I think there was a large amount of interest. They looked at the interest and picked the top 3 - Long, Harper, and Wagner. Long was interviewed face to face, Harper was brought in and seriously considered, Wagner was unavailable to come in on short notice. Therefore, Wagner was interviewed by phone. If she and Tech were both interested, it would have progressed.
There was a timeline. We had to get someone in place quick due to signing day coming up. I believe that Harper would have got the job if Leon had not wanted Long. I think he made a personal plea to hire him. They were very serious about Harper.
Now, all of this is a guess. However, it is very common to narrow a list of potentials down to only the top 3 to interview.
Of all that our administration has done wrong, I say this was handled right (even though Long was not my first choice). We are so used to complaining that when they do something right, we still complain.
Give them a little credit on this one. If we always complain, even when things are done right, we will never be taken seriously.