Tubby Smith offered his firmest statement yet that he is not a candidate for the Auburn job, telling the Minneapolis Star Tribune's Sid Hartman that he is "not a candidate for any other job" (it's the second notebook item at the bottom of the page).

Smith, of course, was rumored for several jobs before his season at Minnesota was over. He's apparently high on the wish lists at both Auburn and Oregon.

Here's his full quote to Hartman from Sunday about his name being linked to other schools:

"There's no truth to it. I'm not a candidate for any other job. I always talk about the joy -- happiness is very temporary, so you have to be, because I'm not happy now because we lost our last games, so I'm preparing for next year as hard as I can prepare.

"I'm going out and I'm selling this program, selling the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, that we've got people here on our team, we've got administration [that] is backing us, we've got things in place, we're preparing to build a new practice facility. That's what I came here to do, and certainly I'm a guy that wants to fulfill my responsibilities to this program. You're right, it can be a distraction if you let it, just like anything else. External distractions, I tell our players a lot, 'Hey fellas, we have to limit or eliminate as much of that static and external distractions [as possible]. If you're ever going to be successful, you're going to have to learn to just dismiss it, fellas, and not pay any attention to it.' "

This Star Tribune article by Gophers beat writer Myron P. Medcalf has another little nugget about Smith's feelings:

A person familiar with the situation told me Saturday morning that Smith's not interested in the Auburn gig because he "doesn't feel like rebuilding again."

Auburn would be a big rebuilding situation (actually, "building" might be a better term; there's no "re-" involved). It sounds like Smith has closed the door on moving elsewhere this offseason, but we've heard those kind of denials before.