Kelly is great, but Meyer would have been better

It's not Bob Stoops after all, Urban Meyer was never in play, Jim Harbaugh was just a rumor, and Kirk Ferentz was never really a part of the discussion. According to published reports, Cincinnati's Brian Kelly will become the next head coach at Notre Dame with the announcement expected to come Friday after Kelly has had a chance to talk to his players and gotten through the team's football banquet. The contract is still being finalized, but the Irish aren't going to break the bank to get him, and there won't be any crazy numbers, years, or anything out of the norm. Which leads me to this conclusion: Notre Dame aimed too low. There's no question that Kelly is one of the new stars on the college football scene, having turned Central Michigan into the MAC's top program and turning an afterthought of a Cincinnati team into a BCS-caliber program that was a missed field goal away from playing for the national title. His offense became one of the most efficient and effective in America no matter who was running it. Whether it was Ben Mauk or Tony Pike or Zach Collaros, the Bearcats moved the ball with ease on their way to three double-digit win seasons, a 34-6 record, two BCS bowl appearances and two Big East championships. There's no question that he's a great prospect, but Notre Dame didn't need to go for a prospect when it had its chance to take a shot at a proven superstar. The problem isn't that the Irish are going with Kelly, who might turn out to be the next Urban Meyer. It's that AD Jack Swarbrick and the powers-that-be didn't appear to make an honest run at the real Urban Meyer. The rumors and inside information (from some very, very trusted sources on the inside) made it sound like a done deal that it was going to be Stoops, but that obviously wasn't the case. Stoops is a lot of things, but he's not known in any circles and in any way for being a liar, so when he continued to vehemently deny that he was going to leave Oklahoma, things just didn't add up. At the very least, though, Notre Dame was thinking about him. The same can't be said for Meyer. There's no question that Meyer would be a dream fit for the Irish and could've made a run at him after screwing things up the first time around, and going instead with Charlie Weis after Meyer took the Florida job. Meyer was the one shot the program had of assuring itself a spot in the BCS and a place in the national title chase year after year after year. Instead, it's going to bank on Kelly, who has gotten Cincinnati to the BCS twice, but doesn't have the proven track record as a recruiter that Meyer or Stoops have. Never mind that he hasn't actually proven he can take a team to a national title. He was close, and he'd be preparing for Alabama right now if that one final second ticked off the clock in the Big 12 Championship or if Hunter Lawrence had missed, but Meyer has won two of them. This was when Notre Dame could've gotten its star of stars. Tim Tebow is leaving, Florida has to reload a bit and the SEC is getting nastier. In fact, winning the conference is going to be more work, more headaches, and more of a fight now than it has been in past seasons. No, the Gators aren't going away, but this was a run, a great run, and it's going to take a major effort to stay at such a lofty perch with Alabama rocking and rolling, with Tennessee improving, with Georgia reloading, and with LSU, Arkansas, Auburn, and the rest of the league (outside of Vanderbilt) getting better and stronger. In other words, Meyer might have wanted to be wooed, wined and dined, and ultimately shown that the grass might be greener in Indiana. But now the focus is on Kelly, who openly campaigned for the job from the start, made his move to say all the right things and be the coach that could potentially turn Notre Dame into a superpower once again. Make no mistake, he's going to be a great spokesman and figurehead for the Irish. He's smart, quick, and he's going to be a good new face for a program that had to live through the insufferable joylessness of the Weis regime. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the hire. This might be the right coach and the right fit and the right time. But if Florida keeps on playing at a national title level year after year, and if Kelly doesn't get Notre Dame to the BCS on a yearly basis, and that's where the expectations are set at now, there will be a segment of the Irish fan base that will always wonder what might have been.