Whether or not their intention all along had been to leverage Tennessee's job offer into lucrative pay raises, that seems to be what's happening for both Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy and Louisville's Charlie Strong, who is finalizing a long-term contract extension to stay with the Cards, according to SI's Pete Thamel:
Charlie Strong is staying at Louisville, according to a Louisville source. Strong received a contract offer from Tennessee on Wednesday, but declined it after pondering the decision for a few hours.
Louisville and Strong are finalizing a long-term extension that could be announced as early as Thursday. It's expected to be a significant commitment in both years and dollars and will reportedly put Strong in the top echelon of coaches in the ACC.
This after Mike Gundy had already turned down the job, which probably would have made some fans just as nervous given that Fedora has connections to Oklahoma State and probably would have been a candidate to replace Gundy there.
As it stands, Larry Fedora is now probably Tennessee's leading candidate, which doesn't necessarily mean he'll take the job but certainly gives fans a reason for pause. There is a UNC football team meeting scheduled for today (which had already been scheduled well before any coaching carousels began spinning) so I imagine the media will be swarming into Chapel Hill to deliver us a new round of hearsay and conjecture.