The nutjobs on stingtalk have cooked up quite a conspiracy theory involving GT into the LSU/Michigan debacle. However, if true, (and to combine it with more unconfirmed rumors,) it would look positive for SMU hiring PJ.
Here's their theory:
Tenuta leaked the Les Miles to Michigan story to Kirk Herbstreit in order to get the GT administration to give him a guarantee to keep him around under the new coaching staff.
.....now Tenuta was linked to that story, because the story was Miles was going to Michigan and Tenuta would be his DC. However, this seems unlikely that he would leak the story in order to remain at a school that just fired their head coach, not having any idea who he would be working under, especially before any official offers had been made--and it derailed the whole process anyway.
So the theory goes on:
GT has signed a contract with Tenuta to keep him on as DC, and this why they have had Edsall and Muschamp bail on them because part of the package of taking the job at GT requires the new coach to keep Tenuta on as DC.
....this has to be totally ridiculous because the leak by KH to the eventual derailing of that story took about 5 hours. Long enough for LSU to get together an offer to save their head coach--which they had been working on for two days since Michigan contacted them about Miles. However, there is no way that GT struck a deal to keep their defensive coordinator as a condition that their new coach must agree to. No athletic director is dumb enough to do something like that. (Osborne picked Pelini because he wanted to bring some of the old guard back, but there were no contracts signed anywhere!) Plus, even if that was Tenuta's intention, there is no way it could have panned out that way since the Miles/Michigan deal fell apart.
Now, if this were true....or if there is any truth to the simpler version that GT would like to hire someone that would be willing to keep Tenuta, this could bode well for SMU getting PJ--if anything can be read into the ongoings at Nebraska.......
Sorry, been staring at the computer too long, so I'm taking us off the deep end on this one!
......there were plenty of rumors PJ was a candidate at Nebraska, but no confirmation he ever interviewed. Osborne said he interviewed 5, but only released the names of 3 candidates. He also said that some of the candidates wanted to bring their entire staff's with them to a new job, but he really preferred that some of the assistants have ties to the old program. We know one of those was Jim Grobe. PJ could have been the other. This would lend some credence to the rumors that PJ's interview did not go well at GT--being that he wanted to bring in his entire staff and not be forced to take on Tenuta.
PJ will be a Mustang....A purple hippo told me so.
Anyway, I hope that gave everyone a laugh, or provided some hope to the utterly deluded!
Go Ponies!