Some lists are longer than others...

The University of Florida had no trouble convincing its number one target (Urban Meyer) to accept the school's vacant head coaching poisition, but it appears that a lot of schools are in for a struggle.

In any given year, there are hot names that float around the country. Meyer was one. Bobby Petrino (Louisville) and Dan Hawkins (Boise St.) are a couple others. These names become hot in part because it is assumed that these "up-and-coming" coaches will jump at a major-conference job. But what if they want to stay put? Both Petrino and Hawkins have stated they are content at their current schools, and Hawkins has already signed an extension.

That's bad news for Ole Miss, Notre Dame, and the other schools still searching for their next coach.

Florida's struggles to find a replacement for Steve Spurrier led to the hiring of Zook, which, as we know, didn't quite work out. Nebraska fished around for Houston Nutt, among others, before having to settle for Bill Callahan (and it certainly looks like that decision is in the process of "not working out").

Notre Dame will suffer the same problems if they aren't careful. Meyer passed, Mariuchi and Jon Gruden said they'd rather stay in the NFL. Petrino won't be a candidate, and nor will Iowa's Kirk Ferentz, who recently signed a nice extension. So with whom does that leave them? And after they've made their pick, who does that leave for BYU, Ole Miss, etc, etc?

A friend of mine joked that the Domers should just give the job to George O'Leary again. And hey, why not? He might be the best they can get at this point.

Also--kudos to the University of Illinois for jumping at Ron Zook. Zook should be able to bring good recruiting classes to the school, and the Illini could certainly use an infusion of talent.