Tea Leaves

During the basketball search this blog tracked the posts of a particular WVU insider on their free Scout message board like a hawk. His name is "EERHole" and he apparently earned his stripes during last year's WVU panic, during which he reassured the West F-ing Virginia masses that beloved RichRod was going nowhere. He was right.

During the Beilein search he was damn near oracular, first sounding a call of concern, then reiterating that things did not look good, and finally breaking the 100% certified he-gone news.

We have the great fortune in this situation to be pursuing a coach from the same institution our basketball coach came from and thus have a well-formed idea of this guy's credibility. So wander over to the Scout message boards and see...

The word "meeting" would be an understatement of what is transpiring.

That's couched in standard Oracle of Delphi insider goo, but it's pretty negative. Also negative:

I am done with him. I started the season justifying last year's act as good for the overall welfare of the program. Then, his ego prevented us from going to the national championship game. As much as I wanted to bash him after USF and Pitt, I did not. Now, he should be thrown under the bus. It was his refusal to make adjustments that cost us the game - PERIOD. Yeah, our offensive line isn't as good, but a great coach would have done some things to help them out. And, for him to go tell recruits that our WRs couldn't get off of the line -- that is dissing his current players. Talk about loyalty. When RR first came to WVa, he would berate his assistant coaches after every loss as if it were all their fault. He personally has cost Slaton millions of dollars by his refusal to put him in a position to succeed. Rather, Slaton's plays were known runnnig plays. Don't give me the Pat White has to make a read bs either. Where was Schmitt during the last few games?

You probably won't hear too much from me about whatever transpires. I am a loyalist, apparently RR is not. There have always been rumblings that RR has thought he was better than WVa. I guess it is true. If for some reason he does not go, I don't want to hear any reason why he stayed. Home should be good enough and if he doesn't want to be here I say welcome to the new coach.

He's mad. No offense to EERHole, but a mad EERHole is a good EERHole from this perspective. Obviously not 100% -- sounds like this guy has heard about the seriousness of the talks and is put off by a second straight year of flirtation. However, it's a definite indicator this may get done.

If you care, the negativity from WVU, the buzz from a couple Michigan guys, and a kinda-insider email or two (nothing solid) has made me reconsider my earlier "no effin' way" stance. This now seems a real possibility.

Update: A previously reliable source, but just one, says this is very close to being done. FWIW. Given the way this has gone I'll believe it after the press conference.