In pursuit of Urban

Ever since Notre Dame announced that Coach Willingham was gone, its been chaos. You would expect it to be nuts in South Bend, but its equally crazy in Salt Lake City. Every university with a job opening seems to be in hot pursuit of Urban Meyer. Rumors are abound. Here is the latest...I share this, knowing full ware that it will be obsolete within in 24 hours.

For the latest in South Bend, you need to check out The Backer's Blog: www.thebacker.blogspot.com

The latest from Urban Meyer is based upon a very honest interview he just had with a local radio station (4:20 pm MST). He didn't dodge a question, and I think was pretty straight with where things are.

• He confirmed for the first time that he has been contacted about coaching openings. By many schools in fact. So, surely its Notre Dame, Washington, Florida, Illinois, and perhaps several of the other 15 or schools with head coach openings.
• When asked if he has had discussions with anyone, he replied that it was "common knowledge" and expected those discussions to continue. Uh-oh. How detailed could it be? How hard? "Urban, this is Mr. Golden Domer, we want you to come home son. We want to pay you about $2.0 Million per year for 5 years if you would be so kind as to just come home" People here love Urban. People here would miss him. People here respect his career goal and may even help the guy pack.
• He is still focused on preparing the Utes. So much that the team is being put through very rigorous conditioning drills. I'm sure its normal, but they are responding so well that he was gushing with pride. He was clear in his opinion that the Utes are one of the top teams in the country.
• Talk about prep. Their bowl opponent isn't finalized, nor is the location, but Urban already has the Utes breaking down Pittsburgh. In fact, yesterday they had the scout team running Pittsburgh stuff already. Impressive. The Panthers are going to be the next team to get runover by this Utah train. When they lose by 14 or more, Utah will become only the 2nd team in NCAA history to beat every opponent during the entire season by 14 or more points. Nebraska in the 80s was the other.
• Urban stated he was "No Question" planning on being in Tempe. Said he loves Utah, loves this team, and there are some unique things at play here. I interpret that to mean, I am really really going to miss this great place, when I go fulfill my dream.
• I loved a comment he made about the difference between being an assistant and being a coach. An assistant makes suggestions, a head coach makes decisions.
• Lastly, I felt he was campaigning a little for Kyle Whittingham, the current defensive coordinator. It wasn't blatant but he got his point across.

We'll keep watching this situation. The next big thing (barring coaching annoucement), will be the BCS final bowl pairings show on Sunday. It will be a great day for the Utah program. Go Utes.