In the wake of Oregon choosing Willie Taggart, coaches and agents were left buzzing more about what the search revealed than the hire itself.

Boiling it down: Perhaps the Oregon job is not what we thought it was.

Several sources have told 247Sports this week that multiple Power 5 coaches passed on the Oregon job when vetted by the search firm and the school.

An agent indicated that the resources at Oregon are somewhat overblown.

“The facilities are not exaggerated - they’re ridiculous; you’ve seen them - but the money beyond that is (exaggerated),” the source said. “Everyone thinks ‘Oh, but it’s Nike,’ but it’s not like (Phil Knight) is spending unlimited amounts of money for coaches.”

Think about it, the agent added: Jeff Brohm got one more year and more money (reported $3.3 million) from Purdue than Taggart received from Oregon (reported $3.2 million).

Topping off the thought, Brohm came directly from Western Kentucky; Taggart was there 2010-12. Brohm was making about $800,000 at WKU; Taggart was making around $1.8 million at USF.

And yet Purdue outdid Oregon. How crazy would that have sounded if we said that a few months ago? Mark Helfrich’s $11 million-plus buyout is a factor, but so was the candidate pool from which Oregon was drawing.

Higher-end Power 5 coaches - including an SEC coach and a Big 12 coach - were largely spooked by the recruiting component at Oregon, a number of coaches and agents told us. Eugene is about 90 minutes from Portland - and it’s not as if Portland, Oregon, is a recruiting hotbed.

California and the Pacific Rim become vital to Oregon’s success, but that’s also the case for every top-shelf Pac-12 team. Taggart was previously at Stanford, but that was in 2009; coaches said he’ll have to renew relationships in California, and that could be a challenge, even for someone with familiarity.

Additionally, some coaches talked about the trepidation of entering a division with Washington seemingly set up for a run of success under Chris Petersen.

“(Petersen) is building a program; they’re not going away,” one coach told us this week.

An agent added that the college football world wasn’t entirely sure how to evaluate the Oregon job - because it had never really opened. The program had promoted from within the past three times the head coaching gig had opened.

But when it fired Helfrich, it constituted a new direction - and a new moment - for Oregon. Now we have a better idea; it’s a more difficult and less appealing job than many had perceived.

Houston update

Talking Thursday afternoon with one source close to the search: Do not discount the internal candidates at Houston.

We’ve been told that interim coach Todd Orlando and offensive coordinator Major Applewhite are very much in the mix, despite there being a faction of decision-makers in full support of Lane Kiffin.

There’s some reluctance to hire Kiffin due to the potential reaction to him by Texas’ high school coaches, one source close to the search told us.

“We’re not sure what that reception would be,” the source said.

That’s the opposite sense that Houston had in hiring Tom Herman, who had worked at Rice and several other Lone Star State schools when UH plucked him from Ohio State. As a result, he transitioned well into the Texas recruiting scene.

A source said some UH leaders believe Orlando or Applewhite would continue Herman’s in-state momentum, though it was unclear as of Thursday afternoon which internal candidate would have the edge.

The school’s decision-makers are expected to meet Thursday evening after one administrator returns from a business trip.