Working for the weekend and thinking the Bengals season is over if they don't beat the Dolphins Sunday at PBS....

Fire Brian Kelly for the death of a Notre Dame student videographer? That's the position of the always engaging Jason Whitlock from foxsports.com in this article. The student videographer, if you haven't heard, was killed Wednesday when a crane he was atop tumbled over in gale force winds.

Among other things, ND has a giant PR problem on its hands. Most important, is the death of a young student, who according to his facebook postings, was concerned about his safety long before climbing onto a lift that took him 50 feet in the air.

Kelly won't be fired and he won't quit. Notre Dame is far too arrogant to do or accept that. But if that was my kid and the investigation ultimately pointed to athletic department officials who were responsible, there wouldn't be enough money left at ND to field a football team. And the turnover in the athletic department would be enormous.

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Good Morning!

Here's what you gotta ask yourself, if you're University of Cincinnati Athletic Director, Mike Thomas: do you really want Brian Kelly coaching your team in teh Sugar Bowl IF he takes the head coach's job at Notre Dame. I have a one word answer.

No.

Think about it. If Kelly is leaving for his dream job, why keep him from it any longer than necessary? If it's fervent wish to coach the Irish, give Kelly your blessing and send him on his way. Thank him for making UC football relevant again and move on. Do you really want Kelly and a part of his soon to be in South Bend staff hanging around UC, a school they'll be in competition with for future players (a lot from the Greater Cincinnati area) on the recruiting trail?

Years ago, when then Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator Lindy Infante signed a future deal to coach in the upstart USFL, Bengals owner Paul Brown booted him from the Spinney Field premises. Brown simply said, "I don't want a fox in my hen house", knowing that the USFL had been poaching away a lot of NFL players.

I'm not saying Kelly is disingenous. I'm not saying he'd do anything unethical. But letting him coach a team he's decided he's better than is simply bad business.

Do you think it's been bad for UC fans, having to endure Bob Griese, Kirk Herbstreit and the myriad of faceless play by play guy speculating on Kelly's future as the Bearcats marched to a perfect season? Well imagine what the Fox Sports Sugar Bowl coverage would be like, when everytime Kelly's face is flashed on the screen, the talk immediately turns to what he'll be doing at Notre Dame.

It would be a four hour commerical for the Irish at the Bearcats expense. Sorry, if I'm Mike Thomas, that's not the show I'm looking for.

The question then becomes, who coaches if Kelly leaves? Do you hire a head coach within the next ten days and charge him with getting a team he's completely unfamiliar with ready for the biggest football game in school history? Doesn't seem like a good idea.

Do you take someone from Kelly's current staff, name them interim head coach with the promise of full consideration for the job permanently when the Sugar Bowl is over? Maybe. But what kind of deal is that for the coach? Unless Thomas works out a deal with Notre Dame that the interim coach can join Kelly's staff at Notre Dame should he not get the gig here in Cincinnati, that option makes sense for no one. Besides, we all remember how it went for Pat Narduzzi, when Dantonio split. He wound up at Michigan State, after his dignity and resume took a 'hit'.

If you're Mike Thomas, as you shop for your next head coach, these are things you have to be thinking of. There is no good answer. Except for this one: you can't let Kelly coach the Bearcats in the Sugar Bowl IF he's leaving for Notre Dame.

You stand to lose more than a game if you let that happen.

Happy Tuesday!

Charlie Weiss, coaching Zombie had his last appearance as a head coach Saturday night. Great game to watch. Sorry Charlie, hate to see you go. Here’s a version of the home game.

Internet reports percolating since late last week about who the next head coach would be Actually, there’s been plenty of speculation about who the next head coach would be all the way back to last season. Here’s the latest: there’s a plane apparently on the way to Norman, Oklahoma today with the Notre Dame athletic director on board, hauling a brief case full of wadded money to entice the head Sooner to jump to South Bend.

The fact that the Notre Dame athletic director was denying it as late as last night (as well as Stoops)? Just a mere detail.

And of course, there’s the Brian Kelly rumors that have a zombie like life themselves. Bob Griese fanned those flames Friday on ABC, who gave us either the scoop of the season or another indication that he’s in serious ned of a hearing test.

If it’s Kelly going to South Bend, so be it. It’s not like they’re going to stop playing football in Clifton if he goes. By the way, my gut feeling all along on this is that Kelly isn’t going to Notre Dame. And if UC fans really want to worry about their coach going anywhere, it should be to a team like Florida, Oklahoma or anyplace where a national title can be won instantly. If you think you can win a national title instantly or at any point in the next four years at Notre Dame, you haven’t been paying attention.

But if Kelly wants it, and they want him, he should go for it. And every UC fan everywhere should send Kelly a letter thanking him for what he’s done.
And if he leaves, here’s what I would do if I was UC athletic director, Mike Thomas. You’re going to laugh. You’re going to say I’m crazy. You’re going to call me naive. It’s OK, not like it hasn’t happened before.

If I’m Mike Thomas, my first phone call is to Urban Meyer. You’re laughing, I can hear you. Hang on a second. I know that’s out there. I know the chances of getting Urban Meyer to think about leaving there for here is something like one in a million. But why not take the shot? If you’re Thomas, here’s what you say. You say, Urban, you’re a Cincinnati boy. If I’m not mistaken you went to our school right? A lot of your family still lives here, right? Your up here for some of the holidays, you’ve stopped by to watch Brian Kelly coach in practice, am I right here Urban? Urban, I hear you snickering. It’s OK, don’t blame you. But who’s your quarterback next season? If I’m not mistaken his name isn’t Tim Tebow. You’re probably going to win another national title this year. You’re probably going to get by Alabama. Texas? You’ve got a month to get ready for Colt McCoy, you’ll figure something out. You’re probably going to win another national title this year. What’s that make? Three in the last four years? What else have you got to prove down there?

If I’m Thomas I say, yeah I heard your making decent coin down there. Read all about that six year, 24-million dollar deal you signed back in August. Highest paid coach in the SEC, if I’m not mistaken. I also see your buyout remained just a half million dollars. Sounds to me like you’re a man who wants to keep his options open. Urban, you still there? You haven’t hung up on me, have you? Good.

Let me tell you what we can do here, besides bring you home. First, you can build off what we’ve already got. Great athletic facility, cozy stadium, fan base that hasn’t been this energized since Huggins had that Final 4 team.
Brian Kelly? Great coach, great motivator. Guy also gives a great speech. Yeah, we wanted to keep him. But think about what you can do. You got the pipeline to Florida. You got Ohio. You got that other school in Columbus on the run. You got a new school president here who’s sports crazy, loves football, wants a national title himself. Best of all, you don’t have your own legacy you have to trump every season.

Look, Urban, I can’t pay you four mil a year. I could go two, maybe two and a half. Bring any assistant coach you want with you. I’ll send the jet. Heck, I bet if you want your own jet, we got someone up here who’ll get you one. We’ll even throw in Kerry Coombs. You heard of him, right? He’s in more living rooms than Jay Leno.

So what do you say Urban? You wanna come home. You want to continue to build this thing? You want a chance to write a new legacy? What do you want? Just tell me, you got it.

Urban…Urban? Hello? Urban, you there?

Good Monday Morning!

I watched the Notre Dame-Connecticut game Saturday. The Notre Dame defense is pathetically bad. Bad angles to tackles, bad tackling, poor pass coverage. It’s amazing, really, how awful that team is defensively. The Irish lost. They got a life line at the end of regulation when the Uconn kicker missed a very makeable field goal. But you know it was just a matter of time.

But what struck me more than the game itself, is how NBC laid out the sad saga of Charlie Weiss.. I think it was late fourth quarter when they ran a piece of tape…sound btie we call it in the biz, of Weiss on the day he was named the Notre Dame head coach. He said the reason why he was standing there, that day, was because the team went 6-5 that season. And if they were looking to go 6-5, he was the wrong man for the job.

Notre Dame of course, is now 6-5 with a game to play. There’s always bad news for UC fans when Notre Dame loses, but here’s a piece of good news. If the Bearcats don’t beat Pitt and don’t get to play in the Sugar Bowl or some other BCS bowl, the Gator Bowl just came into the picture. I don’t care how well Notre Dame fans travel, would you want a 10-1 UC team or a possible (but improbale) 7-6 Notre Dame team representing the Big East in Jacksonville?

But that’s a story for another day.

I don’t know whether or not Brian Kelly is on Notre Dame’s radar. There are reports this week he’s not the first choice, that he’s not on their short list. Reportedly, the Irish will make a full scale charge at Urban Meyer or Bob Stoops. As much as we like Kelly, Meyer and Stoops are bigger names. And the only thing Notre Dame likes more than firing a head football coach is hiring one with a big name.

But what any coach who’s approached by Notre Dame needs to do is this: play the tape from the news conference introducing Weiss on that December day in 2005. And then, play the tape of him crying his eyes out after Uconn beat Notre Dame in overtime Saturday. Or the tape of his post game news conference Saturday night.

Then make sure you get as much money as you can going in….and even more going out. You’ll need it, because you won’t have your dignity when you depart from Touchdown Jesus. Like Weiss in 2005, the new coach will come in roaring. Like Weiss today, the next coach will leave sounding like a squeaking gerbil, ground to a ‘nub’. Notre Dame’s problems go far deeper than a head coach. It is a bad football paradigm. Buyer beware. Wake up the echoes? Better to let ‘em sleep.

Good Monday Morning!

Whoooooo Deyyyyy!

Now help me out here, Bill Belichick is a genius because......????

Travel time to Pittsburgh by car: 5 hours
Tickets to get into Sunday's game: $75.00/per
Look on Roethlisberger's face at the 0:00: Priceless

Actually, before anyone gets too carried away this morning, remember 2005. I think we'll see these guys again later this season. Just a hunch.

Charlie Weiss is dead man walking. You watch any Notre Dame game these days, that’s what you see. He’s a man who knows his fate and his fate won’t be pleasant. Maybe in a week, two, a month tops, Notre Dame will call a news conference and announce that Weiss is out, or has left to pursue other interests or wants to spend more time with his family. You know the wording. It all means the same. Charlie, here’s your hat and a version of the home game, thanks for playing.

You can say Weiss came off as an oaf. You can say that he’s just another piece of spoiled fruit from the coaching tree of Bill Belichick. You may be right. You’d also be right if you said he never had a chance. Coaches at Notre Dame never have a chance.

If Notre Dame fires Charlie Weiss, and correct me if I’m wrong, doesn’t the man have a contract through 2015, or the next six seasons after this one, at four million dollars a year? If my Ohio University math serves me correctly, that would mean Notre Dame will owe Weiss about $24 million dollars just to take a hike. Here’s a question for the Catholic church this morning, or the Notre Dame boosters who supposedly put money in the collection basket each Sunday: Isn’t there a better, more charitable way to spend $24 million than telling an under achieving football coach to walk?

We’re being honest here, aren’t we? I’m sure the school can’t cough up that cash, even with tuition and room and board at over $51 thousand for undergradutates every year. I would think the school would want to spend that kind of money on some more important things, like say, paying their professors better or cutting Mom and Dad a break on future tuition checks. What do you think, Reverend John Jenkins, school president, not a bad idea?

And if these faceless Notre Dane boosters,, whomever they are, really do have $24 million to spend on getting rid of a coach, did you learn nothing while you matriculated at that school about service to others? $24 million dollars can pay a lot of salaries for jobs that are disappearing. It’ can build parks for kids to play in, schools that are safe to learn in. While you’re working on throwing a bad football coach onto the street, how about helping some people living on the street find homes?

Look, I don’t care whether or not Charlie Weiss coaches another down of football. Notre Dame isn’t my school. I could care less if that team goes 12-0 or 0-12. But I also don’t care a lot for hypocracy. And there’s a lot of it rolling out of South Bend lately.

Let’s see, the last football coach to leave Notre Dame with an ounce of dignity was…who? Ara Parseghian? And that was when? 1974? Dan Devine lasted six year, won over 75-percent of his games but a lot of these same boosters ran him off because he wasn’t Ara….then came the parade: Faust, Holtz, Davie, Willingham and now Weiss, unless you include George O’Leary and his resume from fiction.

If you’re scoring at home, Notre Dame has had four football coaches in the last 16 seasons, not including O’Leary for about ten minutes and some poor sole named Kent Baer, who had to sweep up for a game after Willingham was bounced.. Weiss, Willingham and Davie all have about the same record.

Notre Dame football is struggling for a lot of reasons. Too many of its boosters are living in the 1950’s and not enough of the top college players today want to live in South Bend. Notre Dame used to be one of the only schools to have its games on TV. Now, just about every Division I football team has every one of it’s games on TV. To its credit, Notre Dame won’t admit student athletes who don’t meet its stringent academic requirements. But every Saturday, it seems, it’s playing against schools without the same kind of academic standards, against athletes that are simply better than theirs.

You can say all of that is the coach’s fault. But if you’re scrambling around trying to get $24 million to pay a coach to go away, what does that say about you?

Random thoughts to begin the new week...

After spending three and a half hours on 700 WLW after the Bengals lost to the Texans Sunday, I was surprised to hear so many fans ready to jump off the Bengals Bandwagon. I don't get that. If you're really a fan, how can you turn on your team so quickly after what it did the past four weeks. Refresh my memory: weren't the last four games before Sunday's some of the most exciting football we've seen around here in years? This team is 4-2. It's tied for the AFC North lead (technically, it owns the lead because of its win over the Steelers) and it's defense had played well in every game this season up until Sunday.

The loss to the Texans was tough on three fronts. The Bengals lost Antwan Odom for the season. It lost the game. And the Bengals lost to a team that might be in the playoff mix, which now holds the tie-breaker over the Bengals.

But turn tail on a Bengals team that had this town buzzing like it was 2005 all over again? After only one loss? Really? Come on.

Baltimore's offense has arrived just as its defense has departed. That's a lot of points that team is giving up....

My great fear about the Steelers is that they might've already had their once a season swoon....

Mark Sanchez is looking like a rookie quarterback with each passing Sunday. What a crime to waste that kind of Sunday Jets RB Thomas Jones had.....

If Jim Zorn can stay employed, there's no reason why all of us can't. By the way, the new assistant coach the Redskins hired two weeks ago and who'll now call the plays in DC is Sherm Lewis, father of former WLWT sportscaster, Kip Lewis.....

Jerry Palm of collegebcs.com projects the UC Bearcats to play in the Sugar Bowl, January 1st against Alabama. First BCS poll of the year has UC 5th, ahead of Southern Cal, Iowa and you know how up in you know where...

Until and if the Bengals can fix their tight end situation, doesn't it make sense to play an extra offensive lineman instead of Daniel Coates. I mean, you're not going to throw the ball to Coates anymore, are you? So why not put an extra lineman in for protection?

Even the most ardent Miami RedHawks fan has to be wondering, which coach wins first this season, Mike Haywood or Charlie Coles?

By the way, watch out now, my Ohio Bobcats are 5-2 and could run the table in the MAC East....

Very, very happy for former Bengals quarterback, Ryan Fitzpatrick, who engineered an overtime win for the Bills against the Jets, Sunday. There wasn't a better guy in that Bengals locker room last season....

It sure did look to me like the Titans quit on Sunday.....

If I'm Reds "AAA" pitching coach, Ted Power, I'm done with the Reds organization. Power was the in house favorite to replace Dick Pole as the major league pitching coach. Instead, the team hired former Mariners and Diamondbacks coach, Bryan Price. I don't know a lot about him, but I do know Power managed to salvage the career of Homer Bailey and that alone should have merited the promotion. Bailey was on a rocket ride to oblivion earlier this year, until Power finally got through to him. Power isn't Walt Jocketty's guy. And in the end, that's probably what cost him the job. And that's a shame......

I don't know if either of them have enough steam to make it to the top of the BCS heap, but watch out for Iowa and Miami, Florida......

If you're Brian Kelly and you know you're going to need Tony Pike to beat the big three in your conference (UConn, Pitt and WVU) would you risk playing Pike in the next two weeks against Louisville and at Syracuse? Not me. I think Zach Collaros or Chazz Anderson will do just fine against those two teams.....

The Denver balloon boy was a hoax? You gotta be kidding me....

By the way, Michael Lombardi from the nationalfootballpost.com and the NFL Network joined me on 700 WLW Sunday. I asked him if he thought what Brian Kelly is doing at UC, his offensive philosophy, would work in the NFL. In other words, could Kelly take his act to the pros. Lombardi, the former de facto GM of the Raiders told me he thought it, and Kelly, would work just fine in the NFL. But Lombardi said a lot of NFL team would shy away from hiring Kelly because he has no experience coaching in that league, specfically as an assistant coach.

By the way, even with Saturday loss to Southern Cal, I don't think Notre Dame is about to fire Charlie Weiss....not that what I say will make him rest any easier...

The Broo View, our weekly NFL breakdown, is tonight at 6:15p on WLWT Channel 5....

Now get out there and make some money.....

Just wanted to let you know I'm talking sports this Saturday on 700 WLW in Cincinnati. Among my guests will be Jason Cole, author of the new book Ocho Cinco, as well as former Notre Dame All American, Bob Crable and former Ohio State quarterback, Art Schlichter. I'm on from 3p-6p.

Then, on Sunday, I'm on from 9am-11:30am, with guests Mike Florio from profootballtalk.com and Michael Lombardi from nationalfootballpost.com.

All due respect the The Clash (Should I stay or should I go) , you gotta have somewhere to go first. And as of this hour, Charlie Weis is still the head football coach at Notre Dame. And Brian Kelly is in his UC office, breaking down game film for the Bearcats next opponent: Hawaii.

The tossed oranges hadn’t been picked up, the last student hadn’t left the field, the last UC player hadn’t showered Saturday before collegefootballtalk.com and national radio talk shows began floating this scenario: if Notre Dame loses big at Southern Cal, Weis is out. Enough big check writers with Notre Dame connections were willing to pony up millions just to get a moving van to back up to old Charlie’s house. Oh and by the way, Notre Dame has already begun courting the Messiah In Clifton, Lord Kelly, or so these reports would have you believe.

If you’re a UC fan, you’d have to be in complete denial today if you didn’t accept the fact that Brian Kelly is now the ‘hot’ coach. The “It coach” in college football. And there is a ton of internet buzz that has Notre Dame ready to hire Kelly. All it has to do first is fire Weis and write a check to him for $12 million. Maybe they could see Nancy Pelosi for a bailout.

If you’re the Notre Dame athletic director, do you really want to pull the plug on another head coach? Remember, this is the school that would never fire a coach, ever. But then along came Gerry Faust, later Bob Davie, later Ty Willingham. Notre Dame, Touchdown Jesus, where principal had always trumped dollars had become just another Division One football factory trying to appease alumni and boosters.

If you’re a Notre Dame alum or booster, don’t you have to ask yourself this question this morning: if my school is so good, if my football team is so fabled, how come my school can’t get it right when hiring a football coach?
And if you’re Brian Kelly, who’s got it $1.5 million dollars a year ‘good’ in Clifton, don’t you have to ask yourself: exactly when did Ty Willingham or Bob Davie get stupid?

Because they were pretty smart, successful coaches before they landed in South Bend, ‘flavors of the month’ like Kelly might wind up being.

Look, I don’t know if Notre Dame is going to launch Charlie Weis. He’s apparently ticked off some alums and boosters with his brashness. And he’s lost a lot of games for a guy who’s supposedly delivering all of these great recruiting classes.

But if I’m the Reverend John Jenkins, the Notre Dame school President, how do I justify in this economy, accepting a check for $12 million dollars from a group of my big shot donors to pay a coach to go away?

How do I sell that to my faculty of 780 professors, who wouldn’t get 12-cents from a booster to go away? Where’s this guy’s conscience in all of this?

And don’t give me ‘this is big time college football and it happens all of the time”. No, this is Notre Dame, not Oklahoma, Miami, Florida or some other factory. And correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t it the Reverend John Jenkins who signed off on the big contract extension that Weis got last season? If Jenkins OK’s a $12 million dollar deal that will run his coach out of South Bend, what does that say about Jenkins and his decision making ability?

I have no idea if Notre Dame is going to fire Weis or if Kelly would be interested in replacing him. My gut tells me Kelly is staying put. But if he is interested in Notre Dame, here’s the first thing I’d do in the negotiating process. I’d tell my lawyer to get the same kind of buyout that Weis is allegedly going to get. Because the way things are going in South Bend lately, Kelly’s going to need it.

I've got Kansas winning it all. Which will undoubtably be the kiss of death for the Jayhawks. But as we begin the first week of "March Madness", they seem to have the easiest path to the title. We'll see.

I don't see a mid major having the kind of run this season that George Mason had last year. I just think the 1's and 2's are very strong. But you know there will be an opening round upset. My pick for that: Winthrop over Notre Dame.

I got a lot done in my recent trip to the Reds spring training complex in Sarasota, Florida. I saw three complete games and parts of two others. Three things struck me (and no, none were foul balls)

The Reds starting pitching seems to be a lot better this spring than last. Bronson Arroyo and Aaron Harang are a solid 1-2, or 2-1. Eric Milton is always a dicey deal. But he did keep the ball 'down' in the outing I saw last week. Kyle Loshe didn't pitch. He was nursing a sore hamstring. But Paul Wilson did. And he looked terrific. I know it's only one outing in the spring. But if Wilson is back from his shoulder surgery, the Reds may have a real bargain.

I loved what I saw, and heard, from Josh Hamilton. I did an extensive interview with Josh that will appear on WLWT in Cincinnati and an audio portion of it on www.kenbroo.com. Check back later in the week for both. Hamilton has hit the ball well this spring. True, he's not seeing the entire repetoire that pitchers have. But he has one of the sweetest swings in camp. His defense is solid. His past is his past. But if that's history now, the Reds may have come up with the steal of the century.

Finally, Homer Bailey isn't ready for the majors. He's close. But when I saw him last week, he was not making the 'in game adjustments' good pitchers have to make in the majors. His fastball is mid-90's. But, it was flat and worse, high. With the need for a fifth starter only marginal early in the season...two or three times between opening day and June 1, my guess is Bailey will start in AAA. Good for him. He needs the time.