Now that New Year’s Day and the two national semifinals are in the books -- and while our shiny new Coach continues to amass great assistant coaching wealth -- I find myself reflecting on The Search: 2014. Or maybe I'm just going through SEARCHBITS withdrawal (the first step to recovery is admission).
Obviously, Hackett got his #2 man.* But I find myself wondering if the real (not speculated) Plan B candidates will ever be named (by Hackett, the search firm, another source/leak, or through FOIA action), along with which ones were actually interested/obtainable. In 2007, Miles was interested, Martin was sailing, Schiano turned us down, and the rest is history. In 2011, there was only one plan, and Brandon executed it. In 2014, there was a lot of speculation and hand-wringing on this blog about Plans B (Mullen?) through F (Addazio et al.), along with a fair amount of debate (Stoops > Mullen > Miles? Which one might actually come?). It was exciting and terrifying at the same time.
I, for one, wish I could get an insider retrospective into The Search: 2014. I want to see Hackett's hand. I want to know how on- (or off-) target the MGoBlog community was in its beliefs about Plan B candidates. During an entire month of rampant speculation, only one backup name was leaked (which probably means the search firm did a good job and earned its fee), and no one believes that was anything more than a cold call to gauge an unlikely candidate's interest.
Any chance we’ll ever hear about the actual (not speculated) candidates that were in waiting had Captain Comeback not come home? The answer can't be "no, because there were none."
(I'm sure at least one poster will say "Why does this matter? We got our man. Move on." And that's fine. Nevertheless, I'm curious about the unfortunate, alternate scenario that Hackett puts all our eggs in one basket, waits a month for our man, and he chooses another NFL team. Because his heart was always in the NFL.)
(*If you believe Gil Brandt.)
