The search for a football coach at Oklahoma has apparently zeroed in on Howard Schnellenberger of Louisville.

Schnellenberger, 60, met Thursday with Oklahoma athletic director Donnie Duncan, university president David Boren and members of the search committee.Duncan has consistently refused to name any coaches who have been interviewed to replace Gary Gibbs, who announced his resignation Nov. 21. He maintained that silence late Thursday when he spoke briefly outside an athletic department Christmas party.

"There's a direction we decided we'd go and that's what we're doing," he told Oklahoma City television station KFOR. "We're still in the process and it'll all unfold as hopefully the next few days allow us to move with it."

Boren said the search committee started with a list of about 20 potential candidates and has narrowed it to 10, three of them finalists. The Daily Oklahoman newspaper said those finalists are Schnellenberger, Kansas coach Glen Mason and Oklahoma offensive coordinator Watson Brown.

"We will have no comment on pending matters involving the football coach," Boren said in a statement issued through his office. "As stated before when the committee was charged, we will not make any comments concerning the process of the search for a new football coach."

Schnellenberger is 54-56-2 in 10 seasons at Louisville. He has led Louisville to two bowl games during his tenure, the 1991 Fiesta Bowl and the 1993 Liberty Bowl. That Fiesta Bowl team wound up 10-1-1.

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The Cardinals went 6-5 this year. They were 9-3 a year ago, with the losses coming to West Virginia, Tennessee and Texas A&M, three teams that combined to go 30-2-1.

Before going to Louisville, Schnellenberger coached at Miami and led the Hurricanes to the 1983 national championship. He also was head coach of the Baltimore Colts in 1973-74 and served as an assistant coach with the Miami Dolphins and Los Angeles Rams.

Schnellenberger's contract runs through the year 2000 and reportedly has a $100,000 buyout clause.

His 10 years at Louisville have been spent rebuilding the program, including efforts to build a new stadium.

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