A few interesting items concering the Washington coaching job have surfaced tonight so here they are:

--- First, here's an item from the Cincinnati Enquirer with Cincy coach Brian Kelly saying that his attorney has been contacted by UW but that he will put off any dicussions of other jobs until after his team plays its final regular season game Saturday at Hawaii. Kelly said he does not have an interview scheduled with UW this week. There is also detail in the story about a meeting Kelly will have with school officials this week about several other topics that could impact his future there.

--- The Salt Lake Tribune is reporting for Tuesday's editions that the school hopes to extend the contract of coach Kyle Whittingham. AD Chris Hill told the paper that "I let Kyle know that obviously we're happy with things and we want to extend his contract into the future. It's the right way to proceed. He has done a good job and we need to do right by him and the university.''

According to the paper, Hill stopped short of saying actual contract negotiations were underway and refused to put a timeline on when he wants the negotiations to be finalized. He also declined to discuss Whittingham's future at Utah or the possibility other schools could be after Whittingham.

"I've learned you can agree to a lot of things and sometimes it takes time for those things to be finalized so it's best not to put a >timeline on things and I've told him I'm not going to discuss thing further in the media until things are said and done.''

The paper reported that Whittingham refused to comment on the rumors regarding Washington. However, he did acknowledge that he has had discussions with Hill and called Utah a "good place to be.''

Whittingham is still working on a seven-year contract signed when he got the job after the 2004 season that pays him just under $700,000 a year. Conventional wisdom is that Whittingham is looking for reasons to stay in Utah.

--- Interesting news out of Boise where planned talks of a new contract for BSU coach Chris Petersen have broken off (it's in the second item of this blog entry in the Idaho Statesman).The Idaho State Board of Education had been planning to discuss the new deal this week but the item has been taken off the agenda. There is no report yet, however, of any contact between Petersen and UW or any other school.

--- The Times has learned that the Huskies did attempt to speak with Oregon State coach Mike Riley but were told he was not interested.

All for now.