The Newark Star-Ledger reported today that Rutgers head football coach Greg Schiano has turned down the prestigious head coaching job at the University of Michigan. Schiano had previously nixed a $2.2 million offer to be the head coach at the University of Miami (Florida). His current job at Rutgers pays $1.7 million.

Michigan is no doubt shocked that Schiano would shun their vaunted program. However, the bigger story from the Penn State angle is whether the ex-Penn Stater is hanging around waiting for the inevitable Paterno retirement.

Rutgers is a fine program, which has advanced significantly under Schiano, but one has to wonder whether Schiano knows something we don’t know about the Penn State job. After all, a $500,000 raise is nothing to sneeze at. Turning it down has to mean there is something big in the offing. If it wasn’t the Miami job or the Michigan job, then what? Has Schiano been tipped off by the powers that be that Paterno will not be accorded the opportunity to realize his previously stated aim of coaching “another 3, 4, 5 years” after his current contract expires following the 2008 season? If not, why would Schiano not pick the immediately available cherries.

Of course, this cynical Turkey further wonders what kind of a salary the Board of Trustees would be willing to offer Schiano, were he to actually contend for the presently nonexistent Penn State head coaching opening, given that its present occupant is earning barely more than $500,000.