...is a headline I would write for a situation in which this ridiculous rumor were true. People have been tweeting, emailing, and blastin' my phone for answers on this, so I'll write what I know and, based on my experiences, what I speculate to be the case here.
What I know: Nothing.
What I speculate: This rumor is completely baseless, and there are many reasons for that.
Let's look at the very first clauses of the linked piece of news:
Ole Miss football coach Houston Nutt is interested in the open Kansas job, Arkansas radio station KABZ-FM reported today
As soon as I saw that, I knew there was nothing to this. Even after some internet sleuthing (a fancy term for message board lurking), I was even able to find Arkansans citing this radio stations source for this information as--are you ready? Here it comes--a fucking Arkansas Razorback message board.
An internet rumor got picked up by a radio station looking to make some news. That's it and that's all.
However, there could be some truth to this, in that it could be very much possible that either Nutt's people (agent Jimmy Sexton) contacted KU's people (AD Lew Perkins) or vice versa. I say this because Jimmy Sexton is arguably the most powerfully manipulative coaches agent. He represents not only Houston Nutt, but also Nick Saban, Gene Chizik, Tommy Tuberville, Bill Parcells, Larry Coker, Lane Kiffin, and Steve Spurrier--amongst many others. He plays athletic directors like drums, knocking money out of them with an astute and ethically debatable swagger.
He has plenty of tactics to keep his clientelle--and, vicariously, himself--paid, and this rumor reeks of one of them. Sexton has a repuation for sparking interest in his clients amongst various competiting entities in order to earn what I'll call "insurance raises" for his clients. (Go ahead, break out the tin hats, black helicopters, whatever--I know this is conjecture, but this kind of stuff isn't exactly a new phenomenon. It happens and, while I have no absolute way to prove it, I think we're being played here.)
Can Pete Boone and company be too oblivious, too stupid to know that there is a very legitimate possibility that this is going on? Well, I think you know the answer to that. Don't be surprised if Houston Nutt gets some kind of raise that, frankly, he doesn't deserve whatsoever.
And, if I'm way off on all of this, and Houston Nutt actually does leave SEC facilities, talent, and money, for that of the Big XII North... oh well. Promote Kent Austin to be head coach, bring Hugh Freeze in to be the OC, keep Tyrone Nix on board, and then we're set. We don't need Houston Nutt to win. We just need a not-Orgeron.