If there’s a fan favorite when it comes to Ole Miss’ coaching candidates, that man is most surely Mike Leach.

The former Texas Tech head coach — who has also had offensive success as an assistant at Kentucky — would bring instant credibility to Oxford.  His offense would excite recruits.  His fascination with pirates would give students something better than a black bear to dress up as on gameday.

But would he be a good fit at a school like Mississippi?  Houston Nutt seems to think so.  Speaking on Tim Brando’s radio show today, Nutt said that Ole Miss needs hire a coach who’ll do something different on offense. He then threw props to Leach.

But there’s a downside to making a run at Leach, too.  First, the coach’s ugly departure at Texas Tech will be mentioned again and again.  Would Chancellor Dan Jones want to fool with that?

Second, Leach’s lawsuit against ESPN for it’s coverage/involvement in his ouster — he also claims the network nixed his chances of landing the Maryland job last year — would make for some interesting times.  The SEC and ESPN are business partners.  How would ESPN cover Leach?  How would Leach handle media requests from ESPN?

Finally, would UM’s chancellor want a known loose cannon heading up his football program?  Most bosses like to make safe hires.  Leach ran a clean program and graduated playes (and won games) at Texas Tech, but his off-the-wall persona certainly doesn’t jive with the words “safe hire.”

Should Ole Miss kick the tires on Leach?  In our view… absolutely.  He’d be the first call we’d make.

But we’d want to get to know the guy before we handed him the keys to Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.

1.  An amusing Nick Saban story made its way into Mike Leach’s book.

2.  Robbie Andreu of The Gainesville Sun predicts a 9-3 finish for Florida this fall.

3.  With SEC Media Days kicking off tomorrow, we can close the book on a controversy-filled summer.

4.  Here’s a look back at some of the more memorable quotes to come out of SEC Media Days over the years.

A month ago, there was no doubt that Vanderbilt and Auburn offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn were in serious talks regarding Vandy’s head coaching job. 

Malzahn turned the job down and received a raise to $1.3 million per year on The Plains for doing so.

Last week word came that Maryland was interested in chatting with Malzahn about its own vacancy.  Only this time, the rumors never actually moved from simmer to boil.

But according to Kevin Scarbinsky of The Birmingham News it might have been Malzahn who cooled the Maryland talk. 

“I believe Malzahn was interested in Maryland, and vice versa, and I understand the two sides did talk,” Scarbinsky writes.  But the two parties did not speak face to face.  Only two candidates interviewed in College Park and toured the campus — Mike Leach and Randy Edsall.  UM’s athletic director said a third candidate declined an invitation to come to Maryland’s campus.  Scarbinsky believes that candidate might have been Malzahn.

Scarbinsky believes that Malzahn might have passed on Maryland because of the timing of the Terps’ opening: “Had he taken the Maryland job this close to kickoff against Oregon — after Auburn opened the vault to raise him to $1.3 million a year — people would’ve blamed him.”

A little aside here — When we see a writer pen consistently glowing columns and articles about a subject, we tend to think that the subject has become a source for the writer.  And Scarbinsky has written many, many, many nice things about Malzahn this season.  So if a connection does exist between the writer and the coach, the “Malzahn chose not to pursue the Maryland job” spin could be coming from the coach himself.

But it’s also possible that Scarbinsky is simply speculating based on contacts not named Gus.

In that case, we can speculate, too.  It’s possible that Malzahn knew that he didn’t have a great shot to land the Maryland job and therefore chose not to upset the folks in his own backyard.  AU backers likely wouldn’t have appreciated Malzahn chasing yet another job right after he was given a mondo raise for nixing VU’s advances.

Maryland could have hired Leach, but instead the school chose to go the safe route and bring in UConn’s Edsall — a fact that’s been met with yawns in College Park.  Malzahn has never been a head coach in college and was coaching in high school just six years ago.  So it’s certainly possible that UM officials would have viewed Edsall as a safer pick than Malzahn, too.

Whatever the reason, Malzahn and Maryland never truly acted on their mutual interest.  And Auburn fans are plenty glad about that heading into Monday’s BCS title game.

Auburn’s Gene Chizik said last night — less than two weeks before the BCS Championship Game — that it’s possible Maryland officials will make a run at offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn.

“To the best of my knowledge, there are possibilities of contact.  I have not talked to anybody personally, but there are possibilities of contact in there.  I can’t give any details because I don’t have any.”

Malzahn was scheduled to meet with the press yesterday, but chose not to.

When James Franklin was allowed to leave (for the Vandy job Malzahn turned down) and Ralph Friedgen was forced out, it was believed that Maryland was locked in to hire former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach.  But according to ComcastSportsNet Washington, Leach might not be the frontrunner.

Maryland officials — according to the network — have already interviewed SMU’s June Jones and Malzahn in addition to Leach.  I guess an already conducted interview would indeed constitute “possibilities of contact.” 

Jones has publicly pulled himself out of the running for the Maryland job.

Malzahn was given a $1.3 million per salary just two weeks ago when he elected to stay at Auburn and turn down Vanderbilt.

Content provided by Vanderbilt Sports Line.

Who Should Vanderbilt Hire as their Next Head Football Coach?customer surveys

Explanation: This list includes the 5 names currently reported as active candidates for the vacancy. Phillip Fulmer and Al Golden (Temple) are apparently no longer candidates, and despite Anchor of Gold’s letter writing campaign, no media outlets have mentioned Mike Leach as a potential hire.