We would like to welcome Jason Thompson to The Sunny and C Network. JT, as he would like to be known, will be one of our regular contributors. He will also be a guest on tonight's edition of The Sunny and C Show to discuss Notre Dame football.Another no-show last week by the Notre Dame defense against Stanford left everyone with little to speculate regarding the future of coach Charlie Weis.
After a five-year tenure (or internship, as some fans will call it), a 6-6 record became unacceptable to the Irish faithful. Quite frankly, Weis only made it to Monday because it would have been politically incorrect for a Catholic university to fire someone on a Sunday.
An era is over, and Irish athletic director Jack Swarbrick has begun his search to find the man to bring Notre Dame “back to glory.”
Can Notre Dame – with their high academic standards and less than spectacular campus location – ever reclaim the dominance lost when Lou Holtz left in 1996? Do players want to play at Notre Dame anymore? Are the Irish even relevant to a generation that has seen nothing but undelivered promises from the “storied program?”
Most of these questions are irrelevant because as coaches like Brian Kelly, Urban Meyer and Nick Saban have shown, the story in college football begins and ends with the head coach. Just about any school can be one hire away from plunging onto the national scene.
That being said, who can right the ship in South Bend?
Remember, Notre Dame isn’t your typical job.
In-state recruits don’t exist, so you had better be a great recruiter.
You must be an ace with the media because from the minute you sign up, you will be relentlessly questioned and second guessed.
Finally you will need to be one of the “good old boys.” There are a lot of old-fashioned Irish alumni digging deep into their pockets to buyout Weis’ mistake of a contract, so they better like you at face value.
With all of that in mind, isn't the search fairly simple?
Its a two-tier process consisting of three coaches: Meyer, Kelly, and Bob Stoops.
After multiple failures, Swarbrick can’t afford to get cute and look at a Gary Patterson, a Butch Davis or a Jim Harbaugh. They need someone with hardware and a name.
Swarbrick owes it to the Irish fan base to throw the kitchen sink at Meyer. They underbid him in 2004 and lost out to Florida. Notre Dame is still close to the heart of Meyer, and if Swarbrick could bring him to South Bend everything in the world would be right again.
Likely? No. Meyer has already publicly shot down the idea of ever leaving Florida, even after admitting Notre Dame is his dream job. But then again, Saban did the same thing to Alabama until the pot was sweetened. So Irish nation can dream right?
Once Swarbrick fulfills his obligation and forces Urban Meyer to tell him no, it comes down to Stoops and Kelly – pick your order.
It took Stoops far too long to dismiss the rumors of him coming to South Bend, and nobody should be shocked if more rumors start surfacing in the coming weeks. Stoops is said to feel underappreciated in Oklahoma, and his midwest-Catholic roots would fit right in at Notre Dame.
Kelly, one of our own from Grand Valley, is neck and neck with Stoops. Kelley has had success wherever he has gone, and nobody needs to be reminded of what he has done with average talent in Cincinnati this year.
The knocks on Kelly are his unproven track record on the recruiting trail and a lack of Division 1 hardware. But, if he is the second coming of Meyer like some have proclaimed, can Notre Dame afford to pass him up?
In addition, all speculation says Kelly will be half way to South Bend before he hangs up the phone with Swarbrick.
With loads of excitement and speculation surrounding the Irish football program, don’t be surprised if little noise is leaked out of South Bend in the coming days.
All three of the coaches still have bowl games with their current teams, and Notre Dame can’t afford for any of them to pull a Les Miles and bail because word was leaked too early. On paper, two of the three are still in the national title hunt, and, as Miles showed us, no future job can pull a coach away from that.
Pending the games on Saturday, this is how the coaching search will shake out:
If......Notre Dame hires before Saturday - Stoops (only one of the three not in the title hunt)
...Texas wins - Kelly becomes available (statistically out of title hunt)
...Florida loses - Meyer becomes available (out of title hunt)
...Texas loses and Florida wins - Kelly and Meyer are locked up
...Notre Dame doesn't hire before the National Championship game (a game not featuring Cincinnati) - Notre Dame fans can get excited
Here are the odds, Las Vegas style:
Kelly 1:1 – Up and coming, open to the idea, makes the most sense
Stoops 2:1 – Brings the hardware and a name, but leaving Oklahoma will be hard
Meyer 7:1 – Best coach in America, good coaches don't move much
The Field 8:1 – Any other selection better panout or Swarbrick is fired
Rumors and controversy will surround not only the Notre Dame football program, but programs around the country as more names are thrown into the Irish coaching mix. We’ve seen these insecurities already, as rumored candidates Jim Harbaugh and Gary Patterson were given large contract extensions by their universities as added insureance.
Notre Dame has a huge decision to make in the coming weeks, maybe one of the biggest in school history. Time is of the essence, as recruits grow restless of being committed to a leaderless program.
The Irish have missed on their past three coaches. If Notre Dame misses on another, they could slip farther into irrelevance, effectively crushing the dreams fans have for a “return to glory.”
