Some thoughts.

Saban was out in Miami, needed a job. Urban was out of football, needed a job. Harbaugh was out in San Francisco, needed a job. That's your top 3. None of them left a stable situation or made a "lateral" move. Lots of this is luck and timing. Unfortunately there is no top candidate looking for work right now. It's kinda crazy those 3 were available when those schools were looking to change coaches.

Also occurs to me that it would be incredibly easy for an agent to manipulate the media, message boards and the fan base. Have people drop "inside" info on nuggets that then come to fruition. Once they have credibility established you can script the narrative. I don't know how much that would influence an administration, but if it has any bearing at all it would be child's play to put in motion.

All that said. I'm guessing we are going second tier. At least as most fans see it. That's pretty much par for the course and doesn't mean it's a bad hire. Makes for good message boarding in the meantime.