By 5 p.m. on Sept. 17, while Chase Parham and I were still wrapping up our coverage of Vanderbilt’s 30-7 win over Ole Miss, we knew Houston Nutt was fired.
We weren’t sure when it was happening _ that night, the next week or at the end of the season _ but we knew the decision had been made. The sourcing was impeccable. By the time Steve Willis dropped us back off at our hotel after an outing at Buffalo Wild Wings, we were assembling a hot board.
Starting that night, we spent countless hours talking to coaches, agents, media and other sources about who might or might not be a candidate to replace Nutt. There was very little to show for our work until the Monday morning we broke the story of Nutt’s firing, but we never stopped working on the story.
I write that to get to this: Determining who was or was not a good source in this story was difficult, frustrating and at times downright baffling.
Early on, we heard the same names repeatedly -- Kirby Smart, Manny Diaz, Gus Malzahn, Mike Leach, Rich Rodriguez, Larry Fedora, Kevin Sumlin, Skip Holtz, Mark Hudspeth and Hugh Freeze _ but until Ole Miss established a committee to choose the next coach, there was no way to know who was or was not legitimate.
It became very clear early on that the search would be airtight. There would be no leaks; information would come at a premium. Multiple people told us early on that Mike Glenn and Freeze were tight. Still, sources led us in different directions.
One source who proved to be reliable throughout was consistent. For weeks, he told me he believed Fedora was Ole Miss’ primary target while Freeze remained in the background as a fallback option.
Other sources, people we’ve relied on successfully for information in the past, steered us in some wild directions. Strong sources told us Ole Miss had made contact with Leach and Rodriguez. Fans clearly liked both, especially Leach, but the more we checked things out, the more confident we became that neither was an option. Sources in the coach/agent community told us, rather consistently, that it appeared Ole Miss did not want retreads. Instead, the Rebels wanted a sitting head coach, preferably one who would likely not use Ole Miss as a steppingstone if he had success in Oxford.
On the day before Thanksgiving, my phone began to buzz. Sources, people we would normally depend on and covet their information, were insistent. They said Smart had moved to the front of Ole Miss’ list and was assembling a staff. We were told specific names. People very close to the Ole Miss staff, one that was preparing for the Egg Bowl, believed the rumors to be true.
Over the next 72 hours, however, those rumors cooled considerably. A source close to Smart, one we always believed, told us there was no truth to the rumors and pointed us again at Fedora and Freeze.
I spent most of the final week trying to figure out what Fedora would do. We knew he’s have options, possibly at Arizona State, North Carolina and/or Texas A&M. We were told by a strong source (one who proved to be credible throughout) that Fedora had been talked to informally by Ole Miss’ committee. We also knew there had been contact with Freeze.
Still, Smart’s name wouldn’t go away. On Wednesday, rumors began to fly that Smart had moved to the top of the list again. We were hearing specific numbers, specific names on his staff and a specific timetable. One call after another came to us, each saying the same thing: Essentially, Smart would be Ole Miss’ coach, Freeze would be his offensive coordinator, and the announcement would come after the BCS results came out on that Sunday. The rumor was incredibly detailed. One source insisted Smart, Freeze, Manning and Glenn had met at an airport hanger in Memphis to iron out details.
Honestly, we almost believed it. We began to work on an update along those lines. Then a call came. Freeze had turned Smart down, the source said, and Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Scott Linehan, the source said, would be Smart’s offensive coordinator. It didn’t add up. It felt wrong. Late that night, I dug into two strong sources close to Smart. They were emphatic; no contact had been made between Ole Miss and Smart. I believed them. We killed the update and spent much of the next 48 hours defending our report that Smart was not in the mix in Oxford.
By Saturday, despite still receiving texts from sources that Smart was the guy, we knew it was down to Fedora and Freeze. By 6 p.m. that Saturday, we were fairly certain the job was Freeze’s. We broke the story later that night.
I feel certain I know what happened. Glenn and Archie Manning kept things very private. The only sources we could trust came from the coaching/agent community. Somewhere along the line, a booster used to having full access and inside knowledge made up a rumor about Smart and it spread like wildfire. It was that simple. Smart was, as a source close to him said late Saturday, “never, ever contacted by Ole Miss.”
This post was edited on 12/10 8:48 PM by Neal McCready
We weren’t sure when it was happening _ that night, the next week or at the end of the season _ but we knew the decision had been made. The sourcing was impeccable. By the time Steve Willis dropped us back off at our hotel after an outing at Buffalo Wild Wings, we were assembling a hot board.
Starting that night, we spent countless hours talking to coaches, agents, media and other sources about who might or might not be a candidate to replace Nutt. There was very little to show for our work until the Monday morning we broke the story of Nutt’s firing, but we never stopped working on the story.
I write that to get to this: Determining who was or was not a good source in this story was difficult, frustrating and at times downright baffling.
Early on, we heard the same names repeatedly -- Kirby Smart, Manny Diaz, Gus Malzahn, Mike Leach, Rich Rodriguez, Larry Fedora, Kevin Sumlin, Skip Holtz, Mark Hudspeth and Hugh Freeze _ but until Ole Miss established a committee to choose the next coach, there was no way to know who was or was not legitimate.
It became very clear early on that the search would be airtight. There would be no leaks; information would come at a premium. Multiple people told us early on that Mike Glenn and Freeze were tight. Still, sources led us in different directions.
One source who proved to be reliable throughout was consistent. For weeks, he told me he believed Fedora was Ole Miss’ primary target while Freeze remained in the background as a fallback option.
Other sources, people we’ve relied on successfully for information in the past, steered us in some wild directions. Strong sources told us Ole Miss had made contact with Leach and Rodriguez. Fans clearly liked both, especially Leach, but the more we checked things out, the more confident we became that neither was an option. Sources in the coach/agent community told us, rather consistently, that it appeared Ole Miss did not want retreads. Instead, the Rebels wanted a sitting head coach, preferably one who would likely not use Ole Miss as a steppingstone if he had success in Oxford.
On the day before Thanksgiving, my phone began to buzz. Sources, people we would normally depend on and covet their information, were insistent. They said Smart had moved to the front of Ole Miss’ list and was assembling a staff. We were told specific names. People very close to the Ole Miss staff, one that was preparing for the Egg Bowl, believed the rumors to be true.
Over the next 72 hours, however, those rumors cooled considerably. A source close to Smart, one we always believed, told us there was no truth to the rumors and pointed us again at Fedora and Freeze.
I spent most of the final week trying to figure out what Fedora would do. We knew he’s have options, possibly at Arizona State, North Carolina and/or Texas A&M. We were told by a strong source (one who proved to be credible throughout) that Fedora had been talked to informally by Ole Miss’ committee. We also knew there had been contact with Freeze.
Still, Smart’s name wouldn’t go away. On Wednesday, rumors began to fly that Smart had moved to the top of the list again. We were hearing specific numbers, specific names on his staff and a specific timetable. One call after another came to us, each saying the same thing: Essentially, Smart would be Ole Miss’ coach, Freeze would be his offensive coordinator, and the announcement would come after the BCS results came out on that Sunday. The rumor was incredibly detailed. One source insisted Smart, Freeze, Manning and Glenn had met at an airport hanger in Memphis to iron out details.
Honestly, we almost believed it. We began to work on an update along those lines. Then a call came. Freeze had turned Smart down, the source said, and Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Scott Linehan, the source said, would be Smart’s offensive coordinator. It didn’t add up. It felt wrong. Late that night, I dug into two strong sources close to Smart. They were emphatic; no contact had been made between Ole Miss and Smart. I believed them. We killed the update and spent much of the next 48 hours defending our report that Smart was not in the mix in Oxford.
By Saturday, despite still receiving texts from sources that Smart was the guy, we knew it was down to Fedora and Freeze. By 6 p.m. that Saturday, we were fairly certain the job was Freeze’s. We broke the story later that night.
I feel certain I know what happened. Glenn and Archie Manning kept things very private. The only sources we could trust came from the coaching/agent community. Somewhere along the line, a booster used to having full access and inside knowledge made up a rumor about Smart and it spread like wildfire. It was that simple. Smart was, as a source close to him said late Saturday, “never, ever contacted by Ole Miss.”
This post was edited on 12/10 8:48 PM by Neal McCready
