Five Coaches Who Have What Notre Dame Football Needs

When Bob Davie took over for Lou Holtz before the 1997 NCAA football season, nobody knew it was effectively the end of Notre Dame's reign amongst the nation's elite college football programs.

With Holtz leading the Fighting Irish, success was a given.

Notre Dame won fewer than eight games only twice in Holtz's 11 seasons as coach. In those 11 seasons, Holtz led Notre Dame to nine bowl games (six of which are now considered BCS bowl games) and the 1988 National Championship.

Since then, the list of Notre Dame coaches has been riddled with rash hires and emphatic burnouts.

Davie and Tyrone Willingham combined for two BCS bowl games—both losses—in eight years.

And then there is current Head Coach Charlie Weis.

Weis was supposed to bring change to South Bend. Instead, his five years have been filled with high expectations and shortcomings. Over the past three seasons, the Fighting Irish has a 16-19 record.

Davie, Willingham, and Weis had a combined one bowl victory before coming to Notre Dame.

The Fighting Irish need a coach who is well established as a success in college football.

Names have been flying in the rumor mills over the past couple of weeks, but here are five coaches Notre Dame needs to take into consideration.

5. Gary Patterson (83-27 Career Record)

Surely the dark horse in this scenario, Patterson has seen plenty of success in his nine seasons at TCU.

Patterson is a defensive-minded, hard-working coach that would bring a new type of discipline to Notre Dame. His consistency is unrivaled, evidenced by seven winning seasons and six 10-win campaigns in Fort Worth.

4. Les Miles (76-32 Career Record)

Miles doesn't have the track record the next three coaches on this list do, but he does have something one man ahead of him doesn't: a National Championship.

Throughout his nine years as a head coach, Miles has proven he can handle the big time. He has seen consistent success in one of the toughest conferences in the country, and consistency is something Notre Dame dearly needs.

3. Bob Stoops (109-25 Career Record)

Though his Sooners are 6-4 and unranked, the impact of injuries across the board cannot be ignored in Stoops' 11th season at Oklahoma.

Stoops returned the proud Sooners back to national prominence following more than a decade out of the national title hunt.

At only 49 years old, Stoops has plenty of time to return the most famous college football program in America to the national title picture year in and year out.

2. Mark Richt (85-23 Career Record)

If Stoops coached in the SEC, his track record would mirror Richt's.

Richt, lacking the BCS bowl bids of Stoops, has been as consistent as anyone in the SEC.

Winning games on a week-to-week basis is tough enough down south, but Richt's Georgia teams have won six or more conference games six times in his nine years in Athens.

Not only would Richt bring a heightened level of success to South Bend, he would also prepare his players for big games in ways Davies, Willingham, and Weis never could.

After all, Richt has been there before.

1. Urban Meyer (93-17 Career Record)

Meyer brings success wherever he goes.

Under Meyer's watch, Utah became the first non-BCS conference team to earn a BCS bowl bid. He also has two national championships at Florida.

Before Weis was hired, Meyer turned down the job at Notre Dame to take the vacancy in Gainesville. He has referred to Notre Dame as his dream job.

Despite saying he was never going to leave Florida for Notre Dame, the powers that be in South Bend need to change Meyer's mind.