While Notre Dame is preparing for its season finale against Stanford this weekend, the rumor mill is already running at full speed with speculation regarding the eventual successor to Charlie Weis. Weis is still the Irish head coach for at least the next 24 hours, but that hasn’t stopped the rumors from flying.
Here’s a quick recap of the rumors from the past several days regarding the Notre Dame head coaching position.
- Bob Stoops name has popped up more than once over the last few weeks. Stoops came up most recently in Eric Hansen’s column in Thursday’s South Bend Tribune. According to Hansen, Stoops sits at the top of Notre Dame’s wish list. Stoops would be a monumental hire for the Irish and would certainly earn athletic director Jack Swarbrick an early contract extension… on second thought, those early extensions haven’t worked out for Notre Dame in the past.
- Cincinnati head coach Brian Kelly’s name has been on the radar of Notre Dame fans since last year when rumors swirled that Weis was on his way out with Kelly on his way in. Before the Bearcats win over Illinois on Friday, ABC’s Bob Griese reported that Kelly told him a decision regarding Notre Dame would be made within the next 7-10 days. This obviously suggests that Kelly is on Notre Dame’s radar, but both Kelly and Griese distanced themselves from that statement after the game. For those of you who haven’t been paying attention, Kelly has replaced 10 starters on defense this year and still has Cincinnati undefeated headed into their season finale against Pitt.
- Hansen also floated the names Texas defensive coordinator Will Muschamp and TCU head coach Gary Patterson in his Thursday column. Patterson, and his nasty TCU defenses certainly are intriguing, but if Notre Dame has to settle for any coordinator this time around we could be in the same position in another couple years. If Bob Davie and Charlie Weis have taught us anything, it’s that head coaching experience at the college level is essential for success at Notre Dame.
- CBS’s Spencer Tillman said on Friday that former Baltimore Ravens head coach Brian Billick is a viable candidate for Notre Dame, but I just can’t see that being even remotely possible. Billick is another NFL guy who doesn’t exactly have the personality that suggests he’d be a great college coach.
- Some other names who have popped up include some of the usual suspects – Urban Meyer and Jon Gruden. Meyer’s been asked a couple times about the potential opening though and said that he’ll be the head coach at Florida as long as they’ll have him. Gruden’s recently signed ESPN Monday Night Football extension also suggests that he won’t be coaching in South Bend next year.
Of all of the rumors out there right now, the Stoops one seems to be picking up some steam and is the most intriguing to be me. Stoops was asked about the Notre Dame position earlier this week by The Sporting News, but wouldn’t comment on it since Notre Dame still has a coach. Not exactly a denial. He had an opportunity to completely shoot down the notion of him leaving for Notre Dame and he chose not to.
Brian Kelly’s name will be brought up the most since he is out of central casting for the Notre Dame head coaching position with a last night like his. He has also been very successful everywhere he’s went and has Cincinnati on the cusp of back to back BCS bowl games. Before you dismiss Kelly’s success at Cincinnati because of the “weak” Big East, remember that he is coaching at freaking CINCINNATI. The school had one 10 win season in 60 years before Kelly got there. Kelly, meanwhile, has won 10 or more games in each of the last three seasons.
Other names are bound to pop up over the next few days. Some will make sense and many, like Billick, will not. We’ll do our best to keep everyone up to date with daily recaps of rumors here on UHND if/when a change is announced.
ND needs a coach like Mike Leach.
“He has also been very successful everywhere he’s went”… I’m sure you mean everywhere he’s gone!!!!!!
i know this isn’t an original thought, but one reason Kelly MAY bypass the job if offered is that it’s a job one accepts KNOWING he will be fired from it…yes, Kelly will just about triple his salary, and yes, ND has a whole lot more Tradition than UC in football, but Kel could go 6-4 here next year, and we’d still love him, because we remember what we were. ND looks at 6-4 as disastrous, and gives warning of “next year better be a WHOLE lot better…!” Cincinnati as a city has a lot more to offer as far as environment goes; South Bend…well, ND is pretty much the show there…that all said, it’s a prestigious college job…one of the three best in terms of prestige, fame, etc…it’ll be interesting!
Too much is made of the Catholic ties and the academic standards at ND in criticizing potential coaches. Roughly a quarter of the schools in the NCAA have higher SAT scores for incoming freshmen in both the general and student-athlete populations. The school has clearly abandoned most of its Catholic roots as evidenced by the prevalence of atheistic (not just non-Catholic) faculty, relaxed standards of student behavior, and political liberalism on campus. The facilities at ND are top-notch, the salary is excellent, and the expectations are justifiably high with a soft schedule. You will land a good coach, but not a Meyer or a Stoops.
Mark Richt at Georgia is said to be quietly floating his name out as a possibility. Recent challenges at the SEC’s perennial middle-tier team and disgruntled fan base has him secretly looking for a package deal for himself and several key staff members who have recently been under fire.
Over the past few days, I have been scouring through sports sites looking for breaking news about the coaching change at ND in my spare time. It hasn’t surprised me at all, that fans, commentators, conversation boards, and columnist have been bringing potential candidates out of left field.
Many of them are just downright funny like:
• Tony Dungy
• Jon Gruden
• Brian Bilick
• Bill Cowher
I guess anything is possible; however it’s fairly unlikely that these guys would ever consider coming back to the college game. There’s no question, they are great coaches and would certainly prove to be “huge” front page stories on ESPN and newspapers around the country. But, does anyone truly feel that these guys (while incredible as they are) would make a good “college” head coach?
Right now, ND needs less coverage of “left-field” candidates like Tony Dungy saying “is there anything less than zero percent chance of that happening?” when asked about the ND Head Coaching vacancy. I really wish the off the wall suggestions would be edited by their producers and editors and start providing viable candidates instead of creating rumors.
Getting past the crazy people, we then have coaches who would be incredible and would lead the Irish back to prominence like:
• Patterson
• Stoopes
• Myer
The only problem is that many of these guys are living the dream where they are now. Myer is becoming a legend before our eyes down in Florida and shows little sign of slowing down. He will certainly lose some talent after this year, but the state of Florida is stacked on high school football talent, so it will be a short re-building year for the probable 3 time National Champion Gators.
Stoopes also has little reason to leave Norman, he is the front man for one of the best football universities in the county. Their facilities are incredible, not to mention, the academic ease of getting kids to be able to enter his school. Why would he leave that?
It’s rumored that Patterson just signed an extension with TCU. He has built a big name for himself in Texas, at a school that is coincidently reminiscent of Notre Dame. TCU has very high standards and will not always get the 5-star athlete that they want for their program.
Patterson is my pick for the best of the “probably not going to happen” coaches that will come to South Bend. He faces many of the stressors of finding great athletes who have the character and scholastics to attend Notre Dame.
All three of these guys could take the Irish to the next level, no one questions that. But is it realistic that any of them will actually leave their programs, for the Irish?
Granted it’s hard to determine what’s lip service and what’s not when these high profile coaches say they “are not” interested when asked about coming to South Bend. They can’t say that they are interested publicly while they are preparing for an upcoming game this Saturday through January. However, as history has shown with many of these coaches, they are willing to jump ship if the situation and money is right.
I’ll be the first to say I hope so! But, I’m not getting my hopes up.
The AD has said he wants a coach with a proven track record of building a football program with head coaching experience that is defensive minded. The three coaches above certainly fulfill what he wants, but, if we take the “pie in the sky” candidates off the short list for just a moment who does that leave?
• Jim Harbaugh (Stanford)
• Pat Fitzgerald (Northwestern)
• Brian Kelly (Cincinnati)
Out of this group the one that obviously stands out is Brian Kelly. He would satisfy nearly every bar set of the requirements that the AD is seeking. In my mind, he is probably the one we will end up with. That is, if everything goes well, and we again start to see some of that “luck of the Irish,” helping us out again.
Harbaugh however, isn’t going anywhere. He has it made out there in California, with a program that has high standards, and will set him up to take over another program in a few years. Who knows, we may seem him walking the sidelines of the Big House at some point.
It’s hard for any of us to take any risks with “up and comers”, but there is one guy that I have been watching for a few years now. Personally, I would be delighted to have him. Over the last few years many coaches have been waiting for him to get his chance in the SEC. His coaching pedigree is off the charts, he has been tutored by the likes of Lou Holtz, Steve Spurier, and Urban Myer. He has close ties to Notre Dame and has developed and led his side of the ball to become the best defense in the nation 4 of the last 5 years. His players love him, and Urban is suggesting that he be interviewed for the Louisville job that just came available.
All I’m saying is that maybe he should be looked at….real close. He could potentially become the “coach” that has been hand built to lead a team of hungry kids back to the top. His pedigree, success, ties to ND, and fight can’t be ignored as an option.
He would certainly be a risk, due to not having a lot of head coaching experience other than being the interim coach while at Florida during the 2004 season, but if Lou Holtz, Spurier and Urban felt he was good enough to be there man and take over their defensive units, maybe we should be talking more about him….
I hope the Irish can land some bad ass mother for a coach. The offense this year was fun to watch , their defense was horrible to watch. I liked Charlie but so long
As a Cincinnati alumnus, I have to say UC fans are insane to think Kelly would stay if the ND job was offered to him. Kelly has already shown he would not leave for just any job — he shut down Tennessee very early in their search last year — but this is one of the three “dream” jobs he would take (Michigan and Ohio State being the others). Obviously I’d love to see him stay, but if he goes within five years ND will be National Champions. He’s just THAT good. Honestly, you have to see him up close and personal every day to realize how good he is. Anyone who says he has a “gimmick” offense does not understand football. He restructures the offense to fit the players; when Pike got hurt, he went from a 70-30 passing-running offense to a 30-70 running-passing offense with Collaros, the back up QB who runs much better than pike. Last year UC played FIVE QBS due to injury; the offense was switched up to maximize the potential for ALL FIVE. And they won a Big East championship at a school with 100%, absolutely no football legacy.
I know i’m going to get A LOT of flak for this…. but has anyone even given any thought to the fact Charlie Weis is a brillant man, and maybe he REALLY wasnt happy at the college level, and maybe he knew that he had a HUGE buyout on his contract, and KNEW that he would be hired in a heartbeat back in the NFL…. ever think that he wanted out of ND, and the best way to do it was to lose games…. and what better way to get a huge payday, and get back into the league that made you the man you are today… I am a HUGE ND fan, and have been for 25yrs…. and it just seems to me that he had all the weapons, and still found a way to lose. Now he gets his millions, and gets back into the NFL………
Stoops is fine, Kelly is fine. Gruden would work, The Guy from Boisy St.
Any of them. The only thing that will piss me off is if the AD fools around
and lands none of them.
You got 4, maybe 5 top coaches. Land one this week, or send CW back on the recruiting trail for one more year. But don’t drag your feet.
Our last AD, Kevin White, was a foot dragger and we settled for Bob Davie, then Ty Williningham, then Weis. Weis was boarder line last year. Swarbrick gave him one year. He had to know when things weren’t going well that it was time to get a jump on a new coach. If he is just starting the process of finding a new coach now, then he sucks and we are probably doomed agian.
Many people are saying that if Stoops is hired he can convince his Oklahoma recruiting commitments to change to ND. More than likely the kids he targets at Oklahoma would never get accepted at ND so that would probably not happen.
Why hasn’t anyone mentioned going after Mike leach. Thats the man that can turn it around quickly!
Jeff,
No.
For starters he’s an ASSHOLE. Aside from that fact, he’s proven that he’s completely incapable of winning anything of significance. Not to mention he’s a system coach who strongly believes in not playing defense. It’s like he’s a version of CW that believes in preparing as little for the NFL as possible. Not to mention he recruits for Tech. So, if we’re going to set up a tier system for quality of education in texas it’d go something like:
SMU, TCU, Rice
UT, A&M
UTEP
Community Colleges
Tech
My point being, he’s a bad person who recruits bad people to play bad football at a bad school while preparing those players to be worse people.
Ty didn’t do a good job either atleast under weis we had an explosive offense due to the recruits brought in Tate-Floyd—
both coaches stink–
But what if we can’t get
Gruden-Cowher-Kelly-stoops-or Meyer and the only possible replacement is an unproven coach…
why was the past 5 coaches chosen…. What was there credentials? I know CW’s credentials and I thought at that time it was a good gamble but he was obviously a Belicik product like Romeo and Mangini.
Agreed.
I just have more respect for Ty. Better win %. Beat ranked, relivent opponents. Supplied Weis with two teams that had BCS talent or got to the BCS game.
I just have more respect for Ty than I originally and find it funny when people beat up on a good guy.
I know he went to Washington and stunk up the joint, but that Place had problems before he got there. The coach was fired for gambling and a player died on the field. Ty didn’t kill Washington, it was dead on his arrival.
Ty was a great person with alot of integrity. I dont think Weis was that much better of a coach. I think the main reason people dump on Ty is the fact that the offense was so bad and the blow outs that came with it (Weis has some bad losses too). I think the only real difference between him and Weis was recruiting and not only was the team performing badly but there was a perception that it was only getting worse with the very low rated classes Ty was pulling in and recruits transferring or jumping ship (Bears current TE Olson for example who went to Miami). As a blue collar working class Catholic i also never felt he really understood what the football program might have historically meant to a fan like myself. Growing up Catholic ND is a very cultural thing for alot of people and it appeared to me Ty seemed very indifferent to that. In the same respect a fan of Grambling or Morehouse Univ might believe someone like me to be the best choice for those teams. Its only my personal observation. You are right in your assessment of both coaches, Weis is certainly no better, but the difference was his ability to recruit, develop offensive skill players whether he recruited them or not (Quinn, Fasano, The Shark, JC, Golden, etc).
Make no bones about it, Stoops would be a GREAT hire. Part of me thin he’s trying to get OU nation off his back and leverage more money to stay at OU, but We still need to make a run.
I would also ask Meyer again. I would want him to say no to my face before I dismiss that option.
Meyer
Stoops
Fereinz (Iowa) I know I spelled it wrong!
Kelley
Stoops is from y-town, several big $$ ND alum are from the yo, lots of pressure on him, I expect it to be Stoops. He could recruit from Ohio and get guys away from OSU.
via football scoop
Notre Dame:
FootballCoachScoop has BREAKING NEWS and FIRST TO REPORT that Charlie Weis has been fired. FootballCoachSoop sources tell us that Weis has
cleaned his office out and was told of the change before their last home game against UConn. There will be a press conference tomorrow afternoon. On
November 10, FootballCoachScoop had BREAKING NEWS and was the FIRST TO REPORT that Head Coach Charlie Weis would not be retained past the
2009 season and the Irish were firing him at the conclusion of the 2009 season.
you don’t have to watch ESPN
Give coach wise one more year! New D cordinator and talk clausen and tate back! Well i guess in a perfect world hell buy a lottery ticket…
Why are fans defending Weis and killing Willingham? Ty had a better record and the only time Weis performed was with Ty’s players.
DO you think Ty deserved another year?
Wait a second, this is Irish(WHITE) nation, hell no he sucked! Even though he had a better record with tougher opponents.
I’d be more likely to defend Ty since his teams did have disciple – But his time at Washington proved he’s more of a program wrecker.
I think you have to take Washington out of the argument. When Ty was fired Washington was not in the picture.
Was Ty’s firing just?
Also, Washington was bad before Willingham. Their problems cam after rick neuheisel was fired for gambling and a player died on the field. Ty didn’t kill that program. It was dead on his arrival. No after the problems with neuheisel, Ty was still able to get Locker, who was a highly rated recruit, to come to Washington.
My point is if people defend Weis, they have no reasons not to defend Ty and I question them when they bitch about how he ruined their program.
And now I get the hear Mark May…
I’m numb….
Biggest disappointment of the year has to be Jon Tenuta. He had a lot of hype coming into the season with his pressure intense defense, and the defense is the worst I have seen in years.
The players on the other side of the ball were a huge part of the problem. Weis, who recruits the defensive players too, never thought any of the guys he recruited for his special offense, need to play on the defensive side of the ball.
Who knows, maybe Tate would’ve been a hell of a shutdown corner!
It’s ashame Tate’s talent is being wasted on this 6-5 team.
Also B. Smith is too small to be a Middle LB. And ND Defensive Coordinator are too blind to now what’s coming and run blitz.
why not blitz to the strength that is where they are running.
Brian Smith is a huge disappointment to me this yr.
It is amazing how good tate is and how bad he runs his routes. Just another sign of bad coaching..
If i had it my way i would go with Kelly. Stoops is a great coach but i think his graduation rate is in the toilet and theres been more than a few guys on his squads that bare a striking resemblance to some of the pieces of S#*T i have incarcerated over the years (LB Keenan Clayton–Warrant, RB Ryan Broyles–Larceny, TE Jermaine Grisham–Warrant and prized WR recruit Josh Jarboe kicked off the team and convicted for carrying a GUN to his former HS not to mention his youtube rap promising to shoot people with it….and thats just for 2009). Stoops can coach but at what price? I’d be pretty wary. Arrests like this should NEVER happen at a decent school, let alone multiple times. Take it from a guy who’s seen a few “honor roll” students gun each other down in Chicago. If we really wanted to dig i bet theres even worse things we could find during Stoops’ tenure. Just a thought.
Joe from Dublin,
Please forgive me for my “floozy” ways. I’m a whore.
Why no mention of Skip Holtz? Notre Dame grad and played for the team; has been successful at Eastern Carolina (granted, not a big name program, but neither was Cincinatti until recently), and certainly has the blood lines. Any word on Skip’s status?
I certainly like Skip Holtz, and he would be a good coach in my opinion. I just want to see how he does at a school like Cincinnati should it open up. That conference he plays in isn’t the greatest. Just saying, I think he is going to be good, but I need to see more of him.
It cracks me up that each year there is a coach who becomes the de facto top pick replacement everywhere because of media buzz. This year it’s Brian Kelly. Skip Holtz should and will be in the mix at a lot of schools, though. He’s coached at bigger and better schools, turned around Connecticut before Edsall and was commanding South Carolina’s turnaround before his loopy father threw him under the bus. He was the Brian Kelly-like BCS buster at ECU last year. Think of how tough it is to coach and consistently win at a school that’s like 12th in line for the best recruits in NC. He has shown how to consistently get the best out of average players and turn them into high achieving believers. ND won’t have many more Golden Tates for a few years so you need a true motivator and character builder. I think he’d be a great choice.
Paul I agree with you. Another thing is way too many people who know very little about football have the most to say. Have realistic expectations and let the team improve. The problem is not the overall team, it the defense that cannot hold a lead. The part Coach Weis coaches? Not so bad.
What is it that makes you more qualified? Perhaps a team displaying poor fundamentals and toughness will improve with five years of more of the same.
Explain the poor fundamentals in your view that need to be corrected and how would you correct them? How would you instill toughness to the team? Not busting you but I would like a detailed plan on how you would go about doing these things if you feel the coach cannot.
I am not the coach of the team. It is not my job to detail a plan to fix those problems. If it was, I’d be doing it for a living.
I can recognize poor play. We still have major problems along the offensive line and in the secondary. We are outmanned on the defensive line. We have players who have played for 3 or 4 years and still can’t block. We have db’s who don’t know how to play the ball.
Charlie Weis was given a ten year, multi-million dollar contract to put a fundamentally sound, winning program on the field. He hasn’t done anything close to that and you advocate keeping him?
It’s not just the defense. There are serious problems with this team that go beyond the defense, from inexplicable play-calling, poor fundamentals on both sides of the ball, lack of preparation, lack of adjustments, consistent failures against teams with lesser talent, lack of toughness, failure to commit to the running game, failure to get the ball to serious weapons likle Kyle Rudolph, nail-biters against teams we should beat easily, blowouts against teams we should play tough, inability to beat USC, inability to beat teams with a winning record, inability to beat ranked teams, constant mediocrity. In any event, Notre Dame should aspire to be better than “not so bad,” wouldn’t you agree?
Yes I would agree. But consider this, the lowest score this year was 20 points. 28 plus should be enough to win you the ball game if the defense plays well. I highly doubt the coaching staff makes zero adjustments or teaches poor fundamentals. It seems that your saying Charlie forgot how to coach which I doubt. The issue has been on the defensive side of the ball. If you want to talk failures I believe that is the key failure of the team. But those things can be corrected.
Charlie didn’t forget how to coach. He was never a head coach to begin with. As exciting as the offense was at times, it also had serious problems. We could not run the ball against good defensive teams. Don’t you think this might account for our terrible performance in the red zone for most of the year?
Additionally, Charlie was hired, and is being paid, to be the head coach, not the offensive coordinator. Ultimately, the defense’s performance falls on his shoulders as well.
Oh and the not so bad was sarcasm. I think the offense has played very well most of the year.
Weis has absolutely developed some strong offensive players. He does well with QBs. Excellent. We already knew he could do well as an offensive coordinator.
“The part Coach Weis coaches,” being the *head* coach (as he is in name), is the *whole* team. He is responsible for the entire package, not just the offense. He himself has said before that if you don’t win, you don’t stay. I think he has done some things very well, and neglected others. And at this point, there is too much precedent of past firings to let him stay. He was given his full five-year initial contract to play out, which is more than can be said for Willingham.
I think ND is making a mistake. Hiring a new coach does not fix all the problems.
A change is necessary. Weis has shown that he can not coach at this level. He may have a ton of football knowledge and plays, but he doesn’t know how to call plays correctly. How do you not go for it on 4th and 1 at the end of the game? You know your defense can not stop anyone. Go for it and if you fail, then Stanford will score much quicker with the better field position and we get the ball back with more time to tie it up. It’s not rocket science, but once again, Weis showed he doesn’t know how to call plays. It’s time for him to go.
I love OU football, and Stoops would be a great hire.
If we could land Stoops that brings alot of credibility and recruiting success. Nothing against Kelly, but if i had a choice it would be Stoops….
I think either coach would be a great hire for Notre Dame. Frank you are right about Coach Stoops’ name poping up more and more…. We have a family friend that lives in Chicago who said a radio host there (I cannot verify this cause I didnt here it myself)said he thinks its as good as done, that Coach Stoops will come to Notre Dame.. I for some reason think He will too. He doesnt have to worry about leaving his team before a BCS game because injuries have taken Oklahoma out of contention. I think we could gain some big name recruits with him on the defensive side of the ball. Maybe get some of the current OU recruits to go with him to ND. Either Kelly or Stoops would make me happy but I think there would be issues getting Kelly to take control right away if Cincinnati beats Pitt next week. Remember how short on good recruits we were when Weis stayed to help New England when there Super Bowl.
One name that I have heard being mentioned from sources in and around the Notre Dame family as a possible replacement (if) a change is made that has not been mentioned is Bill Cowher. I for one am not in favor of making a change. The players have under performed and yes there are those who will blame that on the coaches. The fish stinks from the head down(ex.)The coaches are accountable not responsible for the play on the field. Anyone who says differently has the head somewhere other than on the shoulders.Can anyone commenting including myself take the unfair criticism and harsh treatment that Coach Weiss has ???? I doubt it very much. GO IRISH !!!!!! I support Coach Weiss and his staff.
Cowher is not going to coach on the college level. He left the Steelers to spend more time with his family – being a college coach would take him away from his family even more with recruiting.
Also, FYI. It’s WEIS.
The fish stinks from the head down, but you want to keep it.
Did you support Ty? His winning % was better, and he recruited better or as good as Weis. (the only time the guy you support won was with the black head coaches team. ALWAYS REMEMBER THAT!)
Where are you getting your information from? Ty had one solid recruiting class, followed by two abysmal classes. The only success he had was was with Bob Davie’s players. Both are currently out of coaching. Remember that.
Man, if it was either Stoops or Kelly i would feel great with ND going forward. Both have a solid winning record – Stoops gets a pass for this year since his Heisman trophy quarterback is out for the season. My only question is can Kelly keep the recruiting numbers up?
“Freaking Cincinnati” would kick your arrogant tails up and down your lousy excuse for a field all day long. That quote perfectly exemplifies why ND is adding its name to the schools most college football fans root against. The irish football team has been all but invisible on the national scene for quite some time, and you continue to pretend that most of the country still cares about the program. Get over yourself. And don’t be surprised if Brian Kelly sees the football future at Cincinnati to be a bit brighter than at ND.
My point is that he is winning at a school that traditionally has not won – and that you cannot dispute. Like I said, Cincinnati had 1 10 win season before Brian Kelly. Sorry Carl, but that is not a program steeped in tradition.
UncleCarl -The fact that fans like you take the time to frequent this site shows that ND is still relevant and most of the country still cares about the program….
Bottom line – if we really want Kelly we’ll get him.
Have you ever thought that many of the ‘fans’ that watch ND football on TV are not fans at all? That, they take great satisfaction watching Oregon State beat the stuffing out of a “great” ND team? Some actually schedule the USC game not because they care about USC, but because they like that yearly smack down? ND is very relevant to many people. Just not in a good way.
If we really wanted Urban Meyer, we would have got him too.
I would first like to make clear that i do not agree with getting rid of Weis. For alot of reasons, but they are now irelavant. However, since he is gone, we need to make it worth it. Urban Meyer has said his dream is to coach for us. And he is the best man for the job in my opinion. We need to do what ever possible to get him away from florida and into ND.
LOL, Cincinatti would not kick out tails all over our field. You are drinking the cool aid man. I’m not dogging the(cinci) program, but you do not have any more/better talent than ND. Cincinatti runs a pass happy “soft” offense such as ND. It might actually be a good game, but I see ND shutting it down..
Many teams would kick ND up and down the field. ND has been weak for over a decade. I’ll believe they’re no longer relevant when ESPN, the media in general, and people like yourself, quit making sucha big deal about a 6-5 team’s coaching change.
Hey Carl, obviously you’ve failed at basic reading comprehension. His point was that Kelly has done great at a program that has not had a history of success. It was neither a knock on today’s Cincinnati squad (which would beat Notre Dame) or on Coach Kelly. Jeez, lighten up.
Carl,
No one from the ND web site is going and making comments on a Cincy site. I ND wanted Brian Kelly they would get him.
Well Maybe its time we truly search for a coach. No hype no “Fame” names. Just hard nosed old fasioned football coach. I personally think Coach Kelly would be a great fit. We need a guy who can recruit. We need a people person. Chrlie Wise would get another year any other place…But we at ND are quick to kick! Heck give coach one more year! We need to convience Clausen and Tate to stay. We really could make a run next year. Def Cord. must be kicked to the curb!!
Why would Clausen or Tate stay?
UncleCarl, you sound like you could be like me. Maybe you’re reading comments on this site because you actually don’t like ND. I would be surprised if ND hired a great coach, because there is absolutely no upside. Let’s say a fabulous coach gets them to 9-4, which is about impossible at ND. He’s flopped in the minds of ND fans and alumni. Who would accept impossibility as the starting point? The story about the next hire will be an interesting one.
Memo to Uncle Carl: read more, post less. This wasn’t a slam against Cincinnati. Kelly is reeling off 10-win seasons at a school that doesn’t historically have 10-win seasons. That is a simple statement of fact. The end.
I think drunk Uncle Carl is enjoying UC’s success this year a bit too much. They have a good football team for the first time since the Civil War and so he hangs his bravado out for all to see. It’s kind of like a 14 year-old boy enjoying his first beer. It’s new to him, makes him feel cool and tough. You get it.
I give UC alot of credit and I like Kelly. By the way Uncle Carl, Kelly’s house would be on the market as soon as he sees ND on his caller id. Yeah, he’s going to stay at UC- hahaha
You must care about the Irish program? Why else would you be reading an ND forum?
Bobby Bowden, although not Catholic would be a great choice for this university steeped in great tradition. Coach Bowden could get the job done and move the Irish back to a level of national prominence. And he would be one of the finest Christian men to ever coach at ND!~ He still has the drive, energy, and passion to move mountains for the Irish and touch young mens’ lives…
I think Coach Bowden could continue to bring great tradition to the program. His cocaching experience and recruiting efforts in the flordia area could bring team speed on both sides of the ball. I say we go after a man hungry to be a winner. FSU kicked him to the curb after dominating college football for a decade!