Yeah, I don't believe much of anything anymore. Bill Haisten at the Tulsa World ran with this, after an article last week that said Steve Alford had accepted an offer in principle prior to the weekend. The source also is from CBS where Doug Gottlieb works and who is annoyingly advocated on his show for the job like he did 7 years ago. If you want to coach Doug, go fucking coach, don't expect a Big 12 job right off the bat just because you played here.
There are also lots of good candidates this cycle. I'm not too worried. Ben McCullom of DII NW Missouri State is a name that keeps coming up. I'm not real thrilled with the risk, but wouldn't hate that hire, and I think he would say yes pretty quick, from what I've seen. Danny Sprinkle, Stee Lutz, and Pat Kelsey are also names being mentioned, and none would be a bad hire.
As far as pecking order, yeah we've stunk for 20 fucking years, the shine tends to dissipate after that much time. WVU is at least a peer program and all else being equal, there are reasons to take that job over other peer jobs, or not, but any suggestion that we're significantly lower is just false. We're on par with pretty much any job outside the bluebloods and mid-tier programs that have had success. The talent pool is pretty deep, it's a good year to make a hire.
If we hire some no name assistant again that wasn't on anyones radar, I'll come back, eat crow, and stew in my own misery for the next several years.