KEEP AN EYE ON SOUTH BEND

With each passing hour, speculation is mounting that former Bucs coach Jon Gruden could become the next coach at Notre Dame. Apart from the rumors published recently in the New York Daily News, we’re hearing more and more talk pointing to the possibility that something will be going down, apparently right after the Irish’s incoming recruiting class give their binding, written commitments to attend the school, on the assumption that Weis will be the head coach. And so, once it’s too late for the recruits to change their minds, they might find out that they’ll have a new head coach when spring practice opens. We’ve got no idea whether something actually is going down, but there’s enough smoke to force the Irish to address the situation. As we’d heard it in December, the powers-that-be weren’t going to dump Weis unless and until they had someone whom they regarded as a better option under contract. We’d heard that it was Cincinnati’s Brian Kelly. And so, not long after Kelly said he wasn’t leaving UC, it was no surprise that ND said Weis would get another year. All that said, if Notre Dame is going to swap out a portly coach with a sour disposition for a short, thin coach with a sour disposition, it’s only fair to the recruits to do it now, so that the kids will be able to make their commitments based on the most truthful and accurate information available.