When Florida assistant Aubrey Hill resigned last week under the vague umbrella of "personal reasons," talk quickly began to circulate that U of L assistant Clint Hurtt might be the next former Miami assistant named in last summer's Yahoo investigation whose job status would be called into question.
Talk intensified further after Bruce Feldman of CBS tweeted that Hurtt was "up next" and that the Louisville defensive line coach actually had stronger ties to former Miami booster Nevin Shapiro than Hill did.
Despite the chatter, Louisville has heard nothing new from the NCAA since last Oct., and as a result there has been no change in Hurtt's status with the program.
In a recent sit-down with WDRB's Tom Lane, head coach Charlie Strong re-iterated his support of Hurtt, who was named ESPN's Recruiter of the Year in Feb. of 2011.
"Clint Hurtt has done everything we've asked him to do within the rules here with this program," Strong said. "The NCAA has an enforcement committee and they will come and investigate this, and whenever they come we will open the doors for them. We have nothing to hide."
As much as our enthusiastic neighbors down I-64 might wish otherwise, there continues to be no chance that the Cardinal football program is penalized for any of this. The worst case scenario for Louisville has been and continues to be that it loses an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator who has done some great things over the past two years.
As for Strong, I think he's handled the situation perfectly ever since last August. He wasn't with Clint Hurtt at Miami, so all he can do is say that there hasn't been any rule-breaking during his tenure at U of L, open the doors for the NCAA when they come calling, and then wait and see what they decide.
Contrary to the belief of the modern world, not every piece of breaking news demands an immediate action in response.