Bryan Driskell mentioned he thought he might be interested, but it'd be a longshot without a bump in title and pay to go with it, and he never confirmed that there was any actual contact.

Ruel was thrown out as a possibility by Pete Sampson, though, as though there were something actually to it. Though Pete's been on the Heistand bandwagon, from what I can tell, which means he probably has a source that says he'll be the guy and is just trying to be upbeat/curry favor/whatever just like the II team as a whole did when Kelly's name started to surface.

point sounds about right.

will be interesting to see who gets the job.

I seem to remember Wickline may have interviewed originally. Or, is it wishful thinking, so that the ND fan-base has a foundation to use as a pissing point if we hire someone else.

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Long history of being considered a shitty recruiter.

No thanks. I'd honestly prefer yet another young DII/MAC guy. I'd, of course, much prefer we actually got serious with the two elite coaches who have been mentioned.

Per UT beat writer Jimmy Hyams (don't have a link -sorry).

Not sure how I'd feel about it - a bit mixed, as UT's OL generally underperformed in 2011. Little to no running game this year (116 out of 120 in rushing yards per game), despite a large number of returning starters. Pass protection was good, not great (middle of the road in terms of sacks allowed). It's still a young group, but I expected a bit better.

Bio: http://www.utsports.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/hiestand_harry00.html