Lou Holtz for Congress?

Just when you and I both thought college football couldn't get any weirder, it's trying. The Orlando Sentinel is reporting that Lou Holtz, former coach of William and Mary, NC State, the New York Jets, Arkansas, Minnesota, Notre Dame, and South Carolina (whew), is pondering a run for Congress.

Holtz would seek the Republican nomination in Florida's 24th congressional district, which includes parts of the Orlando suburbs and the Space Coast.

If Holtz succeeds in winning the nomination, he would challenge first-term Rep. Suzanne Kosmas, a Democrat from New Smyrna Beach. Should Holtz win in 2010, he would join Nebraska's Tom Osborne, who represented Nebraska's 3rd district from 2000 to 2006, as the only college coaches to serve in Congress.

The real question: How big are those "if"s?

Put it this way: You should always take any rumor with a grain of salt. This one appears like you might want to take it with a 25-pound salt lick. Republican officials did confirm to the Sentinel that they met with Holtz and he is interested in running, but none of them wanted their names used.

File that under "things that make you go hmm ..."

There was one person willing to go on record as thinking this is a good idea, though:

"You put him in the ring and it's all but over," said John Dowless, an Orlando-based Republican consultant. "He's on TV, he's likable, the name ID is huge and people respect him enormously."

Clearly, Dowless hasn't been paying attention. This is a man who managed to get nearly every program he coached put on NCAA probation, after all.

It's a free country, of course, and Holtz is free to run for office if that's what he wants to do. The 24th district leans Republican so it's entirely possible he could wind up elected to Congress if he gets through the primaries. Somewhere, Rod Serling is smiling.