Chris Petersen seems to be the guy that Florida Gator fans want.
How do I know that? Well, to answer that question I'll have to give a shoutout to one of the better college football fan forums in the country, Gator Country. There's a few threads up at this moment talking about the Boise State head coach as the number on guy on Florida's radar.
The reason I like this forum as much as I do is because there aren't fans throwing wild rumors and speculation out about who the next coach is going to be. However, they do make it clear how much they would love to have Petersen as their next head coach.
I don't blame them one bit.
Since I posted the rumor of Petersen headed to Florida late last night, there's been nothing new on that front. Gator Country was also all over the fact that you could attempt to track the tail number of each of the three University of Florida planes to see where they had been. Apparently that trick is used by more than just sportswriters and bloggers like myself.
Let's think this out for a moment.
There's been a lot of talk about Dan Mullen from Mississippi State, but as fast as his name comes up it seems to either be shot down or discredited. There are some that make a great point to say that Florida can have anyone they want. This job vacancy is perhaps the biggest job in the country and one that just about any coach in Division 1 football would kill to have.
I talked a source in Boise last night and as we exchanged thoughts about why this makes too much sense for Petersen, the more we came to the same conclusion. Petersen would be silly not to take this opportunity if in fact the Gators want him as their number one choice.
Instead of writing out each thought that was put out there by both myself and this source, I'll just number them and you can put think through them as we did when we were talking about it.
1) Boise State is headed to the Mountain West who, after losing TCU, Utah, and BYU, is nothing more than the old WAC. Not really a step up and has to be frustrating to not only the school but Petersen himself.
2) All coaches want a shot at the biggest prize in college football. For Petersen, staying at Boise State only makes him a complete long shot.
3) The Florida gig would pay him more than he's making at Boise State.
4) It's the biggest job offer he's ever going to get
5) Even though he's at a mid-major school, he's built himself a solid name around the country
6) He's already proven to be a solid recruiter and his name alone, along with being at Florida, would bring some solid recruits coming to him. He wouldn't have to sell them on much.
7) This is just me assuming, but I have to believe Florida went to Boise to meet with Petersen to talk to him about the job before he came to interview. If he really is the number one candidate, this isn't a meeting they would have over the phone.
8) If Petersen wasn't the least bit interested and was more than ok staying at Boise State, he wouldn't have interviewed for the job. If in fact that part of this story is true and Petersen did in fact interview for the job.
So with all those thoughts being out there, is this already a foregone conclusion? Maybe. Maybe not. We don't know any facts at this point other than an Orlando Sentinel writer telling a Jacksonville radio host that Petersen was interviewing for the job.
I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions because until we know any facts about this story, all we really have is assumptions and speculation.
Although, I will say that I can't imagine the Gators picking a better guy than Chris Petersen and I can't imagine him turning the job down if in fact they offer it to him.
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