LSU and Texas have made their hires, and yet, despite being down to one commitment for 2017, Baylor’s vacancy remains unfilled.

In our last major update in that search, 247Sports was told by multiple industry sources that the school had then-Houston coach Tom Herman and SMU coach Chad Morris at the top of its list.

Since then, Herman took the Texas job and Morris’ SMU team allowed 75 points to Navy, falling a game short of automatic bowl qualification.

We were told Sunday by those close to the search that Baylor and Morris are moving on. Sources said the once-promising negotiations hit a snag along the way for two reasons: Morris’ desire for another in-state job driving the price tag - and, on Baylor’s end, it was a price and a coaching prospect that suddenly seemed less palatable after watching Navy score 10 offensive touchdowns on 10 possessions against the Mustangs. (Navy also had a pick 6 to get to 75 points.)

With Morris most likely out, the names we’re hearing most often are North Carolina’s Larry Fedora, Colorado’s Mike MacIntyre and Cal’s Sonny Dykes.

Tulsa’s Philip Montgomery has also been mentioned to us. It’s unclear, however, how AD Mack Rhoades and Baylor’s board will view Montgomery in the scope of the scandal that rocked the campus in the past year.

The 44-year-old Montgomery has not been linked in any way to wrongdoing, but the optics are shaky at best considering he was one of assistants closest to Art Briles, going all the way back to the staff’s time together at Stephenville High.

Some close to the program say Baylor would - and should - feel the need to make a clean break from Briles and his coaching tree while others believe Montgomery should be considered independent of the relationship. Tulsa just completed a 9-3 regular season in Montgomery’s second season there, and his name is showing up on more and more ADs’ radars.

Regardless of the ultimate choice in Waco, time is of the essence because the incoming staff will inherit quite the recruiting quandary. A half-dozen members of the 2016 class left during the summer months, and the 2017 class has disintegrated almost entirely.

After three-star cornerback prospect Noah Daniels decommitted Sunday, Baylor’s lone commitment is three-star safety Jalen Pitre from Stafford, Texas. That’s an extreme uphill climb for a coach and staff coming in from out of state, which is what made Morris so appealing and why sources were increasingly certain he would be hired. But we’re told Morris’ representation might have overplayed that in-state recruiting leverage in negotiations.

But that leverage play could have been, in reality, a calculated dare. If it worked out, Morris would have received a decent-but-challenging job and a big payday. If it didn’t, it kept Morris in play for larger jobs down the line.

We’ve also been told that Morris, 47, has a particular eye toward the Texas A&M job. With Kevin Sumlin entering a pressure-filled 2017, Morris perhaps believes he could be a de facto coach-in-waiting-at-an-AAC- school in the same way that Herman got from Houston to Texas by waiting an additional season.

Morris is an A&M grad. If he went to Baylor, particularly with a difficult turnaround on tap, he would essentially take himself out of the running if Sumlin is out in the next year or two.

Morris and Herman have sort of a quiet rivalry brewing. Both accepted their Texas-based AAC jobs in the same month span in 2014, and two of SMU’s best effort under Morris were against Houston - including this year’s 38-16 rout of the then-No. 11 Cougars. The idea of one at Texas and the other at A&M has certain appeal, particularly to the coach still in the AAC.