What amazes me during high level coaching searches is how the naivete of some becomes clearly evident as does the total ignorance of others (cough*Saban*cough).
The reality is that Mike Perrin is leading this process and exactly none of the people professing to know who Perrin has talked to and everything Perrin has discussed knows anything about Mike Perrin or how he does business.
Some people act as if Perrin is calling prospective coaches on the phone, asking "Would you like to be head baseball coach at Texas?" and waiting for an immediate answer. No high level hire is performed by the employer asking someone if they want the job and shoving a contract in their face to sign. Over at BON they have a writer named Jack Keyes banging out headlines like "Texas baseball coach search facing trouble" and "John Savage will not the be the next baseball coach at Texas." Jack Keyes is an 18 year old college freshman. He knows nothing. He has zero inside information. Yet people see what he writes and immediately they start banging out comments about how Texas can't find a coach, based on they read something on the interweb, and of course nothing can be on the interweb unless it is true (cough*Saban*cough). Even if it comes from a clueless 18 year kid with no sources.
There is no way UT is going to announce a coaching hire until the College World Series kicks off. I seriously doubt there is any interest in announcing a new coach until 30 minutes before the championship game. If you want your program to be in the spotlight when it isn't in the spotlight, you wait until the spotlight is turned on and then you do something that gets the spotlight diverted to your program. This is simple marketing. Anyone interested in college baseball will be watching the CWS championship game. THAT is when you want to make the announcement, when the ardent followers of the sport are paying attention. How can people not understand this?
Someone was mocking UT, commenting how Texas was supposedly not going to retain a search firm, but now that they can't find a coach, the university has been forced to retain a search firm. Bullshit.
Anyone who has done any negotiating or any sales work knows "no" is just an opening negotiating position. Coaches have families and spouses. Coaches need to discuss matters with assistant coaches. Assistant coaches have families and spouses. For any high level hire, there are a lot of moving parts that need to be considered and factored into the discussion. People can be hesitant. People need time to think. People need time to decide. And sometimes people need to negotiate or be convinced by someone like Mike Perrin.
As for the search firm, exactly who inside Bellmont is qualified to vet the background of a candidate as well as the proposed assistants properly? Does anyone think we have people with that skill set just sitting around on the payroll, or do people think that when we get to the point we need to vet candidates, we call in professionals? The search firm that was hired, has anyone seen the engagement memorandum? I didn't think so.
Mike Perrin knows how to negotiate and he knows how to respect confidences. Yes, those on the other side may talk freely, but I don't think Mike is going to be talking much with candidates who run to the press every time they got off the phone with Mike because those are the exact type of candidates who will run to the press, leaking inside information if they were to be hired. Perrin isn't the one leaking information and anyone on the other side of negotiations running to the press isn't the right guy for the UT job. It's that simple. And if Perrin isn't talking and the candidates we truly want aren't talking, where is all this "100% certain" information coming from? Usually from people like 18 year freshman with jobs writing for blogs, but no real sources.
I'm content to laugh at those who think they know everything that is going on, because they read it on the interweb and the interweb can only contain information that is true (cough*Saban*cough). If there is no coaching hire three or four days past the CWS championship game, I will begin to wonder. Until them, just sit back and let the process work itself out. Highly competent people are in charge of this process. There has been nothing to make me think the process is not moving along and that we will have the coach we want by the end of the CWS.
