It sounds like McElroy had some good insights to the process.
The vibe I got from Rhule's NFL Network interview is that he was ready to take the year off and let his son finish high school, and that is probably part of the reason he initially turned down the job. I think his family making it evident that they approved of him taking this job, and the universities leadership doing all the right things in the process, ultimately flipped him.
When McElroy talks about the 2 schools he'd take no matter what, I would assume one is Penn State, but I don't know what the other would be (back to Baylor?).
Rhule definitely wasn't a bottom of the barrel pick up. I think this was one of the top coaches they wanted, if not the top one.