So who's it gonna be?

Eric Mangini is out, as we all knew he would be. I don't know whether he truly got a fair chance here, as he really had limited on-field talent to work with. I heard a caller to Mike Trivisonno's show last night express the opinion that team president Mike Holmgren set Mangini up to fail this year because he wants to get his own guy in there so he can take all the credit for whatever success the team has later. That's ridiculous to me. If he were going to do that, he'd have changed coaches last year.

Regardless, it's done, and it's time to look ahead and see who's out there. There's speculation that Holmgren himself might want to be the coach, and of course he's had a fair amount of success in the NFL in that role. He won a Super Bowl with the Packers and lost two others, one with Green Bay and one with Seattle. But Holmgren says he's not interested in that job at this time, and I don't see any reason to doubt him.

So if it's not Mangini and it's not Holmgren, who is it? The first name that comes to mind is Bill Cowher, who's apparently interested in returning to the sidelines, but not with the Browns, even though he spent seven years here as a player or assistant coach. Fine. He's not the only intelligent coaching candidate out there. There's guys like Jon Gruden, who's had success in the NFL; and Jim Harbaugh, who's had success in college. Other names that have already been mentioned include Giants defensive coordinator Perry Fewell, who went 3-4 as interim head coach of the Bills last year; and Eagles offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg, who's done very well as an offensive coordinator but is 5-27 as an NFL head coach.

Of those four guys, I think I'd like Gruden the most, followed in order by Fewell, Mornhinweg and Harbaugh. But Holmgren says he's going to cast a wide net, so we'll see what other names come up. All I know is, I'm getting tired of the coaching carousel around here. Whoever gets hired, I hope he stays a good, long time.