Notre Dame Hiring Urban Meyer After Brian Kelly Goes To LSU?

LSU appears to be on the verge of hiring Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly as the program’s next head football coach.

The move comes on the heels of an equally massive move out West, where USC stole Lincoln Riley away from Oklahoma. Whereas the rationale for that decision is fairly straightforward, Kelly’s move from South Bend is a little more of a head scratcher.

That said, the Fighting Irish will soon need a new head coach.

And one name that keeps popping up over the past few hours for that soon-to-be vacancy is Jacksonville Jaguars head coach, Urban Meyer.

For years, Meyer has regarded Notre Dame as his ideal coaching destination.

Urban Meyer says Notre Dame is “still my dream job; that hasn’t changed.” Meyer to Notre Dame would make the USC rivalry interesting again.

— USC Football News (@USCFootballNews) December 12, 2008

During an appearance on “The Eleven Dubcast” podcast four years ago his wife, Shelley, also reiterated that leading the Fighting Irish was a personal goal of her husband’s. She insisted that it was one of three jobs that he told her she’d have no say in if he ever got the opportunity to accept.

Now is Meyer’s chance.

At this point, it’s safe to call a time of death on his stint as the Jacksonville Jaguars head coach. They’re 2-9 on the year and just last week Meyer admitted that he can’t even get his players to run routes correctly.

Urban Meyer says the #Jaguars are still having issues with wide receivers running wrong routes, depth issues & location issues

Wouldn’t speak specifically to the failed 4th down at the end of the game

— Mia O’Brien (@MiaOBrienTV) November 29, 2021

This could be an opportunity for a Nick Saban leaving the Miami Dolphins for Alabama-type fresh start. One that he desperately needs after the last few months.

Meyer has been on a rollercoaster full of peaks and valleys in 2021.

By now, everyone knows his issues. Meyer was caught on video in a bar being pressed up on by a pretty young blonde woman. Shelley Meyer did not initially take kindly to what happened, lashing out on Twitter. Then even more awkward video came out, showing exactly where Meyer was shoving his hand while the woman was dancing on him. Ultimately both Meyer’s wife and daughter would speak out, trying to put the matter to rest. Everything seemed to be looking up for a while, only for a new sequence of scandalous claims to emerge. Accusations were made about a series of unacceptable text messages and a third, even worse, video. It remains to be seen what will come of those accusations.

In the meantime, Meyer’s professional life is in just as bad of shape as his personal one has been. Going to Notre Dame after Kelly and saving that program could be the perfect antidote to Meyer’s woes.

Kelly has served as the Fighting Irish head coach since 2010. This year he led the program to an 11-1 regular season mark. Overall he has posted a record of 92-39 throughout his 12 seasons, leading Notre Dame to a BCS National Championship Game showing in 2012 and to the College Football Playoff in 2018 and 2020.

He almost left Notre Dame last year for a very high-profile job, but ultimately did not.

Apparently the LSU gig is too good to pass up on, though.

Paulina Gretzky knows what she’s doing. https://t.co/mx5KTZLgZe

— Game 7 (@game7__) November 29, 2021

Kelly leaves behind some big shoes to fill, but if anyone can do it, it’s Meyer.

Will he, though? Time will tell.

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Carlos Garcia

A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.