Utah State assistant coach Mike Canalas hasn't been formally offered a job to accept by Butch Jones according to those close to Canalas. However, it's only a matter of time. Canalas, as we noted last week in the war room, has been the favorite for the job. He has had two interviews or meetings with the Jones and Vol offensive staff including a visit on Monday. We are told that second visit went well and Canalas left confident about his chances. We think Kevin O'Connell has been the other guy that's garnered the heaviest consideration but O'Connell's personal desire is to be in the NFL, even though right now he doesn't have any offers to be in the league as we understand it.
One interesting note on the timing of Canalas is that if he is hired and starts immediately then Vol quality control coach Walt Wells would have to come off the recruiting road unless there is another change on staff. The only way Wells can be on the road is if Jones doesn't have a complete full time staff. Now, it seems that they could hire Canalas and get around that rule by not having Canalas officially start until a later date.