I haven’t posted a blog in a long time and I apologize for that, but with the coaching situation a daily battle, I figured I would throw out some news on the latest team entering the mix, Kansas.

Sources I have spoken with familiar with the coaching search in Kansas have informed me that Jones is a candidate the team intends on speaking with. While they would not say he is the Jayhawks’ top choice, they did say he was definitely in the mix.

Kansas has already reached out to Buffalo coach Turner Gill and is expected to also contact Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh, East Carolina coach Skip Holtz, and Houston coach Kevin Sumlin.

The coaching position is open because of the departure of 8-year coach Mark Mangino, who resigned after a 5-7 season and rumors of physical and mental abuse of his players.

Mangino made roughly $2.3 million a year with incentives, but the new head coach likely won’t be in that same ballpark.

Clearly this is a job that Jones wouldn’t be able to turn down if offered. The money will be much bigger, he will be in a big-time BCS conference, and the facilities and money that come into the program will be much greater that what CMU can offer.

One of the big issues in Kansas right now is their attempts to make additions to Memorial Stadium. Fundraising hasn’t brought in enough money to make the upgrades that Kansas is looking to make, so the athletic department may be trying to make a big splash with the coaching hire in hopes to drive up fundraising to complete the project.

Is Jones a big splash hire? Likely not.

But, I do think Kansas has to be more realistic in their coaching search as getting a big name like Harbaugh doesn’t seem to be likely either.