Now that Charlie Weis has officially been put out of his misery by Notre Dame and gets $18 million to walk away, the rumors are flying about who the next coach in South Bend will be.
The Irish haven’t gotten a coaching hire right since Lou Holtz left, hiring Bob Davie, Tyrone Willingham and then Weis. Notre Dame hasn’t been a national title threat since Holtz led them to their last title in 1988.
The leading candidate in most people’s minds to replace Weis is Cincinnati’s Brian Kelly, who has made the Bearcats into a national power. Before that, he had turned Central Michigan into the best team in the Mid-American Conference and previous to that had made Grand Valley State (Allendale, Mich.) into the best Division II program there was. He’s a Midwestern guy, he’s Catholic, he hasn’t said he didn’t want the job and he wins. Case close?
Well, Notre Dame is fully expected to at least reach out to Florida’s Urban Meyer and Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops. Meyer has called Notre Dame his dream job, but he isn’t expected to leave Gainesville for at least five years when his kids are out of high school. Besides, he has probably the best job in the country right now.
Stoops might be a different story. He has heard some complaining from the Sooners fans this year with the team at 7-5, and some feel that program has reached a plateau. Plus Stoops is from Ohio and has many Midwest ties.
Another hot candidate gaining steam of late is Georgia Tech’s Paul Johnson, but it’s not thought the Irish want to look to the past for an offense – i.e. bringing back the option. The Irish are expected to join the growing ranks of schools that employ the spread or some variation of it. Obviously that depends on the coach, but it’s what Kelly runs. And the last time the Irish hired a coach from Georgia Tech, it didn’t work out too well.
Here are WagerWeb.com’s odds on coaches to replace Weis:
Brian Kelly (Cincinnati head coach) +200
Urban Meyer (Florida head coach) +300
Bob Stoops (Oklahoma head coach) +500
Kirk Ferentz (Iowa head coach) +600
Jon Gruden (Former Buccaneers head coach) +800
Nick Saban (Alabama head coach) +1000
Jim Harbaugh (Stanford head coach) +1250
Chip Kelly (Oregon head coach) +1500
Skip Holtz (East Carolina head coach) +1750
Chris Petersen (Boise State head coach) +2000
Gary Patterson (TCU head coach) +2100
Butch Davis (North Carolina head coach) +2500
Mike Leach (Texas Tech head coach) +3000
Kyle Whittingham (Utah head coach) +3500
Brady Hoke (San Diego State head coach) +4000
Paul Johnson (Georgia Tech head coach) +4500
Les Miles (LSU head coach) +5000
Mike Shanahan (Former Broncos head coach) +6000
Tony Dungy (Former Colts head coach) +7500
Bill Parcells (VP football operations Dolphins) +50000
Bill Belichick (Patriots head coach) +75000
Joe Paterno (Penn State head coach) +100000
Lou Holtz (Former Notre Dame head coach) +125000
Joe Montana (Former 49ers/Notre Dame quarterback) +250000
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