I'd say that UM is doing a nation-wide search. They're probably putting out feelers to top coaches, looking at up and coming coaches, and doing their evaluations just as any due diligence would require.
Chip, Fuentes, Herman, on and on and on. Look at their resume, look at their coaching record, look at their body of work. And then ask if they're interested - a lot of this won't be made public, as it's almost embarrassing to be publicly turned down by scores of coaches that are just being "considered."
So. What's the standard to measure against?
I'd suggest it's Butch Davis.
Lesser performers, no real body of work, etc., no comparable environment experience, no true consistency, when compared to The Standard, are eliminated very quickly.
So when DiMare holds out Butch Davis - it's like "show me someone with an equivalent or better body of work who is interested, and then let's figure this out."
Smart men always have an ace in the hole.
"This is my standard, this is my man. If you can find someone better in ALL categories, bring him in, but we're not relying on having fish tonight if we don't catch anything - I've got steak in the freezer."
