I disagree totally. He'll end up in South Bend one day. I mean, he's still only 42, meaning he has at least 20-25 years of coaching ahead of him (and he will, since the guy have never wanted to be anything but a coach). Who wants to put up with the stress and strain of being an NFL coach for 20 years?
He'll be in South Bend before he's 50, and he'll do what so many have failed to do since Lou Holtz: bring Notre Dame football back to real prominence.
Urban Meyer. This could be a very short search, a match made in Golden Dome heaven. The wildly successful Utah coach has an out for Notre Dame in his contract. He was an assistant there for five seasons in the 1990s. And he's never avoided speaking glowingly about the school when asked. "It truly is one of the great places," Meyer told ESPN.com in September. "It's college football in its truest form. It's true student-athletes. You can't say that about every university. Most universities can sneak guys into certain majors -- and, if some of them succeed there, that can be good. But that doesn't happen at Notre Dame."
In case it doesn't work out with Meyer -- and let's face it, Meyer is No. 1-10 on this list -- a look at the potential second tier of candidates in alphabetical order:
Butch Davis. Suddenly unemployed, and with a much better track record as a college coach than a pro coach. Florida has its eye on Davis, though, and he might prefer returning to the recruiting wealth of the Sunshine State.
Kirk Ferentz. Notre Dame athletic director Kevin White and Ferentz are friends dating back to the days when White hired Ferentz as head coach at Maine back in 1990.
Jon Gruden. His dad coached there, and he went to high school in South Bend. Gruden was thought to be in play briefly after Bob Davie was fired, but now he's in the first year of a contract worth more than $4 million annually. Notre Dame won't be paying anywhere near that.
Dan Hawkins. It's a huge step up in wattage from Boise State, but the man's record is 44-6, he seems to have the right perspective for Notre Dame, and his offense is pyrotechnic. Hawkins told ESPN.com in late October that, as a Catholic, Notre Dame was one of the places he could, in his dreams, see himself coaching.
Lou Holtz. Available. And he knows how to beat USC.
Bobby Petrino. The Louisville coach is the only guy in the country with better offensive statistics to his name than Hawkins. But the Auburn fandango last year could cause schools to approach him with caution -- and when it comes to recruiting, the academic requirements at Notre Dame are much different than at Louisville.
Nick Saban. Because what list of Cadillac jobs, pro or college, is complete without the LSU coach?
Bob Stoops. He passed on a chance at the Notre Dame job before Willingham was hired, and has said a blue million times that he's happy at Oklahoma. But if he's going to listen to Florida -- and the whispers suggest that the Gators might make one more run at him after the Big 12 title game -- why not listen to Notre Dame, too? What better legacy than to be known as the guy who restored arguably the two greatest traditions in college football?
Jeff Tedford. The creative California coach has worked miracles with the Golden Bears but has been frustrated by the slow response to needs for upgraded facilities. If he's looking to walk from Berkeley, this would be a prime destination.