I've been told the new top candidate is Rutgers offensive coordinator John McNulty. I received a phone call Tuesday night from a friend very deeply connected in the coaching circles who told me McNulty has been offered the job at Miami and is now mulling it over. McNulty, 40, previously interviewed for the UM job in 2007, but passed and returned to Rutgers with a pay raise. Last year, he interviewed with Nick Saban at Alabama and returned to Rutgers again.
From what I was told, McNulty passed on the UM job the first go around because of the lack of talent on the offensive side of the football. Now, he likes what he sees -- except for the offensive line. McNulty apparently would like to bring assistant coach Kyle Flood with him. Rutgers gave up the fewest sacks in the nation under Flood in 2007 and 2006. As for McNulty, Rutgers set school records for total offense (5,841 yards), points scored (421) and first downs in his first full season in 2007. The Knights also became the first Bowl Subdivision team to boast a 3,000-yard passer, a 2,000-yard rusher and two 1,000-yard receivers in the same year.
That same reporter had previously said that McNulty had no interest in the job, and was holding out for a HC position.
This is pretty much the last thing we need right now. This could very well be a leak designed to hurt our standing with a couple common targets on the offensive line.
Update: if you read the comments in the linked article, it appears that Miami's Rivals affiliate is reporting that McNulty is NOT a candidate. After all, he does appear happy here, having turned down Miami and Alabama among other teams over the past few years.