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Guys, I've been working the phones again this morning to see if anything has changed and to see what's going on with some candidates.
First off, I got some good insight from a very good source in the VT athletic department about looking at candidates with buyouts. I'm told that with buyouts you have to basically double the money to offset taxes and "make them whole". For example, the buyout for Tom Herman at Houston is listed as $2.5 million. But taking this into account, it would be almost $5 million. For Justin Fuente at Memphis, his buyout is listed as $500,000, which would make his roughly $1 million. That's a big difference and is certainly something that won't decide VT's next coach, but will be taken into consideration.
I checked back with Gabe DeArmond at PowerMizzou.com (Rivals' Missouri site), who as I've mentioned before, has some very good source connections with Memphis. He's still being told that Fuente is a very good bet for the Hokies, or at least in very, very good position. DeArmond's sources have told him that Fuente is not interested in the South Carolina job, but is highly interested in the Hokies. His source has told him he would be "surprised if he's not number one on the list."
I also checked in with our SMU site, TheHillTopics.com and publisher Adam Grosbard about Chad Morris. His sources say that Morris has already turned down any interest in the South Carolina job and that he's heard no interest with Morris and VT. Grosbard said that all he's heard is that Morris is planted firmly in Texas now. He's a Texas native and has his eye on possibly the Longhorns' job if Charlie Strong continues to struggle there.
Yes, SMU has done terrible this season, but Grosbard said the Longhorns still think highly of him, at least donors do, because they realize Morris has had next to nothing to work with at SMU. Grosbard even called it "a shitshow" there. Another key factor is that because SMU is a private school, the salaries of their coaches are not available for public record. Grosbard said he knows Morris makes at least $3 million, but probably closer to $4 million. As a result, his buyout is very high, which also will take him out of the running for most jobs. Keep an eye on him, but basically, the odds are very slim he's leaving, for VT or anywhere else.
Lastly, I've gotten confirmation from my VT athletics department source that VT believes Mark Richt will be fired at Georgia. That said, they're closely monitoring that situation and when or if he becomes available, he'll be a very high potential candidate. So definitely watch how that situation plays out.
