Ivan Maisel of ESPN.com today:

Former Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville will be named the next football coach at Texas Tech, a source close to the search told ESPN.com’s Ivan Maisel.

A news conference is scheduled for Sunday in Lubbock, Texas. Tuberville’s family is flying to Lubbock Saturday night, according to the source.

An SbB reader also sent me this flight plan, claiming it is Tuberville.

I haven’t confirmed that Tuberville has been hired, but wouldn’t doubt it. In fact, I predicted Tuberville would be hired a week ago.

Tuberville would Mike Leach, who was fired by Tech after a complaint from the son of ESPN’s Craig James, Tech wide receiver Adam James.

Earlier this week I reported that Tech would hire Art Briles for the job, and sources told me at the time that Briles had been offered the job. After Tech offered Briles, Baylor donors ponied up an extension that included a second raise in less than a week for Briles. Briles now has a seven-year deal with Baylor.

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UPDATE: (12:00AM ET): Don Williams of the LUBBOCK AVALANCHE-JOURNAL reports Tuberville will interview Wednesday.

Last night I Tweeted that I thought Texas Tech would hire Tommy Tuberville in less than two weeks. In the past 48 hours I’ve heard from two college football sources that he’s the likely hire. As late as early today though, Tuberville had confirmed that he’d not yet been contacted about the job.

But Lubbock radio and TV personality Chris Level reports this afternoon that, “Tech is going to talk to Tuberville next and after talking to Tommy earlier he’s more than ready for the phone call when it comes.”

Level is also the proprietor of RedRaiderSports.com.

Dwain Price of the FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM reports that earlier today Ruffin McNeill had an informal visit with the same folks who jettisoned Michael Leach from the school:

Interim Texas Tech football coach Ruffin McNeill had an informal interview Monday morning with school president Guy Bailey and chancellor Kent Hance.

Pete Christy of KCBD-TV in Lubbock also reports that McNeill talked to the Tech admin, and that chat included Athletic Director Gerald Myers.

So besides Tuberville and McNeill, who else is in the mix, and who isn’t?

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As the dust settles on Mike Leach’s ouster at Texas Tech, school Athletic Director Gerald Myers will now move as quickly as possible to fill the head football coach vacancy at the school.

(Tech’s top recruit Kadron Boone, Coaching Candidate Art Briles)

The three top names for the Tech job are: Art Briles, Sonny Dykes and Kevin Sumlin.

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As we mentioned this morning (and as you probably saw this weekend), Houston took down Texas Tech - their second Big XII victim in as many games - and sent the Red Raiders into a Tweet-filled tailspin. On the other sideline, though, the mood was decidedly different; this is usually the case whenever one team wins and another loses, according to our resident expert Dr. Obvious.

(Bigger fan FAIL: the thefts, or that fake-tattoo-armband of the Cougar logo?)

But Houston fans - or at least a couple of them - have a strange way of showing their support for the program. Ordinarily, after all, one doesn’t make the mental connection between “I am going to run onto the field because I am so proud of this team for whom I’ve spent a substantial sum of money on tickets” and “I am now going to steal very important things from this team while I am on their field.” But as you might imagine, these are not ordinary times in Houston, and now coach Kevin Sumlin is asking all 645 of his Twitter followers for a little help.

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