Another hour, another report on the status of Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly and the Notre Dame coaching vacancy. And, yes, they are still very much intertwined.
According to the Chicago Tribune‘s Breaking Sports News website, Kelly and Irish officials met in the days prior to Cincinnati’s de facto Big East championship game this past Saturday, and have gotten to the point where there will likely be no need for a formal sit-down interview.
It was reported that such a meeting would take place today, but subsequent reports stated that the decision had been made that no formal interview would take place.
The Tribune reports that an official announcement could come as early as Friday as Kelly would like to wait until after UC’s awards banquet on Thursday. (Yeah, that banquet won’t be the least bit uncomfortable for all involved.)
Simply put, and as we have stated numerous times in the past, it would take an unexpected shift in direction on the part of both Kelly and Notre Dame in order for the current UC coach to not become the former UC coach and trot off to South Bend, Touchdown Jesus and a pretty good-sized reclamation project.
In an interesting aside, the Tribune also reports that the Irish had similar discussions with Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz, but those talks never gained the traction that Kelly’s did.
