Syracuse Fires Three Assistant Coaches

Syracuse head coach Doug Marrone has fired three coaches, just two days after the Orange’s season ended in a demoralizing loss to Connecticut. Offensive coordinator Rob Spence, wide receivers coach Jamie Elizondo and defensive line coach Derrick Jackson will not be retained, the university said in a two-sentence statement. Marrone was on a recruiting trip and unavailable for comment. In Marrone’s first year, Syracuse finished with a 4-8 overall record and was 1-6 in the Big East for the third straight year after the 56-31 loss to the Huskies on Saturday. – ESPN

BREAKING NEWS: Notre Dame Fires Charlie Weis

Charlie Weis is out as Notre Dame head football coach, a source close to the program told the Daily News. AD Jack Swarbrick has decided to make a change after Weis finished the season with a 6-6 record and four straight losses to Navy, Pitt, Connecticut and Stanford. Weis coached Notre Dame for five years and leaves with a 35-27 record. He has told friends in South Bend he has at least six offers from NFL teams to become their offensive coordinator. – New York Daily News

BREAKING NEWS: ULM Fires Charlie Weatherbie

UL-Monroe has decided to fire Charlie Weatherbie after seven seasons as the school’s head football coach. The official announcement is scheduled for 4 p.m. today on campus in the Scoggin Room at Malone Stadium. Weatherbie has an overall record with the Warhawks of 27-51 including a Sun Belt Conference record of 24-25. ULM finished the 2009 season with a 6-6 record. The program has never ended a season with a winning record during Weatherbie’s tenure. – NewOrleans.com

Who will Virginia hire?

Virginia Athletic Director Craig Littlepage said a national search for Al Groh’s replacement would begin immediately, and that he would not comment on the coaching search until it is completed. Possible replacements include two former Groh assistants: Richmond Coach Mike London and Temple Coach Al Golden. Virginia reportedly also is interested in Boise State Coach Chris Petersen. Former Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville’s name also has come up in speculation, as have Louisiana Tech Coach Derek Dooley, who played wide receiver at Virginia from 1987 to 1990; Harvard Coach Tim Murphy and Air Force Coach Troy Calhoun. – Washington Post

Virginia fires all but two of Al Groh’s assistants

Before Virginia coach Al Groh was allowed to meet with his assistant coaches on Sunday, the school announced that the coach was fired. He was not alone. Virginia also fired offensive coordinator Gregg Brandon, special teams coordinator Ron Prince, offensive line coach Dave Borbely, running backs coach Wayne Lineburg, wide receivers coach Latrell Scott, linebackers coach Bob Trott and defensive line coach Chad Wilt. All were told that they had 48 hours to remove their belongings from the McCue Center, sources confirmed. It left secondary coach Anthony Poindexter, a six-year coach at UVa, and recruiting coordinator Bob Price as the only coaches under contract. – News Advance

Charlie Weis turned “Bush Push” into huge Notre Dame buyout

With the Charlie Weis depression now likely to depart, two facts are likely to get lost in the golden blogs: No. 1, he never was anyone’s first choice for the job. On the day that the decision to fire Willingham was made — marking the first time ND had not allowed a head football coach to complete the full term of his contract — the more proactive elements of the university’s lay hierarchy and more than a few influential priests were completely convinced Utah’s Urban Meyer was theirs for the asking. Even after Meyer blew off the Irish for Florida, such program stalwarts as Parseghian and Joe Montana fully endorsed and expected then-Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Tom Clements — green and gold to the core — to succeed Willingham. No. 2, Weis and agent Bob LaMonte will go down as the first client-agent tandem to turn a three-point home-field loss — in this case, the 34-31 ”Bush Push” defeat by USC in October 2005 — into millions of dollars. Whatever the accurate buyout figure is, Weis and LaMonte flipped a deal initially pegged at six years and $12 million into one for 10 years with a potential gross if completely fulfilled estimated at close to $40 million. The Hail-Money! pact was announced during a bye weekend two weeks after the loss to the Trojans. To this day, no evidence has been produced that Notre Dame was competing for any entity over the extended services of Weis — other than the fertile mind and salesmanship of LaMonte. – Chicago Sun-Times

Bobby Bowden wants to coach FSU in 2010

Less than 24 hours after he made national news by saying he had some “soul searching” to do following his team’s 37-10 loss to No. 1 Florida, Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden had apparently found the answer. He wants to remain the head coach. “Right now I would like to come back,” Bowden said in his Sunday teleconference with the media. “The only thing I can say is right now, sitting right here - and I guess it could change in a day or two, it could - but right now, I would like to come back. “Still, I’ve got bosses. I’ve got people that would have to approve it.” – Tallahassee Democrat

Notre Dame job a tough sell?

Notre Dame is not the best job in the nation the way it once was. If it were, big-time coaches such as Urban Meyer and Bob Stoops wouldn’t be removing their names from consideration before hearing Jack Swarbrick’s pitch. Notre Dame doesn’t have the cachet it once did. Incoming recruits weren’t born the last time the Irish claimed a national championship. They aren’t as relevant to today’s recruits as they once were. That’s not to say Swarbrick won’t land the coach he covets. It just means it will be a tougher sell. – Chicago Sun Times

There COULD be an Alabama-Florida rematch for national title

Don’t look now folks but we COULD have a rematch of the SEC championship game for the BCS national title. I know I’ve said for weeks that this cannot happen, that the voters in the human polls would not allow a team that loses on championship Saturday to turn right around and play for the national title a month later. But now we are looking at the real numbers and the numbers do not lie. Florida and Alabama are 1-2 in the latest BCS Standings. They are tied for the No. 1 spot in the computers. Look at the gap in the total rating between No. 2 Alabama (.9513) and No. 4 TCU (.8689) and No. 5 Cincinnati (.8547). Alabama has almost a full one-hundredth of a point over TCU and Cincinnati. In this system that is huge! TCU (12-0) is done for the season and Cincinnati (11-0) plays a Pittsburgh team (9-2) that lost last week to West Virginia. What does this mean? It means that if Texas loses to Nebraska in the Big 12 championship game, the SEC championship game loser, if it is a really tight game, has a real chance to finish No. 2 in the final BCS Standings. That’s because the computers will still love them because their only loss this season was to a team ranked in the top two. It will all come down to the human voters and how far they drop the SEC championship game loser. If the loser of that game only drops to No. 3 or No. 4 in the human polls, then it can finish No. 2 in the BCS standings because of the computers. So it could be that a 12-0 TCU, a 12-0 Cincinnati and a 13-0 Boise State get squeezed out. – Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Bob Stoops Tops Notre Dame’s List?

OU offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson, who was out Sunday recruiting with Stoops, told The Oklahoman Sunday night he didn’t think there was anything to the Notre Dame rumors, though admitted “Bob doesn’t talk about that stuff.” Another source close to the program told The Oklahoman reports that Stoops is interested in talking about the Notre Dame job are untrue. But as for Notre Dame’s interest in Stoops? At this point, he appears to be at the top of their wish list. That doesn’t mean Stoops will take the Notre Dame job. Doesn’t mean he’ll consider it. Doesn’t mean he’ll even listen to anyone about it. But it does mean Notre Dame and its fans are still holding out hope he’ll do all three. – Oklahoman

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