Here We Go Again.....

Butch Davis has just completed his third season as coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels.

That can only mean one thing....

It's time for the third edition of the "Will Butch Leave??" rumor mill.

This time, it's the "Golden Nugget" of college football, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

The Chicago Tribune listed Davis as a potential candidate to replace Charlie Weis in South Bend. Davis has a track record as a national level recruiter and a builder of national championship caliber teams, dating back to his days at Miami. At UNC, he hasn't been amazing, but he has made consistent progress in building the program.

The Tribune listed four "favorites" for the job: Davis (who was listed 4th), Oklahoma's Bob Stoops, TCU's Gary Patterson, and Cincinnati's Brian Kelly.

Stoops is believed to have an offer from Notre Dame, but has said he has no interest in leaving OU. Patterson is expected to sign a long-term extension to stay at TCU. That would leave Davis and Kelly, if the Tribune's list is accurate.

Of those two, Kelly is the "hot name", while Davis is the established name. Notre Dame took a chance on a "hot name" last time when they hired Weis, so they may decide to go after a more established, veteran coach this time.

Or, it could just be another money-grab by Butch's agent. With Davis, you never really know.

Bobby Bowden "Retires"

Long-time Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden will coach the team in their bowl game (as yet undetermined), and will then hand the reigns over to Jimbo Fisher.

A lackluster 6-6 season hastened Bowden's departure. It was widely believed that he would be the coach in 2010 before Fisher's takeover. Fisher was "coach in waiting", and was due a multi-million dollar payment if he wasn't head coach in 2011.

The FSU administration decided to get on with the rebuilding process, rather than let the legendary Bowden get one more shot at resurrecting the program he built from scratch. Evidently, they don't believe in karma.