far this season, the potential to do so is greater as the competition gets stiffer.

"You only can hang so long on this," Weis said. "We're fortunate it hasn't cost us more than what it's cost us already."