Bo Pelini's hiring at Nebraska takes one school off the list of Navy HC Paul Johnson's suitors, but there still is another school a once-proud football tradition looking for the current Midshipmen HC to lead them back to success.
SMU has expressed a significant interest in Johnson for their vacancy, created when Phil Bennett was fired after going 1-11 this season.
Although Duke might have fallen on hard times since the end of the 80s, perhaps no school has fallen further from glory than SMU. The Mustangs went from finishing as the Nation's only undefeated team in 1982, led by the "Pony Express" backfield tandem of Eric Dickerson and current TV analyst Craig James, to receiving the NCAA "Death Penalty" when the school's football team was banned from competing in 1987. The school's program has been stuck in neutral ever since, falling to C-USA when the Southwest Conference folded in 1995 and finishing only one season with a winning record since the penalty was imposed.
So in that context, is SMU's job any better than Duke's? Probably not. Although they have a new stadium and are located in the midst of the deepest recruiting region in the country, A move to Dallas would almost certainly be a step back for Johnson. And if, according to the report, SMU is pricing Johnson's services in the $1.2-1.5 mil range, money probably won't make up for the Mustangs' deficiencies, particularly if Duke is reportedly offering $2 mil.
Georgia Tech's opening has also been linked to Johnson, but recent reports seem to mention UCONN HC Randy Edsall as the Jackets' top choice for the job.
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