I posted this in a few random comments here and generated some decent discussion. I generally hate creating posts because I don’t want to waste people's time, especially if they have also seen/heard a story which I assume many have.

On Friday's podcast, Dan Patrick said a close source from within inside the USC program told him that their number one pursuit for the AD position was Ohio State's Gene Smith.  He mentioned that president of USC, Carol Folt, was from Akron, Ohio and that may be playing a roll in both their interest and why they may be able to land him.

Additionally, Dan went on to mention that they "unofficially" hope that with that hire, it would / could bring Urban in as coach of the football program.  They felt that Gene has a good relationship with Urban and they would be upgrading both positions simultaneously and be "bringing the team back together"

I really like Dan as a sports radio voice, and almost always his "sources" are pretty accurate.  He rarely breaks news or hints at breaking news because as he says he is not a reporter, so whenever he does, he attributes to his sources and he is like 99% on with his "source" driven takes.

I’m not posting to stir shit up or anything like that, I am just curious what folks thought.

It is a weird take.  I mean, first of all, it seems like Urban is a giddy schoolboy when referring to the buckeyes on his football show, and secondly, he seems more like he is an AD in waiting at OSU than anything else.  It just seems like a perfect job for him...he could still influence young, impressionable, student-athletes, perhaps less stress than direct football coaching, and of course a very well paying a prestigious position at his self-referred to favorite university.

I just don’t see the chess pieces falling where Gene takes the USC job amid their recent scandal, and Urban leaves his current OSU job, his current football analyst job, and of course his "AD in waiting" prospect to go coach a shitty program and put himself back right into the stress mix.

I agree with many of you that I am thankful for what Urban has done for OSU, and I love Ryan Day and am very excited for the future of the program. Nor would I be necessarily upset if Urban coached again, even if it was at USC, however, with that being said, this situation seems to be more of "hopes and dreams" on the part of the USC program and not "likely reality"

I was honestly surprised that USC thinks they could take Gene, I mean yeah LA is nice, but is USC’s AD (in its current state) a better job than OSU? Maybe they open the old cash brief case IDK.

Thoughts?