Boston College Football Coaching Search: No Set Deadline On Search

Not much news Thursday on the Boston College football coaching search other than PFT reporting that New Orleans Saints offensive line coach/running game coordinator Aaron Kromer will interview for the position.

Kromer served as the Saints interim head coach for the first six games of this season, filling in for Joe Vitt (who was, in turn, filling in for the suspended Sean Payton). Kromer has previously held NFL coaching positions with the Oakland Raiders (2001 Assistant OL Coach, 2002-04 OL Coach) and Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2006-07 Senior Assistant / OL Coach). His college coaching experience includes stops at Miami, his alma mater, and Northwestern.

You'll see many different names floated for the position. A lot of them are nothing more than wild guesses at this point. It seems like Boston College is going to play this search close to the chest, much like they've done in the past. Understandably Bates seems unwilling to divulge any candidate's names.

"I don't know if it helps the process if I comment on any one candidate," Bates said. "I think anyone involved in the process has a job and my promise to them is to keep it completely confidential so they don't jeopardize their current situations in any way.

"There is a complex set of variables and you try to match as many as possible."

Asked about a timeline on the search, Bates remained noncommital.

"I don’t think there is a set deadline, but a lot of it is dictated by the candidates and what is going on in their lives and their ability to communicate," Bates said. "Obviously, we are looking at people who are still competing and some of those individuals are at the professional level and some of them are at the collegiate level. Some of it is dancing around schedules, and we are trying to move as quickly as we can."

In other BCS coaching search news, Clemson offensive coordinator Chad Morris seems to be out of the running at N.C. State. Though one of the names that keeps popping up for the Boston College job has now been linked to Raleigh.

With Morris out of the mix, one name that seems to be picking up steam is Northern Illinois' Dave Doeren, whose Huskies are 11-1 this season and coming off an 11-3 season. He has a defensive background, as he spent five years as Wisconsin's defensive coordinator prior to heading to NIU, but he's also had some high scoring offenses.

N.C. State isn't expecting to have a hire until next week at the earliest with several candidates -- including Doeren and Kent State's Darrell Hazell -- coaching in conference championship games this weekend.

The Twitter machine blew up on Thursday night with conflicting reports that Louisiana Tech HC Sonny Dykes was headed to Cal to interview for the Bears vacant head coaching position. Others close to the La. Tech program insisted Dykes was in Ruston on Thursday. Someone go find Sonny Dykes!

I know that BC will likely play this search close to the chest, but you can't like the speed of the Eagles search when compared to N.C. State's search to replace Tom O'Brien (considering both started on the same day). N.C. State may be a better position than Boston College, but the speed of each program's search and quality of candidates linked to the position in the early going isn't all that encouraging.