I have not read all of the million threads about "what I'm hearing", because we suddenly have 1,478 posters "hearing" stuff. If you're reading it on 247 or twitter, you aren't "hearing" anything Btw. But one thing that I have been trying to do is put myself in Cohen's position. He has to look at 2 things....1) Can't screw this hire up, 2) Optics.
John Cohen had a somewhat similar situation the last time he hired a young, inexperienced, first big D1 job coach in Cannizzaro, when Canny was out early and John was faced with getting it right to avoid making himself look incompetent. When faced with that task, he interviewed a ton of guys with experience as Head Coaches, and he went with a guy that was a head coach and had a track record of success in recruiting and leading a (non-powerhouse) program to highly winning seasons. Lemonis may not have been Schlossnagle, but he was experienced and had proven he could Recruit to and win at a place that wasn't a perennial power.

Why would John not follow that same exact path this time? Guys, he cannot screw this up. I repeat, He Can't Screw This Up. His job is on the line if he screws this up. We can probably all agree on that. So put rumors and "what I'm hearing" aside and think logically for a Second.....do you REALLY think Cohen is going to hire a first time head coach with his ass on the line? Do you really think he's going to hire a guy with past alcohol issues with his ass on the line? Do you really think he's going to hire a completely unconventional triple option guy with his ass on the line? Remember, he cannot screw this up.
No, he is going to try to interview as many people with experience as he possibly can to make every coach in America think all of their peers want to know more about our job, to draw interest. This not only helps with optics, but could help us down the road in future searches of HC, OC and DC vetting processes. And then he is going to hire the safest choice, but more importantly the guy that is the safest choice AND that he knows the fan base is in favor of because of what just happened with Joe. That gives him the best opportunity to accomplish both goals of not screwing the hire up And keeping his own ass safe.
So I totally think guys like Sark, Monken, Chizik, Judge, Grantham, etc are for optics and to show that people are interested. I do t think Cohen would hire any of those guys as a HC this go round. I think the only realistic candidates are guys like Napier, and you might see a Fritz or someone like that emerge for an interview. The rest are simply not going to logically make sense for John right now.

I fully expect John to do everything including overpay for a guy like Napier over going with a riskier choice, because he simply can't afford to at this juncture. So if we're looking at actual candidates, I think John knows the guy that checks all of his boxes is Napier, but so does Napier's agent, so John is going to have to end up overpaying for him...but that's ok. That's the price you pay when you're in our spot. Keep doing your "due diligence" interviews with as many people as possible to make our program look desired and to get people talking about us....and then do whatever it takes to get Your guy. Unless I see a name like Fritz pop up as interviewing, I can't help but think John is working on dollar terms with Napier's agent and he is still the only guy we truly want at this time.

I may be wrong. Cohen May be less concerned with his own job....but when I start putting myself in his shoes I simply can't come to any other conclusions that include protection for John.

I could be totally misreading it though. But if this is true, every bit of State fans demanding Napier could be driving that price up, because Napier's agent knows John can't blow this. Remember that.