I refuse to believe this unless you want to throw the word "officially" in there. As mentioned earlier, agents get involved and feelers are put out to determine interest. That way you are protected when a coach tells you he's not interested. It doesn't have to be counted as a "no" because no official offer was made. Would be a bunch of egg on the face of an AD to list the coaches we were interested in only to know they had no interest in us.
How great would it look if SE got up at the press conference to introduce Riley and said we were turned down by our first 3 choices, but are happy to have our 4th choice? Not a great boost of confidence for your new coach, or the university.
Was Riley in the top 3 of any school looking for a coach last year? Colorado St maybe?
And you get what you pay for. Not saying MR is a bad person, but .................