Hudspeth Pulls Name From UM Search; Manning Wants Process Done Soon

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You can scratch Mark Hudspeth’s name from the list of potential Ole Miss candidates.  Louisiana-Lafayette’s coach — who reportedly interviewed with the Rebels’ search committee on Sunday — has pulled his name from consideration, according to David Johnson of RebSportsRadio.com. 

Hudspeth — a former assistant under Dan Mullen before moving to UL — “alluded to Johnson” that the committee led him to believe “that Hudspeth’s ties to Mississippi State were an issue.”

If that’s true, then Texas defensive coordinator Manny Diaz might come off the list, too, due to the year he served in Starkville.

Archie Manning has told The Memphis Commercial Appeal that he “very much wants to” have a candidate to take to UM chancellor Dan Jones within two-and-a-half weeks.

“We’re moving fast as we can,” Manning said.  “We’ve conducted some interviews on the phone and in person, and we’ll conduct some more this week.  There are some coaches still playing some games this upcoming weekend that we want to interview.  There are some coaches we’re interested in that didn’t coach this year.”

The coaches still coaching this weekend are likely Larry Fedora of Southern Miss and Hugh Freeze of Arkansas State.

As far as men who weren’t coaching this year, Mike Leach does not appear to be a candidate and Rich Rodriguez has already landed the job at Arizona.

So here’s one for the messageboarders to have some fun with — Who did Archie’s boy, Peyton, play for at Tennessee?  A currently out-of-coaching Phillip Fulmer.