Actually the timing of this makes perfect sense if you think about it. Clearly Butch is not the top choice, but he's in the mix. They are looking at him as a fall back option. That means you keep him in the process and vet him properly, but you try to slow play him a bit while you wait to see if any of your top choices are interested and/or available. Im sure they have been keeping tabs/ sniffing around guys like Chip Kelly and Pagano, which may not be possibilities yet or at all. The longer they can wait to see if one of those guys becomes possible, while keeping Butch on the hook, its actually the best play for UM.
All this means is that Butch is on the "Maybe" list, but he's not the main candidate. But he's being looked at as a real possibility if the wish list guys don't pan out.
My take is different. They understand that Butch is the right choice at this moment and thanks to the mess they created, the only choice with any chance of saving the program. They also remember him basically standing on his desk ****ing on everyone when he quit. Plus, the uprising among the faithful has been load and violent. The pressure to hire him to quiet the natives is huge but these are people who are all about power. They do not like the fact that they were forced to fire Golden and do not want to appear bending to pressure again.
Solution: Find someone big enough to shut us up -- like Chip. If no big name take the job then they can fool themselves into believing they hire Butch because he as best available(which is true) an not because we MADE them do it.
Good things happen when people don't care who gets the credit. Yes, the fans are driving for Butch, but the BOT/Flake can take all the credit for hiring him. We simply don't care, we just want Butch now.
If the BOT/Flake ****s up this hire with some lame Traitor/Monkey BS, the banners will likely be flying at the bowl game, and every game, and THEY know it.
