Notre Dame Should Buy Out Brian Kelly And Bring In Urban Meyer, According To Paul Finebaum

urban meyer notre dame

Getty Image / Meg Oliphant


Paul Finebaum doesn’t lack in the dramatics department, but his latest take on ESPN’s ‘Get Up’ isn’t actually that crazy nor that bad of an idea.

Finebaum suggested that Notre Dame should buy out the remainder of Brian Kelly’s contract and go after Urban Meyer. Like I said, not too bad of an idea.

“He’s good, not great. He’s never going to win a national championship. The wise move for Notre Dame is to buy Brian Kelly out and bring in Urban Meyer. Urban Meyer is the best available coach in the country and he wanted to go to Notre Dame 13 years ago, but Florida got him instead. Notre Dame is a national championship-caliber program, but Brian Kelly is not a national championship-caliber coach. If you’re a recruit out there, unless you’re a Notre Dame person, a legacy, why would you go there?”

It’s an honest, accurate take from Finebaum. Why would a top recruit go to Notre Dame, an independent school, and play for Kelly? Sure, in some cases Notre Dame maybe a kid’s best offer, but odds are that if you’re getting an offer from the Irish you’re getting plenty of offers from other big-time programs around the country as well.

It turns out plenty of the most talented kids around the country want to go to Notre Dame however as it is projected to have a Top 10 recruiting class this year.

This is of course brewing just a couple of days after Notre Dame was embarrassed 45-14 at Michigan on Saturday. The Fighting Irish are now 5-2 on the year with a loss at Georgia on the resume as well.

Kelly has had plenty of success at Notre Dame taking his team to the national title game in 2012 and to the College Football Playoff in 2018, but he hasn’t proved to anyone he can get Notre Dame over the hump. Meyer, on the other hand, has with three national titles to his name.

Kelly has three years left on his contract after signing a six-year extension back in 2016 which sees him make just over $1.6 million per season, which is just the 75th ranked salary among college football coaches.

It’s completely unknown at the moment whether or not Meyer is looking to return to the sidelines, but given the right fit and the amount of zero’s on the paycheck it would be hard to imagine him turning down an opportunity to coach somewhere like Notre Dame.