One of my best job ever happened that way; I submitted my resume based on a newspaper ad and heard nothing then several months later there was another ad, almost identical to the one I had answer and I thought, what the heck, and applied again (it sounded like my dream job) and this time got called in for an interview and got the job. During the interview, the guy told me the person in the job (that got it the first time) had been fired and turned out she had a PhD! I only had a bachelor's so I'm thinking, wtf? Turned out she didn't have any practical experience, just vague school knowledge (not even specific to the software being used) and it needed a lot of practical, hands-on experience.

Maybe the interview process will eat up a lot of the 8 weeks you have left and you can stall starting until after whatever is left? Good luck for whatever you want!