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With the regular season over for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the rest of the college football world, the coaching carousel and really start spinning. According to a 247 report, Irish offensive coordinator, Chip Long, has emerged as a candidate to fill the open head coaching job for the Ole Miss Rebels.
Ole Miss fired Matt Luke on Sunday after the Rebels “pissed away” a chance to win the Egg Bowl over their in-state rival the Mississippi St. Bulldogs on Thanksgiving night.
One of the hottest names to surface for the Rebels has been current Memphis Tigers head coach Mike Norvell. The Tigers can lock up a Cotton Bowl bid this weekend with a win over the Cincinnati Bearcats in the AAC Championship Game. Chip Long was Norvell’s OC in 2016 after Norvell took over for Justin Fuente after he [Fuente] bolted to coach the Virginia Tech Hokies.
For Chip Long to be mentioned in the search as the new Rebels coach is a pretty big deal. I think the general feeling is that Ole Miss has Norvell marked as their top choice, but the Rebels could be in a battle with the Florida State Seminoles for Norvell’s hand in marriage.
Do you see how this carousel works?
If Mike Norvell takes either the FSU or Ole Miss job, Chip Long could become the leading candidate for Memphis, and I think most people believe he would take such a move. If Ole Miss really does interview and offer Long the position — again, I think he would jump at the chance to take over an SEC program.
Notre Dame’s offense has been inconsistent with Chip Long as the offensive coordinator and main playcaller since 2017, but the Irish have still scored a lot of points over the last three years. There have been rumors about Long leaving before, but they were merely rumors. It has been stated before that Long would like to coach at Notre Dame as long as Brian Kelly is the head coach, but I think we all know that’s just a nice quote to have out there.
No interviews have been reported at this time, but we will keep a close eye on what happens between FSU, Ole Miss, and Memphis over the next few weeks.