Everyone Reporting On MSU Coach Search Is Full Of S&!#

Michigan State's head football coach position has been vacant for a week and the media has already lost cabin pressure.

It started almost immediately after MSU officially fired Mel Tucker, when college football reporter Brett McMurphy, who's covered the sport for years first for ESPN and now with Action Sports, "reported" that Michigan State was focusing on six specific candidates.

Not long after that, The Athletic's Bruce Feldman "reported" that Lance Leipold and Jake Dickert were leading contenders for Spartan football's top vacancy.

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It was also around this time that a Detroit sports radio personality floated the idea of Michigan State pursuing Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman. That notion went viral for its senselessness, but at least the person putting out there made clear he wasn't reporting it as fact but instead was just spitballing out loud.

RELATED: Michigan State Won't Hire Urban Meyer, But Not Because Of His Past

The current fantasy candidate du jour is Urban Meyer, whom MSU Twitter has spent roughly the last 72 hours mentioning in an apparent attempt to speak his candidacy as a serious option for the Spartans into existence. That movement reached critical mass Tuesday when FOX Sports Radio personality Bernie Fratto "reported" that there's mutual interest between Meyer and MSU and that the former would officially interview for the job.

Brady Quinn, who works with Meyer on FOX's college football broadcasts, shot that down.

Fratto's "report" prompted Feldman to run the rumors by Meyer himself.

Apparently offended that Feldman carried out the duty of his job by chasing down leads and asking the person at the center of the story to confirm or deny what had been circulating, Fratto fired back, doubling down on his "reporting."

Another FOX Sports Radio personality joined the fray to back his coworker.

RELATED: Forget Urban Meyer, Nick Saban, Etc. Here Are The Realistic Candidates For Michigan State

OK, let's recap. We're told Meyer will officially interview for the job by an obscure sports radio host located in Las Vegas. That story is then shot down by a national college football reporter, who invoked his legitimate reporting bona fides to categorically dismiss the obscure sports radio host's story as rumor and innuendo just days removed from reporting rumor and innuendo himself about two candidates becoming frontrunners for the job. And the person at the center of this exhibition in the complete degradation and failure of our media who has officially denied the rumors is known to have done the same about jobs he eventually took in the past.

All of this serves as a good reminder that anyone and everyone who's "reporting" on Michigan State's coaching search at this point is completely full of shit. This thing is so nascent that there are no details to actually report. Nobody really knows anything. Remember that when the next Twitter journalist breaks the news that Michigan State is deep into negotiations with Robert Saleh or whatever bullshit manufactured storyline is dominating the news cycle that day.

10 Realistic Candidates Michigan State Could Target For Next Head Coach

This list isn't like the dozens of others you've seen cobbled together with an amalgamation of next-to-impossible hires, like Nick Saban, and completely unqualified guys, such as Division 2 candidates and coaches who have been at a Group of Five job for five-plus years. This group consists of legitimate names who meet most if not all of the qualifications and needs of MSU's football program and who would probably be interested if the Spartans made an overture.

We've also rated each candidate in terms of the likelihood that they'll be seriously by Michigan State.

Filed Under: Michigan State Football