James was hired by White shortly after that and immediately moved his family to North Salt Lake, where he has lived the past two years. After the 2007 season, James added director of personnel duties to his coaching assignment, which increased midway through the 2008 season when defensive coordinator Hunkie Cooper was let go.

"I would be very interested in it," James said Monday evening. "The Blaze organization is one of the best in the league. I love it here, and my family loves it here, too."

Blaze president Jason Jones, who will conduct the search for a new coach, said Monday that James is definitely on the "short list" of candidates to replace White.

"We want a 365 [days a year], 24 [hours a day], seven [days a week] kind of guy who would be fully engaged in the job," Jones said.

Two recently fired AFL coaches, Doug Kay at Columbus and Ed Hodgkiss at Los Angeles, will also likely be considered.

Kay coached with White for four years in Arizona. Reached Tuesday, he said he would be interested in the opening, "but only if ownership initiated the contact and showed an interest in me. I'm certainly not going to talk to a lot of people about jobs right now."

Hodgkiss could not be reached for comment.

Lee Leslie, who left the Blaze after serving as their defensive coordinator in their inaugural season to become the head coach of the Boise Burn in af2, said Tuesday that he is interested, but is heavily focused right now on getting his 7-6 team to the playoffs, which begin later this summer.

The Blaze also might look at some current AFL coaches, hoping to lure them to Utah with the promise of more money and/or control.

One successful AFL coach, Dallas' Will McClay, is not available. He has one more year on his contract, and the team plans to keep him, team official Sly Anderson told dallascowboys.com.

drew@sltrib.com