Was An Offer Made: It appears that there some conflicting reports about whether or not an offer was made to Baylor's head coach Art Briles. That's fine, this is one of those situations where Baylor needed to come out and say that Briles turned down Texas Tech and Texas Tech needed to come out and say that Briles was never even offered a contract because he was given a contract extension. Apparently the buyout was the issue:
"If there hadn’t been a buyout, he would have been a very serious candidate,’’ the source said. "But he was not as serious as the media was making him out to be, because the $4 million was the stumbling block. So I don’t think anyone in the administration considered him that seriously because of the buyout.’’
Waco Tribune's John Werner writes that Briles declined the interview and also thinks that Briles' decision to stay was the right decision:
Not only will the next Texas Tech coach have to try to live up to Leach’s accomplishments, he’ll face a vast majority of fans who are angry over his firing. I bet at least 95 percent of the fans supported Leach, and they’re not going to be easy to please.
I think that John has the Texas Tech fans pegged just about right.
LAJ's Don Williams wrote yesterday that the search is ready to widen due to the Briles' situation, which I guess could include Houston's head coach Kevin Sumlin (who apparently is about to sign an extension with Houston, and yes, I'm looking for a link); Arizona offensive coordinator Sonny Dykes and former Clemson head coach Tommy Bowden. I have no idea who else might be a candidate, but that's your short list and in the video below, Chancellor Hance states that there are two main candidates and they may be talking to others.
Listen to the Candidates: Both Ruffin McNeill and Tommy Tuberville will be on Tech Talk 104.3 today (you can listen online). I'll be meeting with clients right about then, you guys let me know how things go and someone give me a recap (thanks in advance).
Assumptions: There's a ton of assuming going on, even by my part, as the news seemed to be trickling in yesterday afternoon to say that the job was Briles to lose, and according to the insider quoted the LAJ article, the buyout was a huge consideration and the media having Briles at the top of the list was wrong.
There's also this thought that Myers came out yesterday and said that Tuberville was out of the picture and he didn't say that at all. In fact, Myers said this about the two candidates that they've interviewed:
“I think the two we’ve talked to are both still very much in the picture,’’ he said. “They both did a good job.’’
They also said they would be widening their search, but none of the current candidates have been dismissed other than Briles.
What I'd ask you guys to do is to not assume anything. I talked with my brother-in-law and another friend last night about the entire situation and I told them that I didn't have a clue. It wouldn't surprise me to see Tommy Tuberville named the head coach today and it also wouldn't surprise me to see Ruffin McNeill named the head coach today. I can't get a read as to what the administration is going to do. Fox34 talked with the Chancellor Kent Hance and they are expecting to have a coach named by the end of the weekend (although I think that it happens before then and today would be a perfect opportunity to steal some national headlines):