Even as he’s made his mark as an outstanding NFL beat writer and insider, ESPN’s Adam Schefter has placed himself square in the middle of the college football world over the past 24 hours.
And, let’s just say that there’s a certain college head coach in the nation’s heartland who really wishes he’d get back to -- and stick with -- that NFL beat.
Various on-air reports from Schefter during the past day or so had Notre Dame and Bob Stoops sharing a mutual interest; a Stoops representative(s) meeting with a search firm hired by the Irish; a source claiming that an agreement was all but a formality; and, finally, talks between the two sides breaking down to the point that Stoops would not be the Irish head coach after all.
It seems as if that last tidbit was the final straw for Stoops, who spoke to Tulsa World while on a recruiting trip to San Diego and made it perfectly clear that he had a major issue with Schefter’s spate of reports.
Stoops started off by saying that he didn’t “know where (Schefter) is getting his information, but it’s wrong. It’s all been wrong”, then declared, in no uncertain terms, that Schefter was looking to cover his own ass for what Stoops perceives to be erroneous reports Monday night.
“He’s trying to cover his (Monday night) mistake,” Stoops said of the report that discussions had broken down. “There were never any talks that broke down, because there were never ever any negotiations or details or plans for a meeting.”
Stoops added that he and his agent, Neil Cornrich, “have never never talked about any meetings with anybody.”
OK, so now does that end all of the Stoops-to-South Bend talk?
We’d like to think so, but it seems highly doubtful.