That's absolutely my take as well. I have a hard time believing Leohnard was just going to leave without giving Wisconsin the chance to retain him and I have to believe there have been some conversations about him being the coach-in-waiting to replace Chryst in the past.
I have a lot of friends who are hard-core Badger fans and while the fan base has viewed Chryst very similar to how the Iowa fan base overall views KF, it was pretty well known that Leohnard was likely to be the next coach at some point.
Maybe they just got worried Jim was going to entertain some of the openings out there and decided it's not worth the risk. I think that is one big difference between Iowa and Wisconsin situation. There isn't really a highly sought after HC candidate on Iowa's staff right now like Leohnard. PP doesn't want to be an HC, BF isn't in demand, and that leaves Woods. While we all love him and many believe he would make a very good HC at some point, he doesn't have the national cache that Jim does.
I am hopeful that if Woods is the guy in the pipeline, that he is hearing that behind the scenes from the administration and he understands that it might be his opportunity when KF leaves.
And maybe it might be best for Woods - and the Iowa program - long-term if he took a lower-level G5 HC job for a few years before coming back to Iowa when KF is ready to retire.
Obviously, no one wants to lose him off the staff but if the understanding was that Woods would love to come back when KF is done, might be a better long-term approach.