Notre Dame's new head football coach will be...

The Game Room
1

…?

I have no idea. But there sure are a lot of rumors floating around, and who doesn’t love a good rumor? Charlie doesn’t get to stay on the west coast after the Stanford game this weekend, which is not a very good sign for his continued tenure - I would expect an announcement Sunday or Monday that he’s resigned or been fired.

Rumor 1: That Charlie Weis resigned before the UConn game due to health reasons. (There’s an attachment to that rumor that he still gets his $10 million buyout even after resigning.)

I have no idea how college football coaching contracts work, so I frankly wouldn’t be surprised if you were able to both resign and receive a buyout at the same time. And at this point, I fully expect Charlie to exploit such a loophole if it existed.

Rumor 2: Urban Meyer has expressed no interest in leaving, going so far as to say that it’s not an option.

It may be presumptuous to think that Urban would leave a cushy job in Gainsville for the harsh climate of South Bend (both weather- and fan-wise). But he coached under Holtz, has expressed a great deal of affection and respect for both the university and the position of Head Coach of the Fightin’ Irish, and has a fairly well known “veto clause” with his wife that that’s one of three jobs she is not allowed to veto. Either way - he was heavily recruited when they fired Willingham, and was rumored to be extremely close to signing before his buddy Bob Davie called to whine about what a shitty organization it was and how mean they were when they fired him for being terrible. I’d love to see it, but I don’t think it’ll happen. Tebow’s done, and he’s proven he’s a fantastic coach - it comes down to wanting to be Bear Bryant or wanting to be Bill Parcells.

Rumor 3: Brian Kelly of the University of Cincinnati

I haven’t heard anything bad about Kelly over the last couple years. It’s pretty impressive what he’s done with the Bearcats. Frankly, I don’t have any issues with Kelly. The one thing I’d like to look at further with him is his ability to recruit outside the midwest. (Though recruiting strongly from Ohio without the benefit of being the Buckeyes is pretty impressive in itself.)

Rumor 4: Bob Stoops of the University of Oklahoma

It seems to me that Stoops is in a slump, and could use a fresh start. He’s got a great resume, an excellent track record, and has recruiting some absolutely top talents and developed them into star players both at the college and NFL level. He’d be a top-flight signing for the Irish.
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Rumor 5: Butch Davis of the University of North Carolina**

I just heard this one about an hour ago. At the time, I had to think pretty hard to remember that he’s currently coaching right now! But that’s ridiculous - he’s done a great job with the Tarheels, who have very little history as a football program. He’s been a head coach at the NFL level as well, so his resume is great. The one quibble ND admin might have is his stint at Miami - but that’s silly fandom coloring my view of him. I checked out his wiki page - I didn’t realize he had a stint with chemotherapy a few years back. Other than that, I don’t know much about him - I really don’t like the Hurricanes or the Cowboys (both of Dallas and Ok. State), so I’m not sure if I’d be able to give him a fair shake off the bat.

We’ll see, I guess. Anyone want to take a stab at what rumors may be true? Heard any yourselves? Got any coaches out there might be interested?

2

Bobby Bowden’s contract is expiring soon.

3

Regardless of who it is, I have this feeling the same pattern will be repeated that we’ve seen under the last 3 coaches (and at other schools also): initially winning some, then going down hill and getting fired after 3/4/5 years.

4

Kelly from Cincinnatti.

ND can’t afford to be turned down like last time. They screwed the pooch big time with Weis, and now they have to find “The Guy”.

Kelly took two programs from relative oblivion and turned them around. I can’t imagine what he will do with ND’s recruiting power.

I hate ND, so I hope he fails, of course. But I don’t think he will.

I’d be shocked if they were able to get an Urban Meyer-type guy.

5

I called this at the beginning of the year, and it scares the hell out of me. Kelly understands college football and how to win better than anybody in the country and that includes Saban and Meyer in my opinion. More than half of recruiting is the name of the school on you jacket, and Notre Lame is a good as you get in that regard. You can get a top 20 class if you never leave your office. Unfortunately I think we are going to have to deal with ND getting good again. :frowning:

6

You have touched upon most of the rumors that I’ve heard, except for the possibility of Jon Gruden and Jim Harbaugh

I really figured that ND might poach Paul Johnson from GTech. I am really glad he is not in the equation. I sure there are other teams calling. STAY AWAY!!

At this time, I would bet on Stoops. He had a miserable week last week, and I think Notre Dame is the reason why.

7

Urban Meyer. He’s a very, very smart man and he knows he’s not going to find another Tim Tebow anytime soon. If he’s not going to compete for national championships, he may as well compete for other BCS bowl games for $10 million a year.

8

I can’t believe I forgot those.

Jim Harbaugh - there is absolutely no friggin’ way Harbaugh will go to Notre Dame. He’s a Wolverine through and through, and has been vocal in the past about his dislike of the Irish. He’ll wait a year and be head coach for the Skunkbears, driving them further into the ground as the world watches Willingham II: Electric Boogaloo occur in realtime.

Jon Gruden - Gruden also has South Bend ties, and has been a popular suggestion for years (even during the search for Weis). I have to think there’s a reason he hasn’t coached since his Tampa Bay days, and there’s a reason he hasn’t really done much (aside from winning a Super Bowl with a fully developed team that he had little input into). I don’t like it. Therefore, he’s the guy.

9

His “Tampa Bay days” ended on January 19th. It’s not as though he’s been passed up for job after job or something.

10

Really? Jeez - shows how close I pay attention to NFL jobs.

11

How much does the Notre Dame mean to an 17 year old kid today? The program hasn’t been relevant for years. I bet most 17 year olds have watched more Boise State this year than Notre Dame.

12

It’s not just about the kids - mom and dad still have a say too, and Notre Dame football players actually graduate, for the most part. Not many of the BCS programs graduate more than 75% of their players, but Notre Dame is always in the 90s.

13

To a kid getting calls from top D-I schools who wants to play in the NFL? It means being seen every single Saturday on national television not subject to blackouts or regional coverage. Boise State, not so much.

14

Why would Meyer want to leave Florida at this point? With the new ESPN contract, the SEC is all over the place and he’s pretty clearly in control of the SEC East for the foreseeable future. The only thing that’s going to ever hold him back is not getting a raise unless Billy Donovan gets one as well, because the Florida boosters aren’t quite deep-pocketed enough to let Foley hand out a couple of $30 million contracts.

Kelly’s the right move if you’re looking to rebuild the program over the next few years. Stoops is the guy if you want to win, win fast and run the risk of finding out in a few years that boosters were paying your guys for “jobs” where they never showed up.

15

Bobby Bowden is expiring soon. :wink:

It’s worth noting that even if Notre Dame loses to Stanford on Saturday, which it probably will, they could still end up at a bowl game. I don’t think they would fire Weis before they play that bowl game.

Urban Meyer is not leaving Florida. He has a much better job there than he could ever have at Notre Dame. He has a connection to ND, but even if he hadn’t already made it clear he was not going to leave, there’s no comparison. Even without Tebow, Florida draw an absurd excess of potential stars and compete for championships every year, the way USC has over the last decade. Notre Dame isn’t going to do that. Notre Dame hasn’t won a championship in 20 years and hasn’t come close in 15. It’s not a step backward for him, it’s a giant plunge down a hole. And expectations at that school are still not realistic. They may never become realistic.

For Kelly, who is not likely to do better at Cincy than he has this year, ND would make more sense. I don’t know anything else about the guy, so I can’t guess anything else about him.

And I don’t think Weis is quitting either. He says he isn’t, and usually, if you quit, you don’t get any more money because you’ve ended your own contract. If you get fired, usually they have to keep paying you. That’s enough to keep most people from resigning right there.

16

They have before. It gives the new coach that time to recruit.

17

I think their best option would be to can Weis, appoint an assistant to be interim head coach for whatever fleabag bowl they wind up in, and then sign the new guy pronto.

Meyer says no. Big deal, Nick Saban always says no and look what he always does. Still, I can’t imagine Meyer giving up a deal where he plays maybe four challenging games a year and if he wins them all, winds up playing for the title.

I’d make Kelly the odds on favorite. Harbaugh is going to Ann Arbor in 2011 if not sooner. As a Spartan fan, my preferred ending would be for U of M and ND to switch coaches but I’m not holding my breath.

18

News this AM is that Weis is flying back to South Bend with the team after Stanford, not staying in CA to recruit as he had planned. I consider that confirmation.

Gruden just re-upped with ESPN for another 2 years on MNF. If he wanted to coach again, he wouldn’t have done that. Plus, don’t look for ND to go for another guy with no experience/aptitude in recruiting - that was Weis’ main problem.

Kelly.

19

Huh? Weis is an amazing recruiter - that’s the least of his problems. The problem was that he had no head coaching experience, and was crappy at player development.

20

Who are the great players he’s recruited, then?