Notre Dame is horrible

[King Crimson]

i suspect he meant 1958 to 2003. though, i'd like to see LSU win one away from the Superdome.

having been to the O3 Sugar Bowl, that's a road game for the BCS opponent.

[Killian]

Notre Dame isn't a job where you learn on the fly. Didn't work for Kuharic, Faust, Davie, etc. Weis never had to deal with being the head man, 20 hour limited practice weeks, dealing with college age kids, or recruiting. Obviously, he has gone above and beyond with recruiting. The other factors are still up in the air.

Skip Holtz has done well at both places where he was the head man. I'm sure in 1985 you would have rather taken the offensive coordinator of the Raiders or Redskins than a carpet bagger of a head coach who hadn't stayed more than 5 years at one place. But there are certain coaches who want to be at Notre Dame and ones who don't. Certain coaches can make it while others can't. As for who they would go after, my guess would be the following:

Skip Holtz - He has the Notre Dame ties, has been a successful head coach on the college level, and a successful coordinator.

Jon Gruden - He would have been the Notre Dame head coach in 2002 if it weren't for Monk Malloy. He has been a successful coordinator and head coach, and has college experience. Plus, Notre Dame is his dream job.

Brian Kelly - Has been a successful head coach and has midwest ties. He is kind of the flavor of the month, but he would be someone that would be considered.

Dan Hawkins - Campaigned hard for the ND job in 2004 and would likely consider it again if approached. Not sure he would be the right fit, but that is another coach that would likely be considered.

I doubt Harbaugh would be considered, and Shiano is waiting for the PSU job before he makes a move.

I think you're right about the 2009 and 2010 teams. It's a matter of this year.

[King Crimson]

Dan Hawkins - Campaigned hard for the ND job in 2004 and would likely consider it again if approached. Not sure he would be the right fit, but that is another coach that would likely be considered..

Hawkins re: the ND job. this kind of shocked the CU people i know (quote/link below)...but i don't know about Dan. i really like a lot of the stuff he does and he's hard not to like but i'm not sure he's an elite football coach at the end of the day. Despite what the local media says, it wasn't his playbook at BSU. He never called the plays. Even when he wasn't the HC he was never the OC.

this is a Denver "lifestyle" mag and that's good pub for CU (in an otherwise hostile media market) and it wasn't written by a sports writer (as if that means much).

http://www.5280.com/issues/2008/0809/fe ... ageID=1304

quote from page 4, don't expect you to read the whole thing:

"could go on to coach Notre Dame, a position he has coveted because of his Catholic faith, and restore the Irish to prominence."

Hawkins won't win more than 7 games this year. he's well under .500 at CU and that isn't getting you hired at ND.

[Left Seater]

The fumble on SDSU was a tough call. The ball was out before the player was down, but you couldn't tell if the ball broke the plane. I think it was a touchback because when Bruton reached for the ball, his entire body was in the end zone.

Didn't see it live so can't comment, but if the ruling was the ball didn't break the plane then it only matters where it is recovered. It could be knocked in and out of the endzone and then recovered with a portion of the ball on the goal line and that is a touchback.

[TheJON]

The ball was recovered by a ND player whose entire body was in the end zone other than his hands, which were covering the ball 100% outside the goal line. That should be marked where the ball is, correct?

[Terry in Crapchester]

If ND is looking to make a coaching . . .

As to Skip Holtz, I think that if the choice were to come down to ND or Syracuse, he'd go with ND even if it meant less money. I say that based on his connections to ND (he was a student there even before his dad became coach), as well as the fact that he probably has a better chance of winning right away at ND than at Syracuse.

Parenthetically, as to the buyout on Weis, I'm not sure how much it would cost ND, but I doubt that cost would be a killer. Remember, ND has a contract with NBC worth about $9 million per year. And donations from alumni always tend to be higher when the team is winning. In any event, relative to Willingham's buyout, I suspect the biggest difference would be duration. Willingham had two years left on his deal when ND exercised the buyout option. Weis will have six years left on his after this season. And last season (the last payout year for Willingham under the buyout), ND actually paid Willingham more than it paid Weis.

Also parenthetically, I'm not sure that Syracuse will pull the trigger on Robinson. SU's fanbase is eerily silent about Robinson compared to Pasqualoni, even though there's much more justification to fire Robinson than there ever was to fire Pasqualoni. Either the SU fanbase figures it's pointless to make much about noise about a coach whose fate is sealed, or they're exhibiting a patience with Robinson that is far beyond what he deserves. I can't figure out which.

As for Gruden, I'm not sure how attractice he'd be at this point. He hasn't coached at the college level since '91. And coaching, by its nature, is a "what have you done for me lately" business. In that regard, Gruden's star isn't nearly as bright today as it was in '01.

[Left Seater]

The ball was recovered by a ND player whose entire body was in the end zone other than his hands, which were covering the ball 100% outside the goal line. That should be marked where the ball is, correct?

The simple answer is yes. However, there are other things that could change that. If the ball was completely outside the endzone when recovered, but say the long axis of the ball is parallel to the goal line, and when spotted and the long axis is now parallel to the sideline and part of it breaks the plane of the goalline then it is a touchback.

[Danimal]

Weis is recruiting ridiculously well and that will save him as long as he musters an OK season. Any douche should win fairly consistently with the talent Weis is bringing in. If the recruits start backing off then things could get interesting.