i feel sort of bad about writing this because i've been a life-long notre dame fan, but i'm sure happy urban meyer's headed to florida. i think the university was out of line in firing ty, and we all know that they did it because they figured urban was a lock to come to south bend. i'm happy he put them in their place.

i don't think that notre dame will find anybody of willingham's quality among the current crop of coaches.

among the guys that are presumably candidates:

-bob stoops has said he's committed to oklahoma, and i believe him.

-kirk ferentz has shown he's committed to iowa (and his florida juco recruiting pipeline wouldn't fly with notre dame anyway)

-butch davis isn't coaching next year

-dan hawkins is the type of guy who could happily live at boise state forever, it seems

-bobby petrino recruits only thugs and the deaf, and it's not like louisville is notre dame -academically

-jeff tedford would seem to be the best fit and, with a lot of the plum warm-weather jobs (i.e. florida, south carolina, mississippi although there's not a chance he'd go there) taken, perhaps he's the most likely candidate. he can recruit smart kids (cal's probably higher-rated academically than nd?), and he's built cal from nothing in relatively little time, with two separate talent groups (boller first, rodgers-arrington now). it seems like tedford's on the verge of getting all he wants from cal, so we'll see what happens.

-is nick saban a candidate? he's the type of guy who'll leave for a pay raise...again, lsu's not notre dame academically, and indiana's not louisiana athletically.

i'd personally like to see harvard's tim murphy get a shot, as i believe he's got nd ties and i believe he was under long-shot consideration when ty was hired. i don't think that charlie weis is the guy you want, although former nfl coordinators like sylvester croom (not bad at mississippi state), pete carroll (who did have nfl head experience, and is now college's best coach) and nick saban (top ten certainly) have shown that coordinators can do the job. but recruiting's a bitch, and i don't know if weis can handle it.

or maybe george o'leary's the way to go.

as for the steroids thing, more than anything i'm sad. or dismayed. or something. perhaps sammy's next.

espn's bottom line wrote that john mccain is planning on introducing a blanket steroids policy for professional sports in january. it's sad that it has to come to this, but i think it's great news.