No harder than trying to sell McDermott or another retread or unknown from a mid major. It's hindsight, but this is probably how it should have gone after Matta was fired -
Put out some feelers to the big names on your list - Miller, Mack, etc. If there's some interest from those camps, then be prepared to bust out the checkbook and pay whatever it takes to get them to Columbus. If there's no interest from those names, then you promote from within, burn a year with that guy, and in March or April you make the big splash hire. It's always going to be really tough to pull a coach away from an established program, but it's virtually impossible when you're trying to do it in mid-June.
As it is now, Smith is in between a rock and a hard place. He can't sell the fanbase on a middling candidate like McDermott and he can't draw a big name, at least not without massively overpaying since he doesn't really have an leverage now that he's already had one offer publicly rejected.
Gregg Marshall makes upwards of 3 mil annually at Wichita State, and they're joining a conference that isn't a one bid league next year. Not much incentive for him to leave.
