SEC Coverage

Mack Brown’s first choice for offensive coordinator, I am told by two sources, was Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Charlie Weis, and the Texas head coach all but considered it a done deal that the former Notre Dame head coach would join his staff in Austin. However, Weis’ high school senior son had bonded with Longhorn defensive coordinator Will Muschamp and had planned to learn under him at Texas until Muschamp bolted to Florida and the entire Weis family followed to Gainesville."

"I shared an 8-by-8 office with Charlie for three years in New York, oh, by the way," Haley told the Associated Press a month ago. "I know Charlie about as up-close-and-personal as you could know him."

There is nothing wrong with Notre Dame football that the right coach cannot fix.

This is not a problem caused by academic standards or Midwestern climate or a lack of conference affiliation. This is a coaching problem.

By the way, one of my Bucs peeps tells me that the word around the Bucs is that Gruden could be going to Notre Dame to replace Charlie Weis. Sounds a little farfetched, but as the theory goes: The school will buy out Weis as soon as he signs his recruiting class, in two or three weeks, and hire Gruden. Heard from someone close to the Notre Dame program that there's a weird vibe around the football offices. Hmmm.