The Sound, and Danger, of Silence

Silence was indeed deafening yesterday. I checked HuskerExtra.com yesterday afternoon approximately 30 times searching for the next rumor or update on Decision 07 only to see the same three blog posts staring back at me for most of the day.

Brian Kelly was supposed to be in the mix but then he said he wasn't. Tom Osborne then, at least in my mind, gave a leg up to co-favorites Gill & Pelini over Grobe in a radio interview delineating two different schools of thought regarding staff. Essentially, nothing happened at all yesterday and that is a very dangerous thing in deed.

Prior to Wednesday I was nearly indifferent to Osborne's ultimate choice for head coach. Each candidate seemed to have his marks on both sides of the ledger and none of the reported names leapt out at me as better or worse than the other.

But then Joe Schad had to go and mention Lane Kiffin's name on ESPN in association with the Arkansas job.

I hadn't really considered Kiffin the Younger because I didn't think leaving Oakland after one year was really a possibility but if he's going to flirt with the Hogs--and he says he hasn't--I'd be severely disappointed if Nebraska didn't at least give him a call to gauge his interest.

If I recall correctly, Kiffin is on record as saying he probably would've taken the Nebraska OC job had Bo Pelini been hired after the 2003 season and, as we all know, his father was a Cornhusker. There you have the ties that Osborne reportedly loves and they're a lot better than the paternal/assistant coaching connection he has with Arkansas. (Growing up as an athletic young boy, where would you put more stock: where you live at age three or where your father played the game?)

The intriguing thing about Kiffin is twofold: a) he's young and Nebraska represents an opportunity to make not just a name but a career, and b) he comes from a history of college football success, a history that, at least tenuously, has a Nebraska connection.

This may be a difficult notion for Cornhusker fans to swallow but I don't think you can overestimate the relevancy that the USC connection has with today's high school football player. Marlon Lucky changed his number coming in to '07 because of Reggie Bush, a player who was just finishing up his college career when Lucky was a senior in high school. I don't really give a damn about recruiting but even I can't deny the value of having a coach who can claim that he's coached Bush, Palmer, Leinart and White. (Not to mention that Orgeron would immediately be a front runner for a defensive coaching job and all the NFL talent he's coached.) That sort of resume resonates with the top talent in the country.

Thus far we've sort of separated the Nebraska job from the the recruiting challenges it inherently presents. Callahan proved that recruiting alone isn't a cure all, but the known candidates thus far all seem a little suspect when it comes to wooing 17-year-old boys. The one rumored name that seems to address both questions is Lane Kiffin.

I didn't think there was a home run hire out there but now that Kiffin's name has "emerged" I'm officially smitten. Smitten with Kiffin.

Other Decision 07 thoughts and rumors...

I'm not big on rumor and I wouldn't be ignorant enough to purport anything with any certainty, but here are rumors I've heard and all I'll say is that they didn't randomly show up in my inbox...

1) Mark Richt has at least been contacted about the job.
2) Will Muschamp is at least on the list.
3) Gary Patterson is further down the list than you might think. (Or maybe not. His name doesn't seem very hot at the moment.)
4) Lane Kiffin might not be so far fetched.
5) Tom Osborne isn't just recruiting players later this week.

What are those worth? About as much as anything else you're probably reading or hearing but after spending all of Wednesday going through rumor withdrawal I thought I'd just fix it on my own.