Boom goes the search

So I hit the hay early and get up late for the first time since the search started, and of course all hell breaks loose.

Wait, that didn't convey it properly: ALL HELL

Let's hit the highlights, quickly:

1. As you know, Fox10 reported that Will Muschamp will be announced as Auburn's head coach sometime today. As you probably also know, the paywall sections of the Interwebs later exploded with disputations of that report, including quotes from Muschamp himself to that effect.

JCCW reax: I'm detecting the same strong, strong aroma of FAIL from this report we got from that Arkansas TV report last year that said Tubby had bolted. My guess is that Auburn reached out to Boom-Boom one more time to gauge his interest, Muschamp responded in some fashion or another, and the telephone game winds up with "Will be announced Friday." Either that, or Sexton is taking his cat-and-mouse games with the media even further than usual.

2. WSFA reports that Steve Spurrier is, essentially, at the top of Auburn's list and could be the Tigers' next coach, though wording their report carefully so as to offer nothing definitive. Spurrier later issued a statement that there's "nothing to that" in a tone which one could fairly describe as "mockery."

JCCW reax: There's too much smoke here for me to assume Spurrier hasn't at least chatted with Fail Jacobs and the Powers that Be--so it's not coming, as he claims, "out of nowhere"--but this still seems like an fairly strong denial to yours truly for someone who was truly interested in the job. A job, of course, it never made sense for him to be interested in in the first place.

3. This is the real news of the day: Jacobs and a few members of the inner circle took a plane trip to Fort Worth to not just speak to Gary Patterson, but do it in person. Jay G. Tate was waiting on the tarmac when they returned and was denied comment. This: is big.

JCCW reax: Given that there hasn't seemed to be any real forward movement on Gill for the last several days, Gary Patterson is your new front-runner, ladies and gents. As such he'll be getting the full Coachapalooza treatment later in the day, but until then, the gut reaction: meh.

HOT RUMOR

Will's hearing that Gill could be announced as the man as soon as today. WOO HOT RUMOR FUN!

For the record you can color me skeptical, since the logistics of getting Gill and Jacobs to Auburn from New York in this small an amount of time without any one in the media stakeout catching wind of it is "daunting," to say the very least, and probably more accurately described as "well-nigh impossible." And I can't imagine Auburn would be so bold as to introduce their new coach anywhere but on the Plains. So: skeptical.

But HOT RUMORS are fun regardless and if Will thinks it's worth passing on, it's worth me passing on, too. Enjoy your rumor.

Sounds of silence

Hello offseason darkness my old friend ... we've come to talk with you again ...

Sounds of Silence. So not only have the meetings between Tubby and the Jays we mostly assumed to be formality produced no meaningful resolution so far, Jacobs isn't expecting them to before the end of the week.

And cue the annual offseason increase in Auburn fans' prescription anti-heartburn medication dosage ... now! I'm not even sure Jacobs said things were going "well" as Woodberry claims in the story above: a transcript from Tate and a couple of other places suggests Jacobs didn't even go that far.

So ... yeah, things are still kinda up in the air and will be for the next couple of days, it seems. But I dunno, I can't bring my teeth to gnash over it just yet, despite the many smart people who suggest I should. For two reasons, I would say:

1. We just don't know what's happening between the Jays and Tuberville. It may be them making demands of Tuberville he's balking at accepting. It may be demands from Tuberville they're balking at accepting. These are proud, intelligent men who have come to some sort of sticking point, and forgive me if I'm not surprised it takes more than a few hours of chatter for men like these to come to a compromise.

The point: there's not enough evidence out there at this stage to assume the Auburn admin is one-sidedly determining Tubby's fate and letting him twist in the wind in the meantime. There'll still be time for outrage later, so I'm waiting 'til we have a clearer picture of the facts.

2. Let's say it takes until next, say, Monday or Tuesday to get things ironed out. Is there really any lasting fall-out? Uh-oh, we know that Tubby doesn't have the unconditional support of the Auburn admin and that 2009 is a make-or-break year. Somehow, I think most people have come to that conclusion already. The delay might have hurt the efforts to keep the class of 2009 intact if it came after a bowl game, but this is till the first week of December: whatever damage is done on that front Tubby should have time to repair.

So I guess I'm alone in this, but I'd much rather Tubby and the administration take their time and come to a reasoned, clear understanding of each other rather than rush into a decision either way. When you've endured a Season of DEATH, nothing's going to come easy, this included.

I'm with Auburntron: while we're waiting, we should probably just be discussing space beer.

FWIW. The HOT RUMOR in my inbox which is a RUMOR and not fact but rather RUMOR is that Tubby is being asked by the Board to return ... but under various harsh conditions, such as the current staff getting pitched overboard with the pursestrings simultaneously tightened to the point that replacing them adequately would be a hellacious task. Or that Tubby makes Atlanta in 2009 or he gets an automatic canning. The result? Mexican standoff. Remember: this is RUMOR.