USC willing to pay $6M/year for Football HC
According to an ESPN report here, USC (Pat Haden) is going to smash the piggy-bank to get a big-name head coach. Thought this was interesting as we collectively ponder changes.
One industry source told me this week that USC is willing to extend an offer of up to $6 million a year to get its man. Yes, that’s more than Nick Saban makes (for now).
November 15th, 2013 at 8:36 PM ^
November 15th, 2013 at 7:36 PM ^
November 15th, 2013 at 7:11 PM ^
November 16th, 2013 at 11:40 AM ^
November 15th, 2013 at 7:28 PM ^
November 15th, 2013 at 7:45 PM ^
10 years ago, Alabama would not have been on that list. They were basically the ND of the South. They are where they are now because of Saban.
November 15th, 2013 at 7:48 PM ^
November 15th, 2013 at 7:49 PM ^
November 15th, 2013 at 8:20 PM ^
They were hit with NCAA sanctions twice in a relatively short period. They were a pretty consistent power up until then (take another look at Gene Stallings record for example, it is probably way better than you remember).
Dubose (won the SEC), Franchione, and Shula all had 10-win seasons at Bama as well. Nobody was able to sustain the success though because of the scholarship reductions. Saban had excellent timing when it came to taking the job, in addition to doing a fantastic job there.
November 15th, 2013 at 7:56 PM ^
November 15th, 2013 at 9:10 PM ^
IMO I would not put Alabama there because they don't have the hotbed of talent in their state. They are in fact very similar to Michigan in having a great history, but needing to go other states to pull talent. Oklahoma is the same - in fact OKlahoma is almost a mirror to UM... one goes to neighbor state Ohio to get a bulk of talent, the other goes to neighbor state Texas to get a bulk of talent.
Any top school in Florida, any top school in Cali, any top school in Texas, and OSU have a built in advantage. So I'd say U-Florida, FSU, USC, Texas, and OSU would be the "easiest" jobs in terms of pulling talent. A&M, Baylor (with the right coaching), TCU, Texas Tech, OK State speak to the talent in Texas and really says a lot about how underachieving Mack Brown is.
If you are going on tradition and history and such the names change a bit but just in terms of really being able to dominante recruiting in your own state if you are the top program, these are the schools where it can be easier to recruit.
November 16th, 2013 at 1:51 AM ^
November 16th, 2013 at 7:50 AM ^
November 15th, 2013 at 8:01 PM ^
November 15th, 2013 at 8:17 PM ^
hired John Robinson the second time to restore USC tradition..
November 15th, 2013 at 8:25 PM ^
Even in that 2nd go-round the Robocoach won as many Rose Bowls as Lloyd Carr.
November 15th, 2013 at 8:32 PM ^
replaced him with Paul Hackett
November 15th, 2013 at 9:00 PM ^
The Hack won over a third of his games at Pitt and coordinated those explosive Marty Schottenheimer offenses we all remember so well. It's only with the benefit of hindsight that we can second guess that move.
November 16th, 2013 at 3:28 AM ^
Hackett won 12 games in 3 full seasons at a school that had only had one losing season in the previous 20 and got fired. Yes, he then coordinated all of those great offenses in KC, but come on. He was hired because he was a USC MAN with ties to Robo's glory days. It'd be like us hiring Cam Cameron as head coach AFTER his Dolphins stint
November 16th, 2013 at 3:10 AM ^
Tis the season for straw men I suppose... yes, Lloyd only won one Rose Bowl but he went to 4 and also won an Orange Bowl. Robinson won a crappy Pac-10 and beat an overmatched Northwestern in a Rose Bowl to cap off the only season USC even sniffed a top ten finish in the 1990's.
November 15th, 2013 at 9:00 PM ^
I understand the arms race - it is happening in everything; those at the top set the curve but really it seems like a waste. Who is so great that it is worth that money? The larger question - who is the 3rd best coach in America at the college level? The top 2 are Urban and Saban. Are you going to pay $6M to get the guy from Stanford to come down to southern cal? Pay $6M to Les Miles? Pay $6M to Stoops who after his glorious run a decade ago seems to have moved into "just above Mack Brown" territory? Pay $6M to Sumlin who may or may not be a creation of Manziel? Who in America is worth it aside from the top 2? Serious question. Unless they go the NFL route and that is a totally different game where kissing the butt of boosters, alumni, and the kids themselves is not required.
November 15th, 2013 at 9:15 PM ^
could probably be enticed back to LA. But overall I don't see a $6 million coach other than those you named.
November 15th, 2013 at 9:43 PM ^
To be fair, this is just speculation, not Haden coming out and saying he'll spend this much. He's certainly not saying whoever gets hired is getting $6M. That being said, the only guys who I can see giving that kind of dough to are Saban and Meyer who have had elite results at multiple stops (both not leaving top-5 jobs, IMO, especially for a team still dealing with probation issues) or an NFL guy like Carroll, Gruden, or maybe Tomlin (Del Rio shouldn't cost that much, and I don't like the idea of Dungy or Cowher, to be honest).
November 15th, 2013 at 9:48 PM ^
You know how like winning CA or TX can singlehandedly wipe out winning 23 other states...that means they have a stupid amount of people in those giant states. Likewise cherry picking the freakishly good athletes becomes easier by virtue of the probability that there are more of them.
Ya Michigan is pretty big but the U.P. is a little thin population-wise.
It is definitely shaping up to be an interesting offseason. USC and presumably TX on the prowl for a proven genuis coach to install to return their storied programs to glory with rail cars full of cash to back it up. Expectations to match.
Were I made AD, I would make it a simple contract. I schedule the games which could be versus cupcakes or juggernauts. You win one, you get 3/4 million deposited in your account. You lose one, you get nothing. There is nothing like properly positioned incentives.
November 15th, 2013 at 10:34 PM ^
November 16th, 2013 at 7:48 AM ^
I have the bumper stickers somewhere to prove it.
For the record, the "I dumped the Dope" moniker is in reference to Wayne DeNeff of the Ann Arbor News in the early 80s. He made weekly college football picks, you cut a slip out of the AA News and mailed it in with Your picks. If you picked correctly more than he, you got a bumper sticker mailed back to you the next week. Pretty cool to get kids interested in football...
The closest I ever get to dope is the pipe thread sealant in my shop which I sometimes refer to as "pipe dope".
I never have done any actual dope.
Sorry to disappoint.
November 15th, 2013 at 10:10 PM ^
I know they started out rough, but Texas is 7-2 and 6-0 in conference play. The idea that they are going to fire their surefire CFB Hall of Fame coach is still kind of silly at this point, barring an 0-3 finish. Why is anyone just assuming they'll be in the market for a new boss?
November 15th, 2013 at 11:43 PM ^
Agree. Mack Brown's season this year reminds me a lot of Carr in '07. Two really bad losses early in the year but kept the team together and ended up having a nice year considering how it started. Obviously, Mack still has 3 more games left but they way he's kept the team together and has them in the hunt for the conference title is pretty nice.
November 15th, 2013 at 10:19 PM ^
We'll double anything you offer Hoke or Borges! Go Blue!
November 15th, 2013 at 10:32 PM ^
November 16th, 2013 at 11:33 AM ^
Is Lee Corso pulling a Mary Sue Coleman right now??
November 16th, 2013 at 11:41 AM ^
This is the thing Michigan is still learning. The market in college football has exploded. The only way to get top talent is to pay for it, both at HC and coordinators (and everywhere else).
If you expect a hometown discount you're going to be SOL.
November 16th, 2013 at 1:02 PM ^
The real question is how much they are going to pay their players.
November 16th, 2013 at 6:37 PM ^
I just submitted Borges resume