Video: Tony Dungy Says He Was Contacted About USC Job

Tony Dungy was on the Dan Patrick Show this morning. Patrick asked Dungy if he had been asked about the USC head football coach opening.

Dungy: "As they say, representatives of the organization have called...your people called my people just to see if you're interested."

The former head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Indianapolis Colts, who just turned 58 yesterday, goes on to tell Patrick he quickly made it known he had no interest, saying he isn't a college coach and doesn't know anything about the college game.

His advice to USC was to "get a great college coach" and threw out the names of Kevin Sumlin and Chris Petersen. Dungy also talked about the possibility of former Stanford assistant and current Indianapolis offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton.

This is a very typical part of the coach search. The school and its representatives have to put feelers out there to gauge who might be intrigued by the position. There is probably a list of 50-100 names that will have a similar correspondence. How complicated is the process?

Dungy: "Someone calls somebody and asks, 'Hey, would he have any interest?'" 
Patrick: "That's it?"
Dungy: "That's it."

Very similar to when you were in high school and you tell a buddy that you like a girl. The buddy then goes to the girl's friend (on the downlow) to assess if there is a mutual interest before you ask the girl out.

Is it a big deal that USC's representatives, which by the way could be anyone from the firm hired to conduct the coaching search to a former USC coach with a mild curiosity, reached out to Dungy?

Why it's a big deal: USC is reaching out to high-profile coaches, which shows it thinks no candidate is above this position and if the fit is right, USC will make a run at a big name coach. A high-profile coach like Dungy would demand a large salary, so USC appears to be willing to spend whatever money is needed.

Why it's not a big deal: How many other coaches have received the same type of informal interest assessment? Probably a lot. Because of the stature of the Trojan football name, we're going to be hearing about every person that turns USC down from now until a hire is made, but it's just part of the process.

Here's the video from this morning's Dan Patrick Show::