I have no way of knowing whether it is or isn't true (but I trust you on that).
Assuming it is true, it makes me even more disappointed in the admin and mad for Des. If Lanning was indeed on campus, regardless of how close we could have been to making a contract offer to him, this shows that we had interest from the right caliber of candidate. Heck, we had interest from a better-than-expect caliber of candidate.
So to turn around and hire Des was likely a disservice to the career of Des. They had to know that going in. And since then, they've continually sent the parrots out to this site to spread the narrative of "Des is all we can afford". Its a narrative that is demonstrably false, and yet it keeps coming up. Because they want it to keep coming up. Self-imposed limits are always the most powerful.