I don't need Pope to validate my fandom with a "thanks for memories" statement, but a quick thanks would have been an easy thing to do and his silence suggests he may harbor some negative feelings toward BYU. That could be concerns with the ADs office, disliking the fans, etc., possibly not being happy about the flack to took when he was inexcusably below .500 in the WCC two years ago, or maybe he's just so dialed in with Kentucky that he just didn't care to do the obligatory thanks to BYU or its fans on his way out of town. Raiding Chandler was not surprising at all as Pope needed a "win" with all the losses KY has had for its 2024 class since the first round exit from the NCAAs compounded by the Calipari move. None of that surprises me, but we have much bigger problems right now.

What concerns me a lot more is that Saunders, Hall, and Khalifa are all in the transfer portal and BYU still hasn't named its next HC or shown signs of one being in the final stages of interviews. Time is of the essence. Kentucky was able to go through a list of four potential candidates and hire Pope as its next coach within a 48 hour period. That means they knew exactly who was on their "board" to hire before Calipari was even contacted by another school and so they efficiently worked through their list and were able to act very quickly. It's been 6 days since initial rumors started to swirl about Pope to KY, 5 days since signals that the people above him on KY's priorities list were not interested and credible information leaked that Pope was getting an offer, and 4 days since the official announcement was made. BYU took 15 days to hire Pope when Rose retired and they basically knew that Rose was seriously considering retirement at that time.

The Pope vacancy was much more of a surprise, but if BYU takes as long and its next coach is not announced until the first week of May, BYU's roster will be completely depleted and next year will be a total rebuild. The new HC could still retain Hall and Saunders and be on strong footing for next year, but each day that passes while they're in the portal creates risk of them getting another offer they can't refuse. Our list of potential coaches is about 10 times smaller than for other teams so it's ridiculous for us to take 15 days to make a decision. We honestly should have had a coach in place by Monday and every day that passes diminishes our chances for a good season next year. We don't have two weeks.