Brian Kelly has accepted the toughest job in sports: Head football coach at Notre Dame.

Notre Dame officials confirmed on Thursday evening that Kelly, who has coached Cincinnati to back-to-back Big East championships and was just named Home Depot Coach of the Year, will be the new head coach of the Fighting Irish. He had been rumored to be the top candidate for the position for the past two weeks.

Kelly appears to be a perfect fit for South Bend: He's an Irish-Catholic, a proven winner on the college level (the Irish have learned, after the Charlie Weis debacle, that NFL coaches aren't necessarily suited for the college game) and has deep recruiting connections throughout the Midwest. Kelly won big at Grand Valley State. He won big at Central Michigan. And he certainly won big at Cincinnati.

But now comes his greatest challenge of all: Trying to win big in South Bend.

Photo: Brian Kelly will be the next coach at Notre Dame. (Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)

Think the big money in college football can only be found in SEC country?

Well, think again, because the powers-that-be at the University of Texas, the premier program in the Big 12, have just given Longhorns coach Mack Brown a $2 million-per-year raise. Even though the guy is already making $3 million per year.

Under the terms of the deal announced on Wednesday, Brown will now make $5 million per year through the remainder of his contract, which runs through 2016. Oh, and as a nice little bonus (just in case times get tight, I suppose), Brown will also get an additional $100,000 raise with each passing year. The deal makes Brown the highest-paid coach in college football.

But that's not all.

Because his team just advanced to the national championship game, Brown is due a $250,000 bonus. And if he manages to upset 'Bama on Jan. 7? Well, then he gets $450,000.

Ah, the life of a college football coach, folks. Can't beat it.

Photo: Mack Brown has had a very, very good week. (Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)

Cincinnati's Brian Kelly has been named the 2009 Home Depot Coach of the Year.

The award will be presented to Kelly on Thursday as part of the Home Depot ESPNU College Football Awards. TCU's Gary Patterson finished second in a very close vote.

Kelly, who just led the Bearcats to a 12-0 record and their second straight Big East Championship, has in just three years turned once-lowly Cincinnati into one of the premier programs in the country. The Bearcats finished No. 3 in the final BCS Standings this season, and will take on the mighty Florida Gators in the Sugar Bowl in January.

Kelly's success--and yes, he was a winner long before he arrived at Cincinnati--hasn't gone unnoticed.

As of Tuesday evening, he was rumored to be the leading candidate to replace Charlie Weis as the head coach at Notre Dame. Other candidates for the job include UConn's Randy Edsall and Stanford's Jim Harbaugh, but Kelly, with his proven record of success and deep connections in the Midwest, has always seemed to be the most likely choice. Word on the Notre Dame hire could arrive by Friday, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Photo: Brian Kelly has been named the Home Depot Coach of the Year. (Doug Benc/Getty Images)

The 2009 Heisman Trophy finalists have been announced.

And let me tell you: There's not a college football analyst in the country that could have predicted this group way back in August.

Last summer, just about everyone--Yours Truly included--had presumed that the 2009 Heisman Trophy race would come down to just three guys: Texas' Colt McCoy, Oklahoma's Sam Bradford and Florida's Tim Tebow. It was almost hard to imagine one of those guys not winning it.

Well, McCoy and Tebow were among the finalists announced on Monday, but they certainly aren't the favorites to actually take the trophy home. Instead, much of the buzz today is focused on three guys that, at the outset of the season, weren't even on the Heisman radar: Nebraska defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, Stanford tailback Toby Gerhart and Alabama tailback Mark Ingram.

Early projections suggest that Suh and Gerhart might have the inside track here, though Ingram and McCoy aren't out of the question, either. But Tebow? Well, I think his invite is more of a courtesy than anything else.

As for my pick?

Well, despite Suh's incredible performance against Texas, I would still vote for Gerhart. You find out why I give the edge to the Stanford senior by reading the latest edition of the About.com Heisman Trophy Watch.

Photo: Can Ndamukong Suh become the first defensive player since Michigan's Charles Woodson to win the Heisman? (Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)