Clawson Note

Just a quick note....the news on Coach Clawson is that the University has released a statement that no one has contacted BGSU for permission to talk to Coach Clawson, as required by his contract.  Coach Clawson said something like he was not "currently" a candidate for the East Carolina job.

This is all tea leaves stuff, but a couple notes:

• Lots of time, initial contact from the school is made with representatives of the Coach, and not with the Coach himself.
• If Coach Clawson was truly not interested in the East Carolina job, he would have chosen different words.
• It does look like ECU is interviewing more candidates, which seems to indicate they did not lock immediately onto Coach Clawson.
  

AD Terry Holland released a letter a couple of days ago to the Pirate Nation.  It is meandering and, as far as I can tell, relatively incoherent.  However, in this paragraph you could decide he was talking about Dave Clawson, but then you finish the paragraph and you think maybe not....

2. Hot, young head coaches clearly on their way up the career ladder - there were two of these on my initial wish list and both have been able to manage one winning season while rebuilding in tough situations. I have a personal relationship with both of these coaches and was prepared to go after them hard as they would be close to identical to the leadership that has been so very successful here for the last five years.

However, before our vacancy occurred, one was being interviewed and subsequently hired by another institution. The other has been interviewed or offered an interview at all the instutions with openings (including Notre Dame), except for USC. In spite of all the good that has come from the past five years, I am now convinced it is not necessary to plow that same ground again at this time.

OK.  The rest of the letter reads like that...just a warning.

Anyway, that's what is publicly available right now.  If you are interested in reading Coach's contract and what the rules are for his buyout ($400k) and contact from other institutions, USA Today has it in a database here.