Fast Five: Facts and quotes chopped from Bianco hiring story

Those involved with Mike Bianco's hiring at Ole Miss in the summer of 2000 graciously told their stories to Rivals.com in recent days. The finished product can be found here, as the article details three weeks that altered the course of Ole Miss baseball.

However, not everything made it in the primary piece. Instead, there are some leftover facts and quotes from key figures that we begrudgingly cut. Below we give you items that didn't quite fit the content.

Former Ole Miss assistant Dan McDonnell: "We lived in the athletic foundation house. It was four coaches and us seeing who could beat who out the door. I laugh now because it was so much fun. It was almost like training camp. We had one goal. There were no distractions. We just hit it everyday."

Cami Bianco: "Mike came up immediately. We hadn’t sold our house yet, so the kids and I were still in Lake Charles while all the staff was in the foundation house. We put the house on the market and it was chaos showing the house. We came up and literally found a house in three days. It was so stressful, but we found a fixer-upper. We met awesome people and I came with the family in August."

McDonnell: "I had a four door car -- I hate to say a brand name -- and it would hum like crazy when the air when the air was on. It would hum through the vents. I used to pound the dashboard with my hand. And now I was thinking about Bianco and his history at LSU and the titles and everything being first-class. I’m literally pounding the dashboard from the airport to campus, and I didn't want to be needy. Finally I go in and ask Mike if there's another car I could get. I’m driving kids from the airport to campus and it makes a humming sound. He scared me where we need to be happy with what you get and don’t make excuses."

Skip Bertman, then serving as LSU's athletics director, fired Smoke Laval following the 2006 season. Bertman eventually tabbed Paul Mainieri for head coach, but there were days when the search revolved around Bianco.

Cami Bianco: "You hope this place is forever and everything rolls and it’s where you dream about being. The reality of coaching is people move — good , bad, whatever. It happens... With LSU, the hard part for Mike would always be saying no to Skip, his mentor. We've always been happy in Oxford. Our kids have known nothing but Oxford School District. Michael was just a preschooler when we moved. That's remarkable in today's coaching world."

McDonnell: "When LSU came calling you always think the grass is greener on the other side. He showed me what loyalty is. Make your claim at one school. If a school and program is going to be great then be the one to make it great. The goal for us all is to do what Bertman did at LSU. It’s harder now. No disrespect to him, of course. What (Bianco) has done at Ole Miss and the consistency and where he took that program to, it's really impressive. When I have had opportunities at other places I just don't know why I'd go to them. This is a school that believed in you. Why not stay there?"

Athletic director John Shafer had strong ties to Auburn and was very close with Steve Renfroe, who Auburn hired to replace Hal Baird that same offseason. It was known Renfroe was the automatic replacement for Baird, otherwise Bianco and Turtle Thomas would have had company as finalists.

Renfroe was fired after four seasons as Auburn head coach.

Shafer: "Absolutely, Steve would have been considered. I knew him very well, had been a fan of his for many years, and I knew he was an excellent baseball mind. We were dear friends, and that would have been an option. After the process was complete, I'm not sure anyone could have impressed me like Mike did, but that would have been a name to consider."

Mike Bianco admits he didn't have much knowledge of his now hometown when he took the Ole Miss job, but his wife had taken multiple trips over the years and understood Oxford's dynamics. It's one of the reasons she didn't have to be convinced when the offer came.

Cami Bianco: "We knew Ole Miss from being at LSU. I came up here when he played as a junior and we played here. It was the first year the stadium opened, and I drove up with some girlfriends. So we watched that series. Then when he was an assistant I came up with Mrs. Bertman. She flew the wives up on a plane. I had been several times and since I went to high school in a small town, I loved that part of it. We had that conversation when he was a coach, and we talked about all the places. I had been on a lot of road trips. I was an athletic trainer as an undergrad at LSU, and Oxford was always one of my favorites. The campus was beautiful, and I remember always thinking it was a great place. Tim Climer kept telling me I'd love it, and I already thought so."

Ole Miss baseball supporter Tim Climer: "I sent a bunch of packets to Mike and Cami. It was basically recruiting material for the community and for Oxford -- schools, activities, that kind of thing. I think Cami was already in tune, but I was covering bases with the economic development stuff."