Don't say I didn't warn you, because I did. Kind of. I have no idea if this is just a smokescreen or if Tom Dienhart, Rivals' lead college football writer, is really tuned in, but he's saying that Mike Leach to Maryland isn't a 100% sure thing. In fact, if anything, the train is slowing down.
I am hearing that Mike Leach's candidacy at Maryland is "losing juice."
Tom Dienhart
TomDienhart
Oh boy.
First off, this is a CRAZY TWITTER RUMOR the same as the Sean Salisbury thing (which I still haven't heard anyone deny yet, if you were wondering). It might be true. It might not. That's the point of Twitter. In fact, part of me thinks this is a source inside Maryland's program feeding Dienhart misleading information to make the search seem more interesting. Don't know why they'd do it, but the Maryland Athletic Department hasn't been a paragon of common sense in the past.
Now, if it is true, I imagine there's going to be a collective freakout in Terrapin Nation. I've been saying from Day One that the Friedgen firing was a coup to get Leach. That may or may not be true, but just about everyone has taken that approach at this point, reader of the blog or not. The rampant reports that Leach was "the guy" really didn't help things.
I can't imagine that they'd let go of Friedgen to hire a no-name, because that would simply be too damaging to the program, so I wouldn't panic too much yet. (Even if it isn't Leach, it'll probably Whittingham or Billick or Malzahn, and they're all fine candidates). But I've had a sinking feeling surrounding this since yesterday; there's just so much baggage that has the potential to get in the way. Plus, one would've thought it would've been done by now if it was as cut-and-dry as everyone made it out to seem.
For now, hold onto the Leach dream. One guy tweeting something isn't transforming what I think about the landscape of the search, and it shouldn't change that for you, either. But you'd be stupid to not consider the potential that Maryland ends up going a different direction.