Florida's top candidate after Chip Kelly rejected them was Scott Frost. Frost refused to interview till after the conference championship game on Saturday. Florida saw that Tennessee was interviewing Dan Mullen, panicked, and hired him immediately in fear that Tennessee would land him first. Then Tennessee panics and inexplicably tries to hire Greg Schiano.
But the crazy thing ... Frost is still out there and we now have a better chance at landing him. And the competition is now weaker with Florida out of the field. Of course, Currie seems dead-set on panicking, but if he'd actually slow down and have some patience, he has a chance to sell a generational talent coach on the University of Tennessee.
The idea that Frost to Nebraska is a done deal is hogwash. Nebraska is the toughest "prestige program" job in the nation. It's a nightmare to recruit there. There's no blue chip talent in Nebraska. There's no blue chip talent in any states neighboring Nebraska. The closest markets for blue chip talent are Chicago (not that great) which is over 500 miles away and Dallas (pretty good) which is over 600 miles away. Nebraska made a huge mistake moving into the Big 10 as it's also made Texas more difficult to recruit for them, so they have to rely on weaker Big 10 recruiting grounds.
Meanwhile, Tennessee is producing more and more blue chip talent every year. We have top 3 facilities in the nation. Knoxville is within 200 miles of one of the top 3 recruiting markets (Atlanta) and is also nearby other great recruiting areas (Virginia, North Carolina) where it has a competitive advantage. Fan support is incredible. The Tennessee job is one of the best in the nation. A great coach at Tennessee can bring in top 5 recruiting classes annually and regularly compete for a national title, whereas Nebraska struggles to bring in top 25 classes even with good coaches (like Bo Pelini.) Even Derek Dooley (a terrible recruiter) got top 25 classes at Tennessee.
Many coaches have said that Scott Frost is more pragmatic than people realize. He'd consider jobs like Florida and Tennessee over Nebraska. I didn't think we had a chance because he'd pick Florida over us (he's already recruiting there), but with Florida out of the picture, suddenly Scott Frost may actually be a more realistic possibility.
I know ... I'm dreaming, because Currie is a Jimmy Haslam puppet who wants to make a panic hire rather than take his time to get the hire right. Currie wants to bring in "his guy" rather than sell a truly great coach on being here. But this would actually be a potentially golden opportunity for a competent AD. Tennessee is now the best job available and Scott Frost is still out there.