This is my general understanding as well.
There wasn't a lot of interest in the job after the way everything went down with Mack. He really is an epic piece of shit and I cant believe hes allowed to snoop around the program again. Fuck that guy. Powers advocated for Strong because he wanted a black coach. Dont know how much of a difference that made in actually hiring him but Ive heard donors say it.
A Dallas group is who fumbled the situation with Saban and drove the Patterson hire at AD. The pendulum swung back to Houston and we ended up with Herman as a result. The story of him and his wife showing up to a cocktail reception in Houston right after the deal was done is hilarious. Herman bolted straight to the bar when he got there and ordered a vodka and ice in a pint glass.
Eltife and Hartzell put a good bid together from multiple cities but missed out on Meyer. I heard a big part of the reason they landed on Sark is because they were determined to fix the QB situation that had plagued us for so long.
Shouldnt be hard to figure out who will be making the next hire if we make one. NIL drives the bus now, as it should in my opinion. We will only go as far as our NIL support takes us, just like everyone else now. Love it or hate it, thats cfb today.