Coaching wheel keeps turning

Notre Dame started things off, really, by firing Bob Davies, goofing with The Liar, then stealing Tyrone Willingham away from Stanford. Speculation began mounting about Denny Green in Minnesota and now he’s out. Then, after a fabulous win over Maryland Wednesday night, Steve Spurrier resigned as Florida head coach saying he’d done enough at the college level and wants an NFL job. Herbstreit speculates that Broncos coach Mike Shanahan migh welcome this change but points out that the new UF coach will face sky high expectations for the 2002 season.

SJ Mercury News (to which I prefer not to link) columnist Skip Bayless speculated this morning that Stanford University and 49ers coach Steve Marriuci would be a great match for each other. I could easily see Spurrier coming in to replace Marriuci except that he’s so used to being in total control of the program that he might not accept less than a combined coach/GM job, which isn’t going to be available with the Niners.

Other possible NFL changes (the league averages seven head coaching changes a year): George Seifert is looking mighty weary in Carolina and Jim Mora had a bad season in Indy (could his son, 49ers defensive coordinator Jim Mora, replace him?); even the great Tony Dungy needs to do some damage in the post-season to be invited back (note that Spurrier almost left UF in 1995 to take this job). LSU’s Nick Saban is mentioned as a possible replacement in Indinapolis but his current bosses want to give him a bigtime extension after winning the SEC and walloping Illinois. Mike Riley was fired by the Chargers Monday and is meeting with college ADs (he came to the NFL after a good stint at Oregon).