I was pummeled last week for pasting in a section of an email sent to me by a friend who formerly worked for Bob Lamonte. The gist of the message was this: Bob's rough on everyone, Bob makes everyone cross a hurdle of a Minimum Requirements Doc before a deal coming to Gruden.Finally my friend made the observation that Bob has elevated Gruden to the point that it may be bad for Gruden.
Then my friend said that as of the end Wednesday, no one had gone beyond the Minimum Requirements doc. (including UT). That pissed everyone off, and I was called a troll. So be it.
This morning I talked to my friend again. He is an Michigan alum and flew back from the OSU game through Memphis with a friend (who works at a sports agency as well) before returning to Dallas. They talked UT and the coaching search on the flight. Then this morning he also tried to talk to friends in his old office (LaMonte's) to cover things brought up in the conversation. Here is his take (I crossed out a specific name as I don't know if it would be ok to use it here):
"Conversation to Doc flow goes like this: AD or proxy gauges interest from candidates through surrogates or agents. If interest is established, a date is given by AD for potential offer letter. Coaches either use offer letter as a chit to get more from their current job, or move to negotiation. If negotiation is successful an MOU is signed. Contracts come much later. After a hire.
The key point is gauging interest can involve as many candidates as the AD wants, but only one offer can be sent at a time. That is sacred. There are never two offers out at a time.
That said, here's what I got out of the flight, and talking to Coatcheck this A.M.- There is no action on Sexton clients (Fisher) as he has an ACC championship. Hart would not call Fisher without permission from the FSU AD, and that would go on after the ACC game. Similarly with Cornrich. No action there according to *****, and Stoops has another game too. My buddy thinks there is an announcement this week. That leaves Golden and Gruden unless Hart is going to pick a dog, or call in Smart. So- here is the best part if you are a UT fan- Lamonte is in at 5am today, and no one is taking my call. I can't say that means a deal is happening with Jon, but I can say Bob only comes in this early for action, and Bob locks down any talky on deal days. I couldn't even get **** on IM or cell. I would still call it highly unlikely, but interesting. Here is the contradicting info: My buddy and ***** think Senior presented a breach of terms letter to UM to free Golden from the buyout. UM screwed Golden by not telling him any of the NCAA stuff, and that may free Golden in his escape clause which includes an unethical behavior clause. I've been hearing this for two weeks, but it sounded very real from what I heard on the flight. If they are active, they must have a job for Al. ***** says UT announcement by Wed of this week. That would tell me Jon is the long odds horse, and Golden is the likely candidate. While some of your fans may piss and moan about Golden, he is seen among coaches as one of the best recruiters and developers of talent in the business. You cannot judge him from UM. It is a **** show down there right now. The only curveball I have is, that Strong and Butch Jones have been trying to get any upgrade they can. BJ looks like he'll walk into Hell at KY. So where does Strong go? I would hope not UT. He is overrated. Thats all I've got. I'll let you know if I get a call back. I think you guys look good on this as long as it isn't Strong."
