Bobby Johnson Withdraws Name

According to this statement on the Vanderbilt athletics web site, Commodores HC Bobby Johnson has withdrawn his name in Duke's search to fill its head coaching vacancy.

The statement says that Johnson decided to withdraw his name Tuesday afternoon and informed Duke officials of his intention shortly thereafter.

The decision is probably the result of a realization on Johnson's part that a move to Duke would be pretty lateral, and that he'd be leaving behind all that he's started and built at Vanderbilt just to jump to Duke. It's also conceivable that Duke's interest cooled on Johnson and he wanted to go ahead and end speculation about his future (see more on this theory in the comments).

Regardless, the search goes on. Perhaps a Neuheisel interview is next?

More on Neuheisel

Columnist Frank Dascenzo has an interesting read on Rick Neuheisel in today's Herald-Sun, and he quotes the coach as saying that he's interested in the Duke job.

Also, this article from the NC State scout.com site has some informative background info on Neuheisel's infraction history, including more about the ineligible player that led to the forfeiture of 5 wins in the 1997 season at Colorado.

Search Committee Members Revealed

David Glenn must have one hell of a source. In his most recent WRAL blog post, he reported the six members of Duke's search committee—names that Duke AD Joe Alleva has repeatedly refused to divulge. The six are:

1) Univ. Trustee Roy Bostock

2) Athletics council chairman and Pol. Sci. Professor Michael Gillespie

3) Athletic Advisory Board Chair Leo Hart

4) Univ. Trustee C.G. Newsome

5) Psychology Professor Martha Putallaz

6) Univ. Exec. VP Tallman Trask

As the Chronicle reported last week, Trask accompanied Alleva and President Richard Brodhead to the Washington area to visit with Navy HC Paul Johnson, so his presence as a member of the search committee makes sense. Bostock, Hart and Newsome are all former football players, and Newsome is the lone African-American in the group.

Glenn's report also cites sources saying that there is significant internal argument about whether Rick Neuheisel should be included as a candidate, based in large part on his checkered compliance record.

Neuheisel a Possibility?

One name that came up in Georgia Tech's search was that of former Washington and Colorado HC Rick Neuheisel, and our friends over at The Blue Zone are suggesting that he might be a good fit for Duke, and that the University has contacted him on an informal basis already.

I don't know quite what to think about Neuheisel...he's a proven winner at the college level and a current NFL OC with the Baltimore Ravens (although under Brian Billick, I'm not sure he gets the opportunity to make too many decisions). Still, he's got plenty of red flags in terms of past NCAA rules violations, including his decision to participate in an NCAA Tournament betting pool that in part led to his 2003 dismissal from UW. Whether that particular infraction merited his firing is debatable, but the history could scare away Duke.

But in sum, the guy is a proven name who has a Pac-10 title to his name and an overall 61-35 record (which improves to 66-30 if you count the 5 wins his 1997 CU team won before being forced to forfeit all of their games due to an ineligible player). He has to merit significant consideration, and he might be the best available candidate if he is truly interested.