The rumor of hiring Johnson might be to help him and SMU

[planoponyfan]

It seems unlikely to most people that Paul Johnson would come to SMU. However, the fact that his name has been floated out there as a leading candidate for the job - without denials from either side - makes me think that there's something to this. What that "something" is remains to be seen.

It could be exactly what we've heard - that he's the guy and SMU is going to get him. In my opinion, that would be fantastic. But keep in mind that Orsini and Johnson apparently have known each other for a long time. They may be trying to help each other without actually doing a deal to have him go to SMU.

There are a lot of coaching vacancies right now and a lot of coaches looking to get hired by someone. No one really knows just how much money Orsini has to throw at a new coach. The rumor is somewhere around 2 million dollars, but that's just a rumor at this point. If folks see that Johnson considered SMU before taking something like the Georgia Tech job, it might up the calibur of candidates willing to talk to SMU.

If other schools think SMU is about to outbid them for Johnson, he might get a better deal elsewhere.

Who knows what the truth really is. If it's Johnson, I wouldn't expect to hear anything until after this weekend.

I can see where the SMU job would be appealing to someone like Johnson. No one at SMU would expect him to stick around here for a decade or so. This would be a tremendous stepping-stone job. Any coach that could turn the SMU program into a winner and a bowl team could probably get hired pretty far up the college football food chain.