Follow the maelstrom on Twitter if you want to give yourself a panic-induced hernia.
But let it pass, friends. Let it pass. I'm hearing Muschamp's staying put. I don't blame Tennessee for looking...
...and don't blame Muschamp for thinking it wise to stay where he is.
UPDATE 11:30 p.m. CST: Perusing the pay sites and talking to various people in the know, there's a consensus on the (real) UT side that Muschamp isn't interested. Nice to hear everyone on our side is, uh, hearing, the same things.
UPDATE by GoBR 6:00 a.m. CST: ESPN's Chris Low is reporting what several other sources have been saying since the news broke that Kiffin was leaving -- Muschamp is indeed a top target, if not the top target, for Tennessee. That's no surprise, as Muschamp's name has seemingly come up every time a major job has come open, even after the announcement that Muschamp will be the next head coach at Texas, but the interesting aspect of Low's report is that he says that Muschamp may speak with Tennessee on Wednesday. It sounds like pure speculation and Low doesn't cite any sources, making it unlikely that Muschamp does have a conversation scheduled with Tennessee.
The major question is this -- why would Muschamp leave the Texas job for Tennessee? The recruiting base for the Volunteers in Tennessee and regionally cannot even come close to comparing to the treasure trove of talent upon which Texas sits, all while taking advantage of state pride in the process. Not every star high school football player in Texas want to become a Longhorn, but it's safe to say that a majority are at least interested in the possibility. At best, moving to Knoxville would be a lateral move, despite Kevin Scarbinsky's assertion that good jobs in the SEC don't come open often, apparently meaning that Muschamp has to consider it simply because of the Tennessee's conference affiliation in a blatant bit of SEC homerism. But when a school doesn't have a strong in-state recruiting base and suffers from outsized expectations within the fanbase, is it really that great of a job?
Muschamp had a chance to take the job at Tennessee last year, but turned it down and has said all the right things to the media about being patient enough to wait until Mack Brown steps down to take over at Texas. The other UT didn't become a better job over the last year and now Texas has one of the best, if not the best, recruiting classes in the history of the program on the defensive side of the ball, with the possibility of adding the top two players in the country by ESPN.
Of course, Muschamp's statements may camoflouge some discontent behind the scenes, but the Texas head-coach-in-waiting is still so young and probably still has so much to learn from Brown in terms of recruiting, deaing with the media, and how to run a program that it just doesn't make sense for him to leave -- he may truly not be ready, at least not as ready as he could be several years from now. Moreoever, Coach Boom has said in the past that he considers Texas the best job in the country -- once again, possibly just an example of toeing the company line -- but the truth is that even if Texas isn't the best job in the country, what job is demonstrably better?
UPDATE 12:39 p.m. CST: Both Orangebloods.com ($) and InsideTexas.com ($) are reporting there is no Muschamp move. Time for Tennessee fans to move along. You can continue to follow the Kiffin story with constant updates at SBNation.com.