The WSJ is reporting that Wake Forest is prepared to name Dino Gaudio as the successor to the late Skip Prosser. Gaudio has been an assistant under Prosser for 17 years and will be promoted to the head coaching position sans the interim tag.
Honestly this was all Wake really could do here. There was little chance you could hire someone else and doing so would set off a late summer domino effect among smaller schools which would have been no less than a nightmare for other ADs. I also would think any outsider coming into the job would find it a difficult situation to assume. This decision is also about recruiting which is why Gaudio is being promoted without the interim tag attached. The chances of him holding onto that stellar 2008 recruiting class would drop significantly if he was seen as possibly being there for only a year before Wake opened up the hiring process again. Since he was involved in recruiting the current commits and takes over as the permanent coach, it permits him a better opportunity to keeps those guys committed to Wake. Then again it is hard to say, at this point, to what extent those recruits are in a way "radioactive." Granted they can decide withdraw their verbal commitments but there is no way while hell is still hot that any ACC coach is going to pick them up. I am sure some major program out there would offer them a slot but it still could come off like they are taking advantage of Wake's unfortunate tragedy.
In the end though, I think Ron Wellman has an eye on closure and healing here. Hiring someone in-house accomplishes that since it really should happen "within the family."