I think his point was that Rhule was not sold on NU till late in the game and wanted things to remain quiet and behind doors. Any type of rumor mill stuff might have gave Rhule even more hesitation and potentially derailed the situation.
Remember we aren't a program that top tier coaches are necessarily knocking down doors for. We reached out the Rhule, not the other way around.
How many coaches that we know of reached out to NU for the job?