Did anyone have an empty pit in your gut and night sweats when Harbaugh left Stanford? You should have because there was a roughly 48 hour window in which your worst fears were possibly about to be true.

I learned some deep background this weekend that the Stanford job was Pete's for the taking. The school really wanted him as did the big (read: filthy rich) boosters. Pete's hurdle was that the assistant coaches' salary pool was only nominally higher at The Tree than it was at BSU, meaning that coaches pay would not offset the considerably higher cost of living in the Bay area. But for a two day period, he was--almost--out the door.

So you might be saying,"You're saying nothing that many of us hadn't already speculated on and you're not naming names of your sources." And I'd say, "Yep, you're right but you're welcome anyway."

Thanks, Pete. Hope you're here a long time.