SOUTH BEND — It may be the eve of the Notre Dame home opener, but it's Day 4 of the Charlie Weis billboard controversy.

The billboard wishing Weis luck on his “coaching internship” went up at the start of the week. Burkhart Advertising took it down Thursday.

Now the man behind it is crying foul, and he's come to campus with at least a thousand T-shirts touting the same phrase as the billboard.

The new billboards that have gone up on the same corner where the other billboard was taken down above the Linebacker Inn at State Road 23 and Edison Road are now sporting a clearly pro-Notre Dame message. One read “Go ND! Beat Nevada” and another reads "We support Notre Dame."

In fact, Tom Reynolds — a 1960s-era Notre Dame football player who paid for the Weis internship-themed billboard — says Burkhart asked if one of those pro-Notre Dame billboards could be put up over his. He says he refused.

In fact, he says Burkhart violated the contract he signed to have his billboard up for 12 weeks. He says he is trying to get his money back and is getting a lawyer involved.

Reynolds says he also got 63 calls after his billboard went up — all from former players just within the first 24 hours, and all in support.

Reynolds maintains that his billboard was positively intended and contained only 14 innocuous words.

So now those 14 words are emblazoned on green shirts that Reynolds says he and about 50 other Notre Dame football players from his era plan to sell this weekend and during other game weekends.

On the back of the T-shirts there's another dig at Weis — one not featured on the billboard. It says “Training Room 2009."

Reynolds says he actually sympathizes with Burkhart. He says he understands the billboard company didn't want to anger Notre Dame.

Notre Dame says the decision to take the billboard down was all Burkhart's, but Reynolds doesn't believe it, calling Notre Dame the 800-pound gorilla in the situation.

Reynolds didn't want to talk on camera because of threats that have been made against him on the Internet since the whole billboard controversy started. So in the meantime, he'll get his word out with his T-shirts, selling them at an undisclosed location this weekend.