Brian Kelly will be Notre Dame coach by Friday of this week, sources tell IrishCentral.

It appears that the Cincinnati coach will not coach his Bearcats in the Sugar Bowl against Florida.

Though Kelly did not meet with Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick today in New York, he did not need to.

The deal was done last week before the Bearcats mauled Pittsburgh with a last-second victory to win the Big East.

Kelly has made it clear to Notre Dame that he wanted to wait until after Thursday night's annual banquet for the Bearcat players before publicly announcing the Notre Dame job.

The only other contender was Iowa Hawkeyes coach Kirk Ferentz. Jim Harbaugh of Stanford was never in the hunt, say the insiders.