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Rumor mill accelerates to blitz
mode
Bonesville.net Staff
Report
©2004 Bonesville.net
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Holland
Press Conference |
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Listen to
the replay of Terry Holland's Tuesday Press Conference,
in which he discussed East Carolina's search for a
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Conflicting signals are
coming from various directions as rumors and counter-rumors add fuel to the speculation about which contender,
if any, is in the driver's seat to become East Carolina's next football
coach.
The originators of the
purported scenarios, at least the ones cited by Bonesville.net, are
credible figures with unusual degrees of access to one or more of the
main actors involved in the ever-evolving drama.
One thing's for certain:
All of them can't be right.
According to multiple
sources, former South Carolina assistant coach and UConn head coach Skip
Holtz had a positive visit in Greenville this week. One source indicated
Holtz's visit included an informal meeting with at least some ECU
players, a meeting which Bonesville.net has been unable to confirm.
Meanwhile, a Wednesday
report in The Post and Courier of Charleston, SC, that
former Clemson and Arkansas head coach Danny Ford has been offered the
East Carolina coaching job may have credence — if a contention by a
one-time Ford employee turns out to be substantiated.
To bring the confusion
full circle, other usually informed sources insist that Ford has not
been offered the job. These sources contend that Holtz may indeed be the
frontrunner for the position.
Baloney, say others who
are a part of or tuned into the inner workings in the Ward Building, the
facility that houses the staff of ECU's athletics department.
Neither Ford nor Holtz,
nor any other candidate, has been extended an offer, insists a prominent
ECU booster who has been close to the search process.
Competing claims
and speculation continue to churn out from various interests with close
ties to ECU or to one contender for the position or another.
A former Ford assistant at
Clemson says that ECU athletics director Terry Holland has
offered the job to Ford, a source has told Bonesville.net, adding that Ford is interested
and is taking a couple of days to ponder the opportunity.
A separate source
indicates that Ford has decided to accept the offer. Still another
source says that, yes, Ford was offered the job, considered it and
turned it down.
Bonesville.net
reported on Monday that Ford had
apparently contacted former ECU coach Ed Emory, now head coach at
Richmond County High, to relay his interest in the Pirates job.
Ford, 56, spent 11 years
as the head coach at Clemson, a period that included the 1981 national
title and five Atlantic Coast Conference crowns.
The latest reports along
with claims by sources connected to both the Holtz and Ford camps cast a new dimension on speculation surrounding East Carolina's
search for a successor to recently fired football coach John Thompson.
Outgoing Florida Gators
coach Ron Zook — reported by the Chicago Sun-Times to have met Tuesday
with Illinois athletic director Ron Guenther about that school's
coaching position — and William & Mary coach Jimmye Laycock also were
believed to be in the running.
Yet another source said that ECU
has
initiated a dialogue with former Notre Dame coach Tyrone Willingham, an
Eastern North Carolina native. Willingham was fired by the Irish on
Tuesday.
02/23/07 11:30 AM
Compiled from Bonesville.net
staff reports. Al Myatt, Denny O'Brien, Henry Hinton, Brian Bailey and Danny
Whitford contributed to this story. A story from The (Charleston, SC) Post and Courier was used
as a reference in writing portions of this article.
©2004 Bonesville.net and other publishers. All
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