Notre Dame offensive coordinator Charley Molnar is reportedly the latest potential candidate to speak to University of Massachusetts athletic director John McCutcheon about the school's vacant football coaching job, according to a source familiar with the search.

Molnar has worked under Fighting Irish coach Brian Kelly for two seasons at South Bend and prior to that at Cincinnati. Molnar has considerable experience in the Mid-American Conference. He worked at Central Michigan, with Kelly, Western Michigan and Eastern Michigan.

Molnar has worked at Indiana State, Illinois State, Western Carolina and Virginia. The 50 year old is a graduate of Lock Haven University in Pennsylvania.

Molnar's offenses have put up numbers during his career. Notre Dame is averaging 424.1 yards per game (258.1 passing, 166.0 rushing).

Molnar and his wife have eight children, including Charley Molnar III, a graduate assistant at Buffalo.

Notre Dame is 8-4 and will play Florida State in the Champs Sports Bowl on Dec. 29.

ELSEWHERE - Alabama-Birmingham hired Arkansas offensive coordinator Garrick McGee. UAB reportedly interviewed Texas Tech offensive coordinator Neal Brown and Auburn recruiting coordinator Curtis Luper, who have both been connected to the UMass opening.

Sources close to UMass and Mark Whipple both say it's unlikely that the former Minuteman coach will be making a second stint in Amherst.

CRUZ HEADED FOR HISTORY? - With five games left in the season, former UMass wide receiver Victor Cruz needs just 43 yards to reach 1,000 and 387 yards to break Amani Toomer's single-season Giants receiving record of 1,343 set in 2002.

"That's crazy," Cruz told ESPN New York. "I don't even know how to respond or how to react to that because it wasn't even in my wildest dreams to even be the all-time leading receiver because that's saying a lot because they definitely have some great receivers here."

CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE - UMass Board of Trustee member Henry Thomas, III, and Deputy Chancellor Todd Diacon have been added to the consultative committee, which is assisting McCutcheon with the search for a new coach.

Thomas and Diacon join Juan Jarrett, Glenn Wong, John Kennedy, Jaime Seguin, Dan Markowski, Marcel Shipp and Brian McNally.

Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Follow UMass coverage on Twitter at twitter.com/GazetteUMass. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at http://www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage.