Why would we hire a first-time head coach?
We need an old, proven dude that wants to win NOW, not a young hotshot recruiter who has a long term vision.
If we **** up this next hire we become Pitt. End of story. We might already be there. We need to win quickly, and then if the guy retired for personal reasons after 3 or 4 years at least we will be recruiting his replacement from a position of strength.
Make Pinkel tell you no. He's the most realistic of the "elite" coaches (Saban, Meyer, Patterson, Briles, Dantonio, Harbaugh) I can think of. Then you interview Butch, Petrino, any NFL guys that become available, etc. Let's not overthink this thing.