On Wednesday, a spate of reports stated that the hiring of Washington Redskins assistant Jerry Gray as the new Memphis head coach “was imminent”, “likely” and/or “expected”.
As it turns out, those reports may have been wrong not right.
According to the Memphis Commercial Appeal, the job will instead go to LSU assistant Larry Porter. The former Tigers running back could be officially announced as Tommy West‘s replacement at a press conference tomorrow.
To further buttress the Commercial Appeal‘s story, Gray told ESPN.com‘s Joe Schad that he will not be the next coach at Memphis.
“One day it will be the right situation,” Gray said according to Schad.
Within the last week, Porter and Gray had emerged as the top two choices to replace West. Initially, it was thought that Porter was the leading contender given his recruiting prowess -- he’s twice been names by Rivals.com as the nation’s top recruiter -- and because of his ties to the school as a player.
However, Gray’s ties to FedEx founder and CEO Fred Smith -- his company’s name is on the Redskins’ stadium and he’s also one of the biggest financial boosters of the school -- led many to believe he had the inside track. That now apparently is no longer the case.
So, barring an unexpected twist to the search, common sense will prevail at Memphis and Porter will be named as the new coach at some point in the very near future.