Members of the athletic department (read: AD), university leadership and prominent people involved in the search process will meet tomorrow, both in person and online, to discuss the coaching search. Hopefully, we'll come out of that with a direction on where they're going -- as in, who the top candidate is as this point. There's also a chance this gets a little acrimonious.
There seems to be a bloc of BMAs who wanted to go with a lesser name, like Jeff Traylor at UTSA or Mike Elko at Duke, as you've heard repeatedly. Those folks have been extremely loud. But I have gotten the vibe over the past few days, as new names have emerged, that there is a bigger bloc that have absolutely no interest in "going small" if they can avoid it. In spite of the big buyout, there are people with a lot of money ready to cut a check to buy out a prominent coach if they can get one. They're also pissed off at how Traylor's camp has been blabbing repeatedly about any contact with A&M. As a result, don't think that there's any certainty whatsoever that A&M goes cheap here. And I'll have more on that in a second.
What happened with Lanning?
I know you've seen stuff that said that Oregon's Dan Lanning was never an option for A&M. He said as much. That may be true, but not in the classical sense. I talked with half a dozen BMAs over the 72-hour period after Jimbo's firing and the ONLY name was Dan Lanning. These are people from different parts of the country and different walks of life. They don't hang out in the same circles.
Oregon did a devious thing in that they gave Lanning a stake in Nike when he was hired. If you want to get him, you have to pay the buyout ($20 million) and buy out that stake. That puts the deal closer to $50 million before you even start talking salaries and staff. That is the big reason that Lanning was no longer a viable candidate.
So who's in?
I have heard that A&M has talked to Traylor and Elko. We haev also heard they've talked with Ohio State OC Brian Hartline and Michigan OC/Interim head coach because Jim Harbaugh is a cheater Sherrone Moore. I have also heard that they've talked to Washington coach Kalen DeBoer, though I'm not 100% on that.
Now, here's where it gets a lot more nutty.
I have heard several times over the past couple of days that A&M was contacted by someone connected to Ohio State coach Ryan Day to express interest in the job. I don't know how serious it is, but if he's interested, you have to talk to him.
The rumors about Dabo Swinney seem to be just that -- rumors. I haven't heard anything serious about that one, but I wouldn't count it out. I wouldn't count anything out at this point, but I can tell you who has slightly less of a snowball's chance in hell.
I have even heard the name Lincoln Riley in the past 36 hours, but there's no way I'm taking that one seriously. I can see him wanting out of USC after bungling that gig, but I can't see A&M having a real interest.
I guarantee you that there are other candidates we don't know about. Trying to get info on this search has been like pulling teeth. It's very different from the Fisher hiring and even the stealing of John Chavis to be the DC.
Georgia co-DC Glenn Schumann appears to have fallen off the radar due to concerns about his personality. And heck, he's still only 33.
I know you're all smart enough to know the BS around Deion Sanders is just that. That's being pushed by national people who have no clue what A&M is doing and aren't willing to work hard enough to try.
Sonny Dykes is definitely interested, but I do not know if that interest is reciprocal.
Lane Kiffin remains a no.
Dan Campbell verified that he is not a candidate today during his press conference, saying he'd do anything for A&M except coach the football team.
Anyway, you can see that A&M is looking at a wide variety of candidates, from coordinators to coaches of potential CFP teams. But they still intend to move quickly. The key date remains Dec. 4, and I've heard that they probably want something shortly after the season finale with LSU. In 2017, we knew going into that game who the target was and what the terms were likely to be (they ended up being longer in years than speculated), so we could walk out of there again with a good idea of who the next coach will be.
