By Bill Koch
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Greg Hudson, a former assistant head coach and linebackers coach at the University of Cincinnati, calls the UC football program "a sleeping giant."

Hudson, in his first season as defensive coordinator at Minnesota and his third overall with the Gophers, said Friday he has informed the school that he is interested in replacing Rick Minter as the Bearcats' head football coach, but said he has not been in contact with anyone at UC about the job.

"I followed the proper channels," he said.

Hudson, 36, worked as an assistant head coach and linebackers coach at UC from 1997-2000. He was Minnesota's recruiting coordinator and linebackers coach before being promoted to defensive coordinator this season.

"The standard of the type of players that you can get to go to UC has been raised," Hudson said. "The expectation level to win has been raised. Defeating quality opponents has happened over the last 10 years. The whole university is growing and there's construction everywhere.

"It's a great advertisement for the whole campus, and the move to a BCS league (The Big East Conference) is what you need when you're out there trying to go after the top players in the area."

UC athletic director Bob Goin acknowledged that he is aware of Hudson's interest and that Hudson is under consideration.

Goin said reports that Utah coach Urban Meyer, a UC graduate, has turned down the job are not true. Nobody has been offered the job, he said.

Asked if he considered Meyer to be a candidate, Goin said, "I can't answer that yet until he tells me he's not."

The UC athletic director also confirmed that LSU offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher's name is "in the hat."

John Harbaugh, the Philadelphia Eagles' special teams coach, would not confirm his interest in the job when contacted Friday, but sources say he is on the list of candidates/nominees that UC's screening committee is evaluating.

"My focus is on beating the Dallas Cowboys Sunday," Harbaugh said.

The screening committee met for the first time Friday and is scheduled to meet again Monday. The goal is to meet on Wednesday with members of the evaluation committee to go over a pared down list of candidates for recommendation to Goin, possibly by the end of next week, according to associate athletic director Brian Teter, a member of the screening committee.

Harbaugh, a former UC assistant who remembers the days when the Bearcats used to dress in a dingy room tucked under Nippert Stadium, said the UC job has become attractive nationally.

He was an assistant coach at UC from 1989 to 1996, working with both Tim Murphy and Rick Minter.

"I think it's a great job," Harbaugh said. "It's a BCS job now. What they've accomplished since 1989 is remarkable."

Hudson said there's no reason why UC shouldn't be able to recruit the kind of players who would enable it to compete successfully in the Big East Conference.

"It's difficult only if you choose to fight a fight you know you're not going to win," he said. "It still comes down to being selective and being able to find the guys that are the right fit, that you know really have a sincere interest to come.

"Every blue moon you're going to get a kid to not go to Ohio State and come to Cincinnati, but for the most part, you've got to beat Indiana and Kentucky and Louisville and Miami, and you've got to beat Pitt. You have to beat the schools you can stand toe-to-toe with."

Hudson, who graduated from Moeller High School in 1985 and from Notre Dame in 1990, said he's both willing and able to sell the Cincinnati program to the community.

"I think the city will embrace the program down the road and fill Nippert up," Hudson said, "but it will take somebody who's willing to go out there and do the public relations work."

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E-mail bkoch@enquirer.com