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The Gainesville Sun's Pat Dooley has given us four more names that are definitely off the list:
Three more names to cross off Gator coaching search -- Brian Kelly, Bobby Stoops, Mike Gundy.
— Pat Dooley (@pat_dooley) November 25, 2014
And get off the Chip Kelly bandwagon. He has a "show cause" until Christmas day. Florida is not hiring a coach with NCAA issues in his past.
— Pat Dooley (@pat_dooley) November 25, 2014
You should already know three of these names were out. In our original candidates post, I told you that Brian Kelly and Bob Stoops aren't leaving their current posts except possibly for NFL gigs. Notre Dame and Oklahoma are top tier jobs that you just don't leave for somewhere else unless you're escaping the posse. I also brought up then the fact that Chip Kelly doesn't want to leave the NFL. Those three names are no surprise.
Gundy is the only real news here, mainly because someone from 247sports reported that the Oklahoma State boss was "pursuing" the UF job. That pursuit—if it actually was happening—only mattered if the interest was mutual, and it might not have been. Whatever the case, Gundy's not going to be the next head coach in Gainesville.
The number of splashy names out there who haven't been eliminated is getting smaller by the day. Gary Patterson and Hugh Freeze are ostensibly still out there, but there's no guarantee either wants to leave his current job. There is some noise today on the Internet about Dabo Swinney—someone not who doesn't work in the athletic department and who wouldn't be involved in the search process told an online radio show that Swinney has talked to Florida—but it's just noise for now.
It's all simply more confirmation of what basically everyone has been saying for months: this is not a great year to be searching for a head coach. Florida could end up with a less attention grabbing guy, such as Mark Hudspeth or Wisconsin's Gary Andersen, and end up totally fine. But hiring a true household name is looking less and less likely.