[NU Sports] ND Coaching Vacancy

[CHerron604 at aol.com]

I was reading this with interest, until I realized that it was 3 years old...

http://espn.go.com/ncf/s/2001/1202/1288667.html

Got me to wondering - Are any of these men still candidates ?

- O'Leary ?  The lies have to knock him out, plus 0-11 this year at UCF.

- Ty ?  Ironically, probably the best man for the job right now.

- Coughlin ?  6-10 in 2002, 5-7 this year after a 4-1 start, but college credentials are very solid.  Question is - would Notre Dame pay what the Maras are paying ?

- Nutt ?  9-5 in 2002, 9-4 in 2003, 5-6 this year - but can success at Arkansas translate to South Bend, or are the academic standards just too different ?

- Alvarez ?  8-6, 7-6, 10-2 this year, but I have already seen absolute denials out of Madison, where Barry now has total control.

- Neuheisel ?  Discredited

- Stoops ?  12-2, 12-2, 12-0.  But why would anyone ever leave Norman ?

- Tiller ?  7-6, 9-4, 7-4.  If I were looking for a coach, I would certainly consider him.

- Ferentz ?  11-2, 10-3, 9-2.  Same as Tiller, even more so.

- Meyer ?  Already taken.

- Seifert ?  Seems to enjoy being retired.  Also saw somewhere where he makes 5 figures for speaking engagements...why take on the headaches ?

- Walker ?  3-9, 6-7, 6-6.  Hmmm

- Murphy ?  7-3, 7-3, 10-0.  Academics are obviously not a problem, but can he recruit, and deal with a D-I schedule ?

What if we look at 'peer' institutions (not sure ND would admit that they have any peers) ?

Cal      Jeff Tedford  10-1  re-upped at Cal
Stanford Buddy Teevens 4-7   out
Rice     Ken Hatfield  3-8
NU       RW            6-6
Vandy    Bobby Johnson 2-9
Duke     Ted Roof      2-9
Navy     Paul Johnson  9-2
BC       Tom O'Brien   8-3

Looking at both lists, I come up with a fall-back list of

Tiller
Ferentz
Walker
O'Brien

Remembering that the best ND coaches had solid D-I pedigrees before they got there:

Leahy (Boston College)
Ara (NU)
Devine (Mizzou)
Holtz (Minnesota)

Does anybody still think (3 years later) that ND might even consider RW ?

Chuck Herron  Tech '85