Joe Alleva wasn't flying solo in his first face-to-face talk with Navy head coach Paul Johnson about Duke football's top job.
President Richard Brodhead and Executive Vice President Tallman Trask accompanied the Director of Athletics on a trip to the Washington, D.C. area Monday in order to personally discuss Duke's head coaching vacancy with Johnson, a senior Duke official told The Chronicle.
The group flew on a chartered private jet to the Washington metropolitan area Monday, leaving in the late morning and spending the afternoon visiting with Johnson at an undisclosed location.
Although no specific details could be confirmed about the group's trip, online flight tracking website FlightAware.com indicates that a Cessna Citation 525B jet registered to Direct Jet Charter of Greensboro left Raleigh-Durham International Airport at 10:50 a.m. Monday
bound for Baltimore-Washington International Airport. The same jet took off on a return flight to RDU at 2:56 Monday afternoon.
This was the only round-trip general aviation itinerary flown Monday between RDU and any of the Washington area's three primary airports. Baltimore-Washington International, approximately 25 miles away from Annapolis, Md., is the closest of those airports to the United States Naval Academy.
Monday's meeting between Johnson and the senior Duke officials seems to indicate that Johnson is among Duke's top candidates for the vacancy, created when Ted Roof was fired Nov. 26. But Alleva still needs to sell Johnson on a move to Durham, as the coach has deflected recent inquiries about other job openings.
Addressing such rumors after Navy's 38-3 win over Army Saturday, Johnson told the Annapolis Capital, "Not one thing I have seen or read has been true." Johnson did add, however, that he is open to considering other jobs if they are offered to him.
"As any other human being would, if someone calls and asks to talk to me about another job, I may listen," Johnson said. "But it would take a special deal for me to leave."
Duke may be willing to do just that. A report on Nov. 28 in the Annapolis Capital indicated that the University is prepared to pay up to $2 million per year to persuade Johnson to accept the job. A $2 million salary would be a four-fold increase over the salary of Roof, who received a reported $500,000 annually.
No confirmation could be made regarding the potential of a contract offer during Monday's meeting, and Johnson's agent Jack Reale was unavailable for comment as of late Monday. The senior Duke official also confirmed that no on-campus visit had been scheduled yet for Johnson.
Duke is not the only school vying for Johnson. The Dallas Morning News has reported that Southern Methodist is willing to offer Johnson coach a contract least equal to or greater than his reported $1.5 million deal with Navy. Johnson was flown into Dallas Monday night for a tour of the campus and the facilities, but the paper did say that no agreement had yet been reached between SMU and Johnson.
Broadway interviews for opening
The Chronicle has also learned that Grambling State University head coach Rod Broadway was interviewed on campus by Alleva Tuesday. Broadway, a former head coach at N.C. Central, led the Tigers to an 8-3 record this season and a SWAC Western Division title. Broadway was a Duke assistant for 14 seasons from 1981-1994.
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