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Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez has been in limbo for more than a month since the end of the regular season.
It appears his situation won't change for at least another day following a school-record, 38-point loss in a bowl game.
The Wolverines wrapped up their season with a 52-14 setback to Mississippi State at the Gator Bowl.
That embarrassing result may have hurt his chances of leading college football's winningest program for a fourth season. But perhaps his future was sealed before Denard Robinson took a snap Saturday.
Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon said a few hours after the game that he planned to meet with Rodriguez soon - maybe Monday or Tuesday - and expected to have something to announce later in the week.
Rodriguez, who didn't respond to a text message Sunday morning, was on a team bus in Jacksonville, Fla., headed to the airport for a flight back to Michigan a day after falling to 15-22 in three seasons at Michigan.
If he is fired, Michigan will owe him $2.5 million to buy out the final three years of his contract and the school is expected to try to hire Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh. The former Wolverines quarterback will coach the Cardinal against Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl on Monday night.
Michigan could have to compete with NFL teams such as the San Francisco 49ers and Denver Broncos to bring Harbaugh back to campus to restore the winning tradition that its fans enjoyed for decades under Bo Schembechler, Gary Moeller and Lloyd Carr.
Harbaugh was asked Sunday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., if it bothered him to have his name mentioned for other jobs.
"I just talk about the job that I have and none others," Harbaugh said. "That's the way I've always handled it in the past, and it's worked well. The way I handle it now and in the future, just focus and concentrate on the task at hand."
If Michigan buys out Rodriguez and can't convince Harbaugh to come back to Ann Arbor, it might hire San Diego State coach and former Wolverines assistant Brady Hoke.
Rodriguez described his mood as "disappointed and frustrated, but not discouraged," after the Gator Bowl dropped his record to 7-6 this season and 1-11 against ranked teams in three years at Michigan.
"We're paid to do a job," he said. "We did it as hard and as well as we could with some obstacles, but everybody is going to have obstacles.
"Even though the season certainly didn't shape out the way we wanted it to and there's a lot of things that happened, we fought through it, and the team got closer."
Michigan won its first five games and lost six of the last eight. The season was marred by NCAA violations tied to practices and workouts that led to three years of probation, one of the nation's worst defenses and a pair of kickers who missed 10 of 14 field goals.
"Do we have to look at some things and evaluate some things? Sure, that's my job, evaluate everything," Rodriguez said.
If Rodriguez keeps his job, he likely would have to make major changes on the defense he delegates by possibly replacing Greg Robinson with a new coordinator allowed to assemble his own defensive staff to run the scheme of his choice.
Nine starters on both sides of the ball are eligible to return next season, but Denard, the Big Ten offensive player of the year, may decide to transfer if Rodriguez isn't still around.
"That's my coach," Robinson said. "That's who recruited me."
