Urban Renewal in Florida, Not Notre Dame
"If a problem has no solution, it may not be a problem, but a fact - not to be solved, but to be coped with over time." -- Shimon Peres

If you judged by the inside hoopla after Notre Dame suddenly fired Ty Willingham for overseeing one humiliating blowout loss after another, their selection of his successor was a rather foregone conclusion. Urban Meyer was named after popes, raised on Midwestern football, trained in the coaching business at Notre Dame, successful, popular, interested and available. There aren't many people with more pro Notre Dame football coaching resumes than he was alleged to have.

Well, that is another myth dispelled. Their fate and their future heading now in the same direction, it looks like their boy wonder has gone elsewhere and the Fighting Irish now face the unsavory project of yet another futile head coaching hunt.

Actually rather than resembling a search for a head coach, this seems to provoke a litany of head coaches who turn down the opportunity to take the worst job in college football.

Much like 2001, there are more people who are NOT interested in the job than are. John Gruden has expressed no desire to coach the Fighting Irish, Lions coach Steve Mariucci said Saturday he was contacted by Notre Dame about its coaching vacancy but decided to stay with Detroit, Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said Saturday that he is not interested in replacing Tyrone Willingham at Notre Dame.

So, plans A, A1 and A2 have failed loudly and publically. What about Plan B? Or will that be another O'Leary? Isn't this how Notre Dame ended up with the "perfect" candidate in Ty Willingham to begin with, the process of eliminating all the more savoury candidates?

So now they're already down to the Bobby Petrinos and the Charlie Weisses of the coaching world. Sadly, here's how the Who's Who amongst the last remaining potential candidates shape up.

Oh this bodes poorly for fans of ND football, no question. How is anyone going to be able to recruit players to a program that has no coaching continuity, whose reputation has been sullied by fruitless coaching searches twice within four years, and has "unreasonable" academic standards for the average Football Über Jock to overcome to play for the Fighting Irish? Let's face it, there just aren't that many 340 pound Catholic physics majors left in the ChicagoLand area.

Alot of people cried about what a travesty it was to fire Ty Willingham. Unrealistic or not, Notre Dame football should not be losing games by 30 points to any team and if he was fired because of unacceptable blowout losses, this is a rather logical path, even if they didn't have the patience to see what happened during the rest of his contract. If they fired him merely to get Urban Meyer, than of course, this was a colossal failure, an humiliation and a cock-up of massive proportions which should see the AD Kevin White dumped like chum into a sea of sharks.

The mystical rubbish that was once Notre Dame football will no longer sustain the program, not the 11 national championships, nor its seven Heisman Trophy winners. Academic standards should not ultimately be a roadblock to success even though it does create a rather unlevel playing field. The next coach will have to outrecruit the other programs for the nation's smartest college football players, for the nation's collegiate athletes with the best character, and perhaps most importantly, for the best athletes who fit into a coherent AND successful offensive and defensive philosophy. In other words, not only a fantastic recruiter, but a fantastic recruiter with a successful plan. This doesn't mean they need 22 superstars. And such a plan wouldn't be impossible. Duke's Mike Kryzyzewski does it nearly every year in college basketball and yes basketball and football are apples and oranges but successful recruiting and successful philosophies are not.

None of the candidates being thrown around even vaguely resemble the requirements. But no one ever said living up to a legacy was easy. Whether Notre Dame football's future is a problem to be resolved or a fact to be coped with, will be determined by how they proceed in the near future.

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Well, if John McCain hasn't already solidified in everyone's mind what an idiot he is, his roadshow of sanctimony and righteousness continues to baffle. Yesterday, he threatened baseball with legislative action and simultaneously demonstrated his contempt for baseball's recently stained icons:

"I don't care about Mr. Bonds or Mr. Sheffield or anybody else," McCain said. "What I care about are high school athletes who are tempted to use steroids because they think that's the only way they can make it in the major leagues."

How very puffy-chested of you Mr McCain. This is a wonderful sentiment however, can you really not find more important issues on your agenda as a United States Senator than how stringent baseball's rules on steroid use are by January? If you're really that bloody bored with perfecting government and your role in it, why not take on something really important, like straightening out college football and the BCS?

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For those of you all along who saw the resemblance of Christ in Johnny Damon this season, it's time to reveal the Red Sox Supper.

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And BIG NEWS, kids. I've decided to create a Mets-Only blog to relieve yea weary readers of my Mets ranting and raving on this site. I will continue updating this blog however, for those of you starved and thirsting for Mets commentary you shall now be forced to have a look at Archie Bunker's Army. The inaugural column is already in the hopper, so go and have a look!