Michigan State might be coming after your football coach.

McCarney’s name is among those mentioned by a Detroit newspaper as the possible successor to Bobby Williams, who was fired Monday by Michigan State.

In a story written by Lynn Henning for today’s editions of the Detroit News, McCarney’s name is prominent.

"Sure to be of interest to MSU’s search committee will be Iowa State’s head coach, Dan McCarney, 49, who inherited one of the most difficult situations in all of college football—tough conference, poor football tradition--and has turned the Cyclones into an ongoing winner and into the only team that this season has beaten cross-state rival Iowa,’’ Henning wrote.

Also mentioned as possible candidates at Michigan State by the newspaper are Urban Meyer, 38, the coach at Bowling Green; Mike Stoops, 39, who played at Iowa, was on the coaching staff there and is the brother of Oklahoma Coach Bob Stoops; Walt Harris, a former Michigan State assistant who now is the head coach at Pittsburgh; Notre Dame defensive coordinator Kent Baer, 51, and Minnesota Vikings assistant Charlie Baggett, who had been associate head coach under Nick Saban at Michigan State.

"There will be no shortage of candidates interested in coaching Michigan State’s football team, a job that should be all the more attractive because of the relative promise MSU—one season after a bowl visit, and with adequate roster numbers—holds for a new administration," Henning wrote.

In a separate profile of McCarney, the Detroit paper said "he has gradually built the Cyclones into Big 12 contenders…In his eighth season, his career record is only 35-53 (actually, it’s 36-53), but the Cyclones have made two consecutive bowl trips and should make it three this season….Also was assistant at Wisconsin under Barry Alvarez and Iowa, his alma mater, under Hayden Fry.

The fact that McCarney has a Big Ten playing and assistant coaching background would certainly appeal to Michigan State – which continually fights a "We’re No. 2" image in the state behind Michigan, another Big Ten university.

Here’s my personal take on this:

I have known Dan McCarney for a long time—going back to his playing days at Iowa—and I hope he remains as Iowa State’s coach. He’s very good for the university, and the university is good for him. He’s been a breath of fresh air in Ames after what was there before him.

He has turned the Cyclones into winners. You know and I know it’s not that easy to win in football at Iowa State. Indeed, it wasn’t that long ago that people were wondering if they’d ever have a winning football team there again.

By the same token, I wouldn’t blame McCarney for looking closely at the Michigan State opportunity if he gets the chance. It has been—and could be again—a very good job. He’d owe it to himself and his family to consider it.

The Cyclones went 9-3 and beat Pittsburgh, 37-29, in the Insight.com Bowl in 2000, had a 7-5 record that included a 14-13 loss to Alabama in the Independence Bowl last season and are bowl-eligible now with a 7-3 record (4-2 in the Big 12).

Iowa State boosters are now in the process of trying to raise money to boost the salaries of McCarney and his assistant coaches.

Michigan State is likely not the only school that may have an interest in hiring McCarney to rebuild a program.

The annual collegiate firing season has just begun. Baylor fired Kevin Steele on Sunday, then came Williams’ dismissal Monday.

Believe me, there will be many more in the weeks ahead in the high-stakes college football arena.

Steele will finish the season at Baylor, but Williams’ firing was immediate. Morris Watts, 64, who was an assistant coach at Drake from 1965-1971, was named the interim coach for Michigan’s final three games, but said he doesn’t want to be considered for the permanent job.

Watts was the offensive coordinator, quarterbacks and wide receivers coach at Drake under then-head coach Jack Wallace.

Within hours—sometimes minutes—after a coach is fired at a big-time university such as Michigan State (or Iowa or Iowa State), reporters put together a list of possible candidates for the job opening.

It happens in the sports department of every aggressive newspaper in the nation. Of course, some newspapers and some sports departments aren’t as aggressive as others.

Anyway, I’m sure that’s how McCarney’s name quickly wound up in the Detroit News. Mike Stoops’ name, too.

Coaches mentioned in those "newspaper lists" often wind up being interviewed for major-college jobs. Believe me, university presidents and athletic directors pay attention to those lists. Hey, they need all the help they can get.

Sixth-ranked Iowa has a 9-1 season record and is 6-0 in the Big Ten heading into Saturday’s 11:05 a.m. game against Northwestern in Iowa City. The Hawkeyes could wind up playing in the Rose Bowl or another New Year’s Day game if they beat Northwestern, as expected, and Minnesota in their Nov. 16 regular-season finale.

Iowa State stormed back from a 24-7 halftime deficit to beat Iowa behind the quarterbacking of Heisman Trophy candidate Seneca Wallace.

Wallace is a senior, and replacing him will be one of McCarney’s main priorities in spring practice—if he’s still coaching the Cyclones.

Less than a month after Iowa lost to Iowa State, the Hawkeyes rolled past a listless Michigan State team, 44-16, in Iowa City.

After that game, in my Oct. 13 column, I wrote that "Williams said his team played hard. Bobby and his players could have fooled me. I thought Michigan State quit….I’m guessing the players quit very early…."

And that’s exactly what those who wanted Williams out were saying after Michigan State’s 49-3 loss last Saturday to Michigan.

They said the Spartans quit.

That on top of player dismissals, player arrests, player suspensions.

The school president obviously noticed. So did the athletic director.

Now Dan McCarney’s name is being mentioned in East Lansing, Detroit and probably a number of other places in the state of Michigan.

"I think the marvelous job Dan McCarney and his people have done has been well-chronicled and recognized,’’ Snyder said. "We certainly echo that. Having known Dan a long time, we’ve never been in doubt that he would bring great success to that (Iowa State) program. He certainly has done that."

Snyder and McCarney were on Fry’s staff at Iowa.

Mike Stoops lettered as a defensive back at Iowa in 1981, 1983 and 1984. The Detroit News profile on him said he is his (brother) Bob’s right-hand man at Oklahoma….He was at Kansas State from 1992-99 and became defensive coordinator when his brother moved to Florida….Was a finalist for the 2001 American Football Coaches Association Assistant Coach of the Year Award.

He is Oklahoma’s associate head coach and co-defensive coordinator. He was a graduate assistant coach at Iowa in 1986-87 and a volunteer assistant there from 1988-91.

The thinking among football people is that Mike is ready to ready to move into a head coaching job, provided it is one where a coach will have the tools to win.

Michigan State is regarded as a place like that. The Spartans have always been able to attract outstanding athletes, going back to the coaching days of Biggie Munn and Duffy Daugherty.