As the rumor mill churns... Meet me in New York edition

For those of you that missed the weekend editions of the rumor mill, I apologize greatly. If I can make it up to you, it’s with a gigantic dose of coaching chatter, this time from sources that hopefully won’t retract anything in the next day or two.

Let’s get started...

* Randy Edsall sounds like he’s a legit candidate. He’s even following the “not talking about it” script that has quickly become this year’s “I’d like to withdraw my name from consideration,” for coaches’ comments regarding the Notre Dame job.

(I’m not sure what excuse I like more, if you’re wondering. There was a lot of fun to be had with coaches like Mark Mangino pulling their name from consideration at Notre Dame, even if there was no job to be had and Mangino is walking the same streets as Weis right now.)

According to the Hartford Courant, here’s what Edsall had to say when asked about the Irish opening:

“I’m not going to talk about anything. I’m here at UConn. I’m coaching at UConn and as I said this is just a press conference about the bowl game and that’s what we’re talking about. I don’t think I have to say anything other than that... and what I said earlier. I’m not making any comment on rumors or innuendos or speculation or anything like that. I’m going to address those thing so it makes no sense to ask it.”

Right now, I’ve read a variety of people mention Edsall’s handling of the Jasper Howard tragedy as the thing that’s most impressive about him. I couldn’t agree more with them, and that’s exactly the reason why I’m not enthused about his candidacy.

* The New York Post weighs in on the coaching search, linking Edsall’s name with Brian Kelly, the presumptive front-runner for the job. The Post’s Lenn Robbins mentions that candidates could be interviewed as soon as today, while also throwing out the same list we’re all working off of, mentioning Urban Meyer, Skip Holtz, Bob Stoops, Jim Harbaugh, Butch Davis, Pat Fitzgerald, and a wild-card, Houston’s Kevin Sumlin.

I’ve got to believe some of these guys will get looked at, but guys like Sumlin must have agents that are just peppering reporters, hoping that they get their client’s name mentioned, in hopes that it gets him a new contract extension.

* Tim Prister over at Irish Illustrated, posted this declarative statement regarding the coaching search:

Regarding all this speculation about the next head coach at Notre Dame, let the record show that at 12:20 a.m. ET on Dec. 6. 2009, senior editor Tim Prister stands by IrishIllustrated’s information and sources that say Brian Kelly will be the next head football coach at the University of Notre Dame.

Doesn’t sound like anyone can claim miscommunication with this statement. Prister seems like he’s going “all in” on the Kelly claims, which seems to be a pretty smart play considering the odds at this point.

* Speaking of Kelly, he’s finally talking about the job. This morning, Dan Patrick had Kelly on the air to discuss the Cincinnati BCS game against Florida, as well as to pester him about the Notre Dame job, including asking Kelly if he could guarantee he’d be coaching in the Sugar Bowl.

“No, there’s no guarantees in anything that you do,” Kelly said. “I’ve never given a guarantee whether I was going to make it home at the end of the day.”

On cue, Kelly recently tweeted the following message:

“Just informed our team that Notre Dame has contacted me and I will listen to what they have to say.”

Uh-oh, Bearcats fans.

* And finally, to the New York portion of this edition. A little organization called the New York Times reported that both Kelly and Jim Harbaugh would be interviewing for the Notre Dame job in the Big Apple this week.

The fact that the Times mentioned Kelly isn’t surprising, but the fact that they linked Harbaugh to the job is a pretty big bombshell, and more proof that Action Jack is everywhere.

Harbaugh was unwilling to refute the rumors:

“Not now or not in the future will I talk about any other jobs or opportunities,” he said. “I’m out recruiting right now.”

Expect all of this to go down surrounding ESPN’s College Football Awards Show, where Kelly, Harbaugh, and just about every other big-name coach and player will be this week.

(And Action Jack will surely be lurking in the shadows...)

FAVORITE THEORY OF THE WEEKEND:

This one has to be a tie between the Martin’s jet rumor and the Urban Meyer hospitalization rumor.

While Notre Dame has made sure that the university jet wouldn’t be allowed to be tracked at FlightAware, a reader at IrishSportsDaily mentioned that the corporate jet for Martin’s grocery store was making a flight into Oklahoma City. Did that mean that Bob Stoops was back on the grid for the Irish? (Probably not, but still -- pretty solid work to be tracking Martin’s plane during this time of crisis.)

I lost the exact location of the second rumor, so I can’t recognize the true source, but the second has to do with Urban Meyer’s mysterious hospitalization for dehydration after the SEC Championship game.

(I thought Lindsey Lohan was the only one who got hospitalized for dehydration...)

Anyway, the specifics escape me, but the players include, Meyer, Action Jack Swarbrick, a mystery meeting in a Gainesville hospital, and doctor/patient confidentiality. I score this 100 out of 100 for pure imagination, but have to think that there is more of a chance that this guy reconsiders before Meyer comes to South Bend.