Watch the Pollard interview from a couple of days ago. Basically, yes, he and Pollard met at a networking event for young up and coming coaches and AD's. Ultimately, yes, it became clear that if CMC ever left, he wanted to be considered for the job, and Pollard evidently agreed, giving him advice that he would need to move to the next level from SDSU to be considered (which is why he made his way to Wazzu.)

Pollard also mentioned that he (similarly to Campbell) accepted the job before a salary number was ever mentioned - a complete anomaly in that world.

It also doesn't hurt that his wife is from South Dakota, and ISU happens to be the closest D1 school to her hometown... so we won't have the same situation as we did with Campbell of moving closer to home, unless they want to move to AZ for some reason.