Well, this is certainly an interesting development.
Just two days after his team was throttled in the BCS championship game, Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly has apparently developed a wandering eye as ESPN‘s Chris Mortensen is reporting that the head coach has met with the Philadelphia Eagles regarding their vacancy. Jay Glazer of FOX Sports has also confirmed “legitimate interest” on the part of the Eagles.
The initial conversation apparently, which took place at some point since Monday’s game, wasn’t just a brief flirtation, either, as Mortensen reports that the two sides are set to meet again once Kelly returns from a trip out of the country. Kelly is scheduled to return this weekend.
The talks with the Eagles are a complete 180-degree turn from Kelly’s own words in the run-up to the title game, with the third-year Irish coach telling reporters that “[l]eaving is not an option. I don’t even think about it.”
Kelly did, though, leave the NFL door wide open in other comments.
“How can you not be?” Kelly said when asked about being intrigued over the possibility of a job at the NFL level. “When you’ve coached football, you look at everything -- you look at high school film and you watch coaches there, college, Division III to Division I, it doesn’t matter, college, NFL. All of that stuff intrigues me. I still think it comes down to time and place. What is the right time, and what is the right place? I never take any of that off the board.”
Since firing Andy Reid, the Eagles have been connected to at least three college coaches -- Oregon’s Chip Kelly, Penn State’s Bill O’Brien and Syracuse’s Doug Marrone. Kelly and O’Brien returned to their schools, while Marrone accepted the head coaching job with the Buffalo Bills.
UPDATED 9:02 p.m. ET: Jason La Confora of CBS Sports is reporting that, in addition to the Eagles, Kelly has drawn the interest of the Chicago Bears.