Houston Chronicle Dec. 6, 2008, 1:14AM Texas Tech officials took the first step toward keeping football coach Mike Leach with a formal five-year, $12.1 million contract offer, school chancellor Kent Hance said ... Leach also is considered a possible candidate to replace Tommy Tuberville at Auburn. ... Hance said it wasn’t financially feasible to pay Leach in the $3 million-per-year range. “We just can’t afford that,” Hance said. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/6150433.html You know who can afford to pay Leach in the $3 million/year range? Tuberville's annual salary averaged $3.3 million. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3744885
The offer TTU offered Leach has smaller $ amounts than year 1 and 2 when he gets longevity bonuses from his current contract. Stay and we will pay you less..... But no, he will not be at AU
Champ and Jimbo are the common names. Jimbo has a 5 million buyout, and trails in the popular vote. Lot of folk on the Turner Gill bandwagon, a little rooting for Charlie Strong. Champ and Strong could mean a long wait depending on bowl games (OU might lose their game tonight, yeah, sure) Names I would like to see include Art Briles or Troy Calhoun. This is as tight lipped as anything I have seen. My bet is on Muschamp as the D coaches are back out recruiting. If they hire Muschamp maybe JJ (the AD) will have to leave. Jacobs and Muschamp had a major confrontation just before Will left for Texas. Don't think there is love between them. That alone would be reason to hire Muschamp. Maybe we could bring David Marsh back as AD. That would be a good world.
Auburn granted permission to speak with Turner Gill by Evan Woodbery, Press-Register Saturday December 06, 2008, 5:13 PM Auburn has asked for and received permission to speak with Buffalo coach Turner Gill, the Buffalo News reported Saturday. Gill and the Bulls won the Mid-American Conference championship by beating undefeated Ball State on Friday.
Good for Turner Gill. He's done wonders with a football program that previously didn't exist (figuratively speaking).
Dec 9 -- Auburn...has reported interest in several big names around the country, including Texas Tech’s Mike Leach http://www.macon.com/149/story/551904.html Dec 6 -- Leach’s name emerged as a top candidate at Auburn immediately ... According to the New York Times, a representative from Bill Carr’s CARR Associates, Inc., search firm contacted Leach to gauge his interest in Auburn on Wednesday. http://www.oanow.com/oan/sports/col...ching_search_nutt_leach_out_of_running/49867/ Dec 5 - Leach’s attention will likely turn to Auburn, where he is considered one of the top candidates... Auburn’s search firm has reached out to Leach, who would be a fascinating foil to Nick Saban in the state of Alabama. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/05/sports/ncaafootball/05college.html Dec 4 -- Mike Leach is in talks with Auburn about its head- coaching vacancy, a person close to Leach said Thursday. ... Leach pulled his name out of the running for the Washington job early Thursday because of heavy interest from Auburn. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/college/6148302.html Dec 3 -- A source with knowledge of Auburn’s thinking said the university had already reached out to Texas Tech Coach Mike Leach through the search firm of Bill Carr, who runs many high-profile coaching searches. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/sports/football/04colleges.html?ref=ncaafootball But see: Dec 6 -- The Opelika-Auburn News learned Friday that Auburn would not, and had no plans to pursue Leach. http://www.oanow.com/oan/sports/col...ching_search_nutt_leach_out_of_running/49867/
Auburn needs to throw all the money they can at Leach. Keep the DC they have and they will turn it around NEXT season. I would favor them the team to beat in the West. Seriously.
