would be Neal Brown of Troy and Brian Harsin of Boise State. The former is well respected and could recruit well in the SE. The latter has proven he can win with the sort of 3 and 4 store talent ND tends to get.
Other coaches on my list:
- Mark Stoops of Kentucky - winning at KY is never easy and he's been able to recruit the SE and into Cincinnati
- Troy Calhoun - would understand the academic challenges of winning at ND, runs an offense I think could work at ND (sort of a passing triple option game) and has connections to the NFL, so he should be able to pull in some quality assistants.