With Jon Gruden seemingly taken off the coaching market — maybe — it’s time for the rumor mill to churn out yet another big name when it comes to potential replacements for Charlie Weis — if/when he’s whacked by Notre Dame and flutters to the ground on his $18 million golden parachute.
So, exit Gruden, enter… Bob Stoops? And, just for good measure, Kirk Ferentz?
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, those are the two big names swirling around the Irish football program as potential replacements for Weis.
If athletic director Jack Swarbrick decides Weis’ Notre Dame career is over after his fifth season, a source said Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops and Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz will be in the mix to replace him. The source said Stoops has told confidants he would be interested in talking to the Irish.
Of course, the Irish wanting Stoops or Ferentz is one thing, but it’s another thing entirely for the interest to be reciprocated. Or if the interest even can be reciprocated.
Both Stoops and Ferentz signed long-term contract extensions this offseason , and both run through the 2015 seasons. The extensions likely contain substantial buyouts, especially this early on in the new deals.
Then again, if the Irish aren’t blinking at a nearly $20 million pill to swallow to rid themselves of Weis, they likely wouldn’t care about what the cost of a buyout would be to bring in the coach of their choosing.
What has Kirk Ferentz ever won? I hate to lose him at UF, but what about Charlie Strong?
I’d hate to lose Strong, too, but the guy has earned a shot. I just don’t know if he’d settle for the ND job when there may be some real quality jobs opening up.
If I am not mistaken, Urban has an opt out in his current deal if he were to be offered/want the ND job.
I believe that he took the Florida job over ND last time because he had a better chance of winning a National Championship at Florida (his dad said so back then).
Now that he has won multiple national championships and is now known as one of the greatest of all time, he may want to go to ND and become a legacy like Rockne, Devine and the others in bronze at ND.
I still believe his loyalty will take him back to his roots. A great catholic boy resurrects our Lady’s program.
Give him a call Jack, in can’t hurt!!
Urban Meyer. Any school would be lucky to have him, and he’s made no secret of his lifelong desire to coach at Notre Dame.
sevinirongator:
Something tells me Strong won’t be “Irish” enough to get that job. Which is a shame, actually.
We Gators all know what a great job he would do as a head coach.
He would be my first choice if Meyer ever left!
They’re not getting Urban. He’s big on family and he’s already on record as not wanting to leave Gainesville while his children are in school. Plus, being in Gainesville means he pretty much only has to travel five hours for pretty much all his recruiting, while the ND job would require a lot more travel.
It may happen someday, but it’s not happening in the next few years.
Urban “If you’re fast, you can play for us” Meyer would never be taken in by UND. Never.
They hold themselves too high to allow a coach who would swindle his way towards gaining the top recruits to coach their football team.
Hrudey, Gatorfan1,
I think both of you guys are right. I guessing there is better fits for his sceme than ND. There seems to be no players on the Irish D. GF1 Coach Strong hasn’t been “Irish” enough to get any jobs in the south either, which is a shame cause the guy can recruit and coach. Urban Meyer has said he is a good interveiw so who knows why he hasn’t gotten a job. Look at the guys who have gotten jobs from florida “Buddy Teevens, Carl Pruitt comes to mind. With all that being said Maybe he gets a fat raise and stays at UF
John Taylor,
If Ferentz wouldn’t leave Iowa for the NFL, I don’t see him leaving for ND. Stoops, I could see him making the jump. He seems much more ambitious.
While I think this speculation is very interesting on several levels, this reader would appreciate several Michigan-related stories leading up this Saturday’s game. Relevant. Not relevant. It doesn’t matter. I just need a platform for The Count.
I wouldn’t rule out Meyer. If he wins 3 national championships in 4 years, what else can he do there? His buyout is $500k and it’s that low for a reason.
Think Billy Donovan regrets not taking the Magic job?? He’ll never win another championship at Florida. Meyer should learn from that.
He’s already known as a great coach. He wins a title at Notre Dame and he becomes Bear Bryant, Knute Rockne and Vince Lombardi all wrapped up into one.
Meyer has just as big an ego as any great coach. That’s why he might consider this. Either that or the NFL. But if he wins his third championship, I think he’s done at Florida.
Are their any Football players ND DUKE NAVY PENNSTATE woukld like to recruit and have play football for them that by their schools admission policies stop them. yes
That would change the balance!
And if ND NAVY DUKE could only have the 30 some Iowa the 10+ Florida and the 30+Ohio State that have been arrested under Ferentz, Tressel and Meyer and now the 3 armed robbers from Tenn (Kiffin) they would win all the time. With Grad rates under 60% most schools would find it hard week n week out to win and educate with Grad rates in the 75% to 100% and playing a real Div 1 Schedule instead of Youngstown State, Delaware State, Akron, Eastern Michigan?
RICH ROD @Mich will try anything to win he did it at WV now Mich will prostitute players to Win?
Rick:
It’s pretty funny that your post about academics is so poorly written.
Guess you couldn’t get into Notre Dame either, huh?
@Hong Kong Phooey
Considering how poorly Rick’s comment was written, I was actually thinking Rick was a ND grad.
after the tyrone atrocity, all decision making power over notre dame football matters was shifted to notre dame graduates who have been very successful as student athletes also playing real college football, in the nfl, and in their personal and business lives.
as an institution, notre dame made certain decisions before charlie was hired and after notre dame refused to comply with urban meyer’s conditions that notre dame create a separate football factory within notre dame, as so many other schools, including florida, have done.
when charlie took the notre dame job, he did so, not for any huge salary(since he does not get paid that much), but because of his love for everything good and clean for which notre dame has always stood, which includes making certain that every notre dame student, whether or not they also play football or other sports, gets a fine education and highly marketable skills which will serve them well in their lives after notre dame whether or not they make it to the nfl.
charlie and his staff took their jobs based on the conditions that they would have to conduct notre dame football and recruiting with complete honesty and integrity and without sacrificing any of notre dame’s very high academic and character standards and playing by the ncaa rules, even though most of their opponents were not.
charlie and his staff and notre dame’s student athletes have done all of those things and much more.
right now, there remains only one real barrier to notre dame’s student athletes being able to show how really good they are on the playing fields. that barrier is the current corrupt officiating, rules enforcement, and rankings systems which have allowed crooked college sports enterprises to deceive the public and operate for many years.
what are they trying to sell to the public this season?
well, sec commissioner mike slive and urban meyer and florida and nick saban and alabama are trying to sell to the public 2 loss(rescued on paper only by dishonest sec conference officiating crews) florida and alabama teams as undefeated college football teams.
aside from the fact of the well documented proof on the internet of the dishonest sec officiating which converted 2 losses of florida and alabama into temporary paper wins, the irrefutable evidence is available to anyone who wants to look that a large number of florida and alabama full time football players do not come even close to qualifying as student athletes and the same is true of most other schools that field phony college football teams.
well, courtesy of civil rico lawsuits and my associates and i , crooked college football enterprises and every person and entity involved in those con operations will not be back next season and we will strip them all of the material possessions in the civil courts.
the new systems will be honest high tech systems fully transparent to and accountable to the public.
unless charlie and his staff and notre dame’s student athletes get disgusted by the garbage thrown at them at their families by the media and by having to keep quiet about being robbed of wins for dishonest conference officials, they will all be back next season.
any recruits and their familes who get conned into committing to any of the football facory schools will find their lives and futures in football and in life over much sooner than they could imagine.
the accurate information is available on the internet for every recuit and his family.
anyone who ignores that information has only themselves and the predator coaches and football factory schools who conned them to blame.
once any recruit makes the wrong decision, the values of those 4 and 5 star ratings from rivals and scout become worthless immediately.
these are lessons tahat the con artists who used to run the enron and mci worldcom con operations learned the hard way when we hit them with our civil rico lawsuits.
quite frankly, the con artists who ran the enron and mci worldcom scams were much more intelligent than the proprietors of crooked college sports enterprises ever have been or will be.
@robertg
Wow, I don’t know what’s more humorous, your lack of capitalization and grammar, your run-on preachiness, or just the absolutely absurdity of your argument.
try the laughing and other bogus defenses when you end up in front of a judge and jury.
the enron and mci worldcom con artists tried the same tactics, along with threats of physical violence, and went down very hard.
of course, if you are just ignorant and not a participant in crooked college sports enterprises, then we will never meet.
we proofread and spell check court documents and scholarly articles and books, not internet posts.
While I hate the Gators, I think Charlie Strong is either the top or in the top three assistants in the nation. It baffles me why he hasn’t gotten a good major college head coaching gig yet.
I don’t think the Domers are smart enough to get him, but I wonder if Michigan actually dumps Rich if Strong wouldn’t be the perfect candidate…?
robertg and Rick – both checked out on the same pass from the Asylum. What the…?
Florio probaly isn’t paid for the word count in the posts so it might be time to take a break from 2000 word requirement every time you post robert.
The domers are too funny… they thumped their chest when Jabba the Weis got hired about the dynasty is back. I heard it all day long at the Fiesta Bowl in Tempe when they came in to play Ohio State. I heard nothing but drunken bravado as we walked to the stadium and to our seats, centered in the domer section. I even heard how much better their band was than ours. My only retort was based in the fact that they were 0 – 9 in bowl games so perhaps they should actually win one first before they place themselves back on the dynasty shelf. Ah, but Jabba the Weis was the greatest college coach ever. Then the actual game started… the domers scored on their first drive and much to my amazement, the already over the top trash talk got even worse. Oh, but the game changed quickly and Ohio State beat them to death for the next 55 minutes. A.J. Hawk and the defense punished Brady Quinn and had it not been for two lost fumbles instead of the domer 10 yard line, the score would have been much worse!!! I couldn’t wipe the massive grin off my face for they entire game.
Sorry domers… you were idiots for extending Jabba’s contract after 6 or so games and now you’re stuck with him. I have heard that spicey sauces will help make that crow go down easier. Greatest college football coach ever… HA! Greatest overrated, overpaid, underachiever is more like it. I’m always amused when he comes out on game day with a huge food stain grease spot on his xxxxxxl hoodie