Thought I'd just sort of lay out my timeline again from everything I've heard since Friday for complete transparency.

I've enjoyed the interactions on this with everyone here, people saying there's no interest in BC when there's real news have never been on this site,.

I obviously know how good Thamel is, but I also believe my sources when they tell me both sides absolutely want this done. Could someone in the room have gotten cold feet and decided to conduct other interviews? Certainly (it is a strange process with BC every time they hire a coach after all).

Friday morning someone sent me a screen shot of a plane heading here from Columbus and hinted an interview might be taking place with BOB on Friday. I was told Friday afternoon by someone with direct knowledge of the process that "there's a lot of interviews happening here today. I'd say between 6-9."

Shortly after that, I had a source reach out and tell me that Dan Mullen was out and that Bill O'Brien was the top choice. Since then, Brian Flores, Paul Cryst, Al Washington, Jeff Monken and Jason Candle have all been names floated out there. The only ones I know for sure on my end that drew legitimate interest to this point were Washington and Candle, aside from O'Brien of course.

Mostly quiet Saturday until I finally got a hold of a source that told me "both sides wanted it" and that the "ball was in BC's court." I was also told BOB "100%" wanted the job and that it wasn't really a question on BC's part, only money and term was holding things up

On Sunday morning I was told both sides were still "working through it." and Sunday night I was told he was still the front runner with contract negotiations continuing.

On Monday, both Rich Thompson of the Boston Herald and I were fed the same info (I think, it was about 12 minutes apart on the tweets) that minor details (incentives) were preventing this from being official.

Later in the morning I heard he was at Ohio State early in morning, something Football Scoop confirmed later in the day as did other sites. I believe it was to tell the offense he was leaving (FS reported it was 'business as usual' on campus, which I find hard to believe).

Thamel's report came out Monday afternoon without any names and very abruptly. I believe BC panicked and used him to slow down the story, saying there are "interviews" when in reality O'Brien would be going through final steps for the job, including meeting with Father Lahey. The fact he and others never shut down any O'Brien reports during the weekend is telling, as is the fact that they could have easily used Thamel to slow the message when I was reporting the deal in the works both Saturday and Sunday. Only after the "paper of record" in Boston locally tweeted it and places like the AP ran with it did BC get into scramble mode to get the interview story together.

Both Football Scoop and Andrea Andelson confirmed that O"Brien was a front runner later in the day.

On Monday night, Thompson added to his original tweet, saying that O'Brien was working out details for staff salary allocation, again signaling that it's just minor details holding up the deal. I was then told by two different sources that "I know he wants it and they have had very meaningful discussions," as well as "I know he interviewed the other day and both parties had high interest."

So, now we wait. I'm completely allowing for the fact that I've been given bad info the last four days and there's a whole massive process going on. But, I still believe O'Brien has been the target from the start and that a deal is coming if the two sides can come to an agreement on the exact details financially, both for O'Brien and his staff.