I believed that AV was speaking with people in the know. I believe that he loves his university and that people told him we were putting all our chips on the table for the "big fish" (all but confirmed that it was Franklin, right?). I think that he loves UT so much that he didn't think there was any way that the big fish would turn us down with so much on the table. I bet we were pretty close, closer than we'll ever know. Or he's an optimist and was filling in a lot of unknowns with narratives that drove conversation and built his value among the fans. He wasn't on here every 5 minutes trying to get likes. He wasn't teasing or dangling a carrot for traffic to his site or podcast or Youtube channel, or Twitter account.
I think that we were close, and he was excited, he came here to celebrate with fans because it was all but done. And then pen never met paper and people treated him like he was a liar, and that was that.