By ARNIE STAPLETON
Associated Press
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- The Denver Broncos are no longer aggressively pursuing Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh for their vacant head coaching position.
John Elway, the Broncos' new football
czar, said on his weekly radio show on 87.7 The Ticket in Denver on
Friday that he believes Harbaugh wants to stay at Stanford, where star
quarterback Andrew Luck will return next season rather than turn pro.
Elway said he believes Harbaugh's alma
mater, Michigan, might also be back in the picture after Harbaugh
listened to pitches from the San Francisco 49ers and Miami Dolphins this
week.
Elway reached out to Harbaugh while
serving as an honorary captain for his alma mater at the Orange Bowl,
where the Cardinal beat Virginia Tech 40-12 to finish 12-1.
"I told Jim when we were down at the
Orange Bowl that if he was interested in coming to the NFL, we would
love to be able to talk to him," Elway said on his show. "... And he was
interested in talking to us, but I think where it's going right now, to
me, it's coming down to Stanford, and I think Michigan's back in the
picture. I think he wants to stay in the college level."
With Harbaugh out of the picture, Elway
said he's only interested in interviewing coaches who have NFL
experience, not anybody looking to jump from the college ranks.
"I think Harbaugh's a different guy
because he's been in the NFL. But outside of that, I'm inclined to stay
in the NFL," Elway said.
First up for interviews on Sunday are
New York Giants defensive coordinator Perry Fewell, who was an interim
coach in Buffalo in 2009, and Eric Studesville, who went 1-3 as interim
Broncos coach after his promotion from running backs coach following
Josh McDaniels' firing last month.
Elway also said he's seeking permission
from the Houston Texans to interview offensive coordinator Rick
Dennison, a longtime Broncos assistant who has never been an NFL head
coach, and is considering calling former Giants coach Jim Fassel, who
tutored Elway in college and in the pros.
"Jim is a possibility. I know him
really well from him being my college coach and for two years here and
he definitely got some experience with the Giants," Elway said. "So,
he's been on the list. We've thrown his name around a little bit. So, we
haven't finalized anything on him."
Fassel went 58-53-1 from 1997-03 in New
York and led the Giants to the Super Bowl following the 2000 season,
where they lost to the Baltimore Ravens.
On Thursday, Falcons offensive
coordinator Mike Mularkey canceled his interview with the Broncos that
was slated for Friday night in Atlanta, saying he wanted to focus on the
playoffs, although he kept his scheduled interview with the Cleveland
Browns on Saturday.
Mularkey indicated he'd like to talk to the Broncos if the job is still open when the Falcons finish their season.
"It's tough to wait until another month
just because you lose the good coaches that are out there and
everything," Elway said. "But I think that he's somebody that is very
high on a lot of people's lists and he's still very high on our list.
And so I think that we'd still like an opportunity to talk to him."
The Broncos are in need of a major
makeover following the McDaniels misadventure that included a series of
bad personnel decisions which led to a 4-12 season, the worst in
franchise history.
Elway has indicated his next coach
should be a believer in Tim Tebow, the rookie who started the last three
games after supplanting Kyle Orton at quarterback.
Harbaugh's price tag might have been
too high for the Broncos, anyway. They're already on the hook next year
to former coaches Mike Shanahan ($3.5 million) and McDaniels, who was
due $3.2 million in 2011 before an undisclosed settlement.
Elway said he was spending Friday
moving into his spacious office that Shanahan and, later, McDaniels and
then Studesville, occupied.
