i dunno, i think he made it pretty clear in the press conference that he was planning on continuing to coach after the montana job, and that he expected/hoped he would be getting calls right after the news went out.His intent when retiring was not to immediately take another college job. The Illinois job became available to him almost a week after he retired.
my take is that he wasn't really 'retiring'. why he chose that term when it wasn't really his intention, i do not know.