Wade/LSU Rumors: It might be quiet on the surface, but there’s too much going on behind the scenes to ignore

I tried my best to let this play out, but the silence is getting a little too loud. So it’s time to weigh in.

I’m just going to cut right to the chase.

The early rumors about Wade getting poached by LSU were from anonymous message board members of an LSU site. I wasn’t buying them, nor was anyone on the NC State side. It made no sense that you’d work years to revamp your reputation, move your wife and daughter to a new place closer to their family, only to bolt after year one. And hey, he even kind of killed the rumors himself.

But there was still smoke that wouldn’t clear. As the LSU message boards grew more and more confident, some of our sources were getting a little more wishy-washy than usual. We were told by the same source that informed us of Wade’s initial hiring that nothing was set in stone, and the LSU rumors had legs.

Fine, but none of it passed the smell test.

So we started pressing a little on those close to the program, and we kept getting the same responses. “He’s not leaving, he’s negotiating,” and “We’ve put together the package he asked for.” There was almost a dismissal of the LSU rumors and a confidence that it was business as usual for NC State.

Before we go on, let me be fully transparent on how we operate at PackInsider.com. We’ve been reporting on the program for 17 years as a totally free site. We don’t have ‘membership tiers’ or ‘paywalled forums’, so all of our communication is fully public. Because of that, we do our best to be extremely careful with rumors and intel. We aren’t competing for subscribers, so breaking a story isn’t a key part of our business model. In fact, there are many times we are given information and asked not to share it before the party is ready to release it. We honor those requests and, by operating that way, haven’t burned any bridges along the way.

We are also very cautious about posting rumors because, as we learned almost 15 years ago, parties will use media sites to sow disinformation. In fact, our best lesson was learned when Sidney Lowe and his staff were pushed out in 2011. One of the outgoing assistant coaches purposely floated false information to media sites in order to sabotage the corresponding coaching search process.

All of that to say, this is usually the type of article/information we try to stay away from at this point. But being an NC State site, and NC State fans all asking the same question, we feel it’s necessary to reveal what we’re hearing and what we’re thinking.

Here’s the latest on our end:

Everyone on the NC State administrative side (the money side) seemed confident or had heard nothing all last week into this past weekend. They felt like things being this quiet was good for NC State because that’s how Boo Coorigan operates, and it was par for the course with these types of contract extensions/renegotiations.

There were others with, let’s say, looser ties to the program (but are well-connected to the school and in the industry), who weren’t so confident and kept telling us the smoke was real and there was legitimate movement in the LSU direction. One source even telling us that ‘the ship has sailed.’

At the same time, everyone on the LSU side seems certain he’s coming. All their insiders and even the editors of their fan sites are buying in. Concerning, sure, but hey, I’ve been around NC State almost my whole life, and I’ve been in those exact shoes with a number of different coaches who never came to NC State.

This has to be him bluffing, right? Letting his agent float LSU rumors to gain leverage for a new contract or a boost in NIL guarantees? Right?

So what do I think?

I’m not going to BS you. I’m starting to get nervous that this whole LSU thing has legs.

At this point, it’s been too quiet for too long. The best-case scenario is that Wade sees the potential in this job (which is why he took it), but the NIL and funding need an overhaul to reach that potential and to be able to sustain it. Drawing it out like this while negotiating in the background could be his way of pulling that funding into the modern era. Asking for more money only gets you so far, but leverage plays like this have a way of opening up wallets in a different way.

That’s what NC State fans should be hoping for. But is that what I think is happening?

It’s possible, but I wouldn’t die on that hill at this point.

The reason?

The people who really could answer these questions for us are on Wade’s side. All season, they have been very responsive and open with us. But over the past few days. Radio silence. That concerns me.

If I were leaving, I’d be pretty quiet. But on the other hand, if I were negotiating, I’d be pretty quiet too. So I don’t want to put all my eggs into any one basket.

That said, the puzzle, when put together, isn’t looking great right now.

At this moment, however, this is still speculation and hearsay.

Some of our NC State sources are still confident and have told us that Wade and Boo have been hammering out a new contract. But others, as of today, have flipped and informed me that they aren’t feeling good about this whole thing (however, some of the sources they cited are the same ones I talked to, and I believe the same ones informing some of the other NC State insider sites. When that type of overlap happens, it gives me pause.)

Meanwhile, it’s March 25th, and LSU still has not fired Matt McMahon, who has gone 17-55 in the SEC since taking over in 2022. So the job everyone is nervous Wade may leave for, isn’t even open yet. But LSU hasn’t signaled McMahon will be back either.

The portal opens in 13 days, and one of Will Wade’s issues this past season was having to rush to put a staff together and fill an entire roster. Is he willing to jump into that situation again?

Who knows what is going on, and honestly, I hate speculating like this, but it’s warranted given the silence on both sides amid all the speculation coming from just about every NC State outlet that exists.

Either Wade is here next year, or he’s not. So let’s play hypotheticals on both sides…

Wade Stays: If Wade stays, you can bet it will be announced with a new BIG contract and a big-time NIL increase. Maybe a few staff changes happen, but NC State goes into the portal with a big wad of money and a lot of stability. With NC State fans on the edge of their seats right now, Wade committing long-term and with a much larger buyout, it would signal he’s here for the foreseeable future and that would likely reinvigorate the fan base.

Wade Leaves: NC State would have to shift fast, and if Boo knew Wade was leaving, you’d assume we’d already be hearing from backchannels about potential candidates. So there is some comfort in that. But one sure-fire candidate NC State would need to target is Tennessee Associate Head Coach and former Wolfpack PG Justin Gainey. He is Rick Barnes ‘ right-hand man, and I’ve been told he’s interested in this job. That would be a move that could be made fast, and while nothing would remove the sting of Wade leaving after one year, landing Gainey would be a serious win given the circumstances. He was most NC State fans’ second or third choice after Wade when he took the job last March. The other name being floated, should this scenario take place,  is Josh Schertz. This name isn’t coming from the NC State side, but from an industry Discord. That means he’s heard the situation through backchannels, is likely interested, and has his agent floating it. He’s seen success at D-2 Lincoln-Memorial, Indiana State, and now St. Louis.

At this point, these are your two scenarios. Wade’s side is allowing this much noise to play out behind the scenes while staying silent publicly. He’s either doing that for negotiation purposes and intends to strike a deal with NC State, or he’s moving on.

All we can do is wait and see what happens. Wade’s (already extremely low) buyout drops from $5 million to $3 million on April 1st, so if something is happening, that’s the time frame you’d be keying in on.

We’ll keep you updated as we learn more.