Next Stop on the Brian Kelly Speculation Tour: Notre Dame

This week for the Irish fanbase has been one where they and the national media have been intently speculating on the future of Charlie Weis as head coach of Notre Dame. Most of the speculation has not been whether Notre Dame would fire him or not. It has been whether they could afford to.

No one seems to know for sure. His contract has seven more years and no one actually seems to be sure what the buyout could be. It could be $4 million. It could be $15 million.

Of course, never let the fact that no one even knows if Notre Dame can and will be able to get rid of Charlie Weis stop good speculation over who should/will be the next coach. Now that Tennessee has grabbed Lane Kiffen, that leaves Brian Kelly as the "hot" candidate upon which the Irish eyes could be shining.

We're hearing that people connected to the Cincinnati program think that a deal is already in place for Kelly to coach Notre Dame. There's even talk about who will lead the football program in its bowl game, which will be a BCS bowl thanks to Cincinnati winning the Big East.

A couple years ago, Mark Dantonio left Cincy for the Michigan State job before their bowl game. Cincy moved quickly to hire Brian Kelly, who coached the team to a victory. So the Bearcats have some experience with this. Of course, there's a bit of a difference between going to the International Bowl against a team from the MAC with a new coach versus doing it in a BCS Bowl.

Of course, all of this is based on the speculation that Weis gets canned. It is just as plausible that he gets one more season. It's not been impressive, but there has been at least marginal improvement. So, this could be situation of lather, rinse, repeat -- next season.