Speculation surrounding Vanderbilt’s successor to Robbie Caldwell has literally been all over the map over the past couple of weeks.
Temple’s Al Golden reportedly pulled his name from the mix early on in the process. This week reports have emerged that Maryland’s James Franklin and Stanford’s Greg Roman are the two finalists for the job. Subsequent to that, it was reported that Vandy would hold off pulling the trigger on a hire until they could speak with Navy’s Ken Niumatalolo after the game with Army Saturday.
Now comes the biggest bombshell, financially, of Vandy’s search.
According to The Tennessean, Auburn offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn is “thought to have received” an offer in the neighborhood of $3 million annually to take over the reins of the Commodores. Not only would that number more than double what his predecessor was pulling in, it would also put him inside the top ten of the highest paid coaches in college football -- in his first collegiate job at the collegiate level.
If Malzahn continues to shun overtures -- he was in Nashville Wednesday according to the paper -- the front-runner appears to be Franklin. Until tomorrow when a new report surfaces, of course.