It's difficult, if not impossible, to connect all the dots at this point...but taking into account the posts of SF; the other credible posters here; and the (very few) credible media folks, it appears that our #1 choice may have said "no". This is admittedly an assumption.
Mind you, this search is unlike any search we've conducted before, so no assumptions based on previous searches can be safely made here. It may be that the real #1 is still in play. But if...if...DW's first choice has turned us down, then where does UT turn now?
Oh...we're less than a week into the "Search of the Century", so let's try to keep things in perspective here, huh? The next HFC at UT is going to have some tricky ground to navigate, including potential NCAA sanctions that have yet to be determined or announced. And then, of course, there's UGA, UF, and Bama to deal with on an annual basis. Translation: the next UT head football coach is going to have to really want to be here. The money, large though it may be, ain't worth ruining your career over.
So Howsabout we relax...take a deep breath...relax...and let the chips fall where they may. We have an AD unlike anything we've had since Dickey. He has a record of hiring winners. So let's give him the chance to get the best coach he can. We know he can't get Saban, or Dabo, or Day. And it may turn out that his first, second, or even third choice looks at the current state of UT Football and says "No, thank you." It is what it is. But when it all plays out, I do think that AD White will lay it all on the line, and bring home the very best coach he could find, and land.
At this point, that's all we can ask. AD White didn't put UT Football in the shitter. We hired him to get it out of the crapper, and back to relevance in the SEC. And eventually, on the national level. His track record says he can do it. We have to believe that he will.
There's more than one football coach out there who can bring the Vols back. He only has to find one of them. I think he will. It might not be the obvious, most popular, sexiest, coolest, or most prominent choice...but he will bring a winner to Knoxville. Soon enough to make the '21 season salvageable.
If you're a VFL, then you line up behind the man who is spending every waking moment trying to bring home a winner for UT. And you.
Go Vols.