The Eagles may have come out swinging (and missing) in their initial attempts to find Andy Reid’s replacement, but one thing is for sure–college coaches from coast to coast are in love with the Eagles.

No, not because any of these coaches find the team’s situation and sales pitch attractive enough that they actually want to work for the Eagles, but because owner Jeffrey Lurie is helping many of them get paid.

Penn State’s Bill O’Brien and Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly have both had what could be termed at the very least as mild flirtations with the Eagles, while Oregon head coach Chip Kelly was one more drink at dinner away from a full-fledged affair. Still, none of these futile courtships has ended with the Eagles getting their man.

Reports indicate that there is genuine interest between the team and the Notre Dame head coach who just watched his team get dismantled 42-14 by Alabama on Monday night in the BCS Championship Game. But the consensus suggests that Kelly, like the other college coaches the Eagles have pursued, will simply use the meetings as leverage for a pay raise and more power at their current place of employment.

The search for the Eagles next head coach may be a bit off track, but there’s reason to be optimistic. If this whole thing turns into a full-fledged disaster, the Eagles will have made friends with some pretty intriguing prospects coaching in the college ranks.

So if Philadelphia’s worst fears are realized and the Eagles really have missed the boat on their top targets, and Lurie’s hard-to-believe endorsement of general manager Howie Roseman was nonsense, at least all of this seemingly wasted time and energy could help the team land a quality coach the next time around. After all, these guys owe the Eagles something, don’t they?

There will be many rumors regarding who the Eagles will select to replace former head coach Andy Reid. Some interviews will simply be an act of due diligence, others in the form of sincere interest. While we don’t know exactly how many coaches the Eagles will ultimately interview, a preliminary picture is beginning to form of where they intend to begin their search.

According to Zach Berman of The Philadelphia Daily News, owner Jeffrey Lurie has asked permission to interview Falcons assistants Dirk Koetter, Mike Nolan, and Keith Armstrong. Apparently, Lurie is impressed with the way things are rolling in Atlanta right now.

There’s no true indication whether Lurie prefers an offensive or defensive coordinator at this point, but the owner did allude to the offensive side of the ball several times during Monday’s press conference. He also detailed the qualities necessary of his next coach.

“It has to be somebody that really has studied where offenses and defenses are going,” Lurie said Monday about his new coach. “Somebody that will not just today have a dynamic approach to the game but studies it in such a way that when the game figures out what’s going to happen with that type of offense, they’re a step ahead.”

Berman suggests that according to two senior NFL officials, the Eagles are heavily interested in Oregon’s Chip Kelly who will coach in the Fiesta Bowl on Thursday. Kelly, 49, could be on his way out of the college ranks with an NCAA investigation of his program looming.

Whoever the Eagles eventually target, the owner feels confident that they’ll get their man.

“We’re in such a different situation than we were then,” he said. “Amazing facilities, a winning tradition, fan base that has just been incredible, prime time. It’s all sitting there. It needs to be reenergized, refocused, and the strategies short, mid- and long term, have got to be the right ones.”

There’s little doubt that Monday was a difficult day for Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie as he stood before the media at the NovaCare Complex and discussed the dismissal of his good friend and former coach Andy Reid.

there is little doubt that Lurie and Reid have a deep concern and mutual respect for one another. Surely, the decision to move on from Reid had to be a difficult one for an owner who watched his franchise blossom into one of the NFL’s top organizations under Reid’s watch. And with that, the articulate owner announced that he would be hiring just his third coach since purchasing the team in May of 1994.

Lurie praised Reid as both a coach and human being, calling him a “gem of a person” and noting that Reid in a surefire bet to one day be welcomed back into the Eagles Hall of Fame.

Lurie explained his decision to retain Reid for the 2012 season and why now was the time to finally move on.

“Every time our team under Andy Reid was 8-8 or less, the next season we were a double digit win playoff team advancing to the NFC Championship. That was the history. I really believed that this year with our talent we would be a double digit win playoff team. So no one was more disappointed than me in how we finished.”

That disappointment led to Reid’s firing after posting a 140-102-1 record over 14 seasons as Eagles head coach.

Lurie pointed the Eagles’ altered philosophy in making quick and aggressive fixes via free agency as opposed to staying the course and building through a more conservative approach as they did at the turn of the century.

“With any organization that’s had a lot of success, you’ll start to reach thinking that’s the player, that’s the mechanism, that’s the coach, that’s the thing that’s going to put us over the top,” he said.

Moving forward, Lurie stated his belief that Philadelphia is an ideal landing spot for any prospective head coach, citing the team’s facilities, market, and owner/coach relationship.

“I’m very confident that we will attract a very good coach and he’ll attract a great staff,” he said.