Published December 13, 2010 - 5:15am
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Huge news over the weekend in the SEC. First up, the announcement that somewhat overshadowed the predictable Heisman Trophy presentation in Florida announcing the hiring of Will Muschamp as their new head coach. Sunday followed up with the report that hot Auburn OC Gus Malzahn may potentially take the job at Vanderbilt.
The coaching carousel in college football and in the Southeastern Conference demonstrates a few things. First, the money is bigger than ever these days in college football, with programs being able to throw multi-million dollar deals at coordinators who have never been head coaches. Second, it demonstrates how difficult it is to keep a program at the top of the rankings year after year.
Let’s look at some examples.
Exhibit A – The 2010 Florida Gators
The regular season the Gators just completed can be described as disappointing to say the least. The Gators finished the season 7-5, but worse yet, they looked terrible, confused, and uncoached. The Gators lost a ton of talent to the NFL the previous year, but you could easily make the case, that the bigger losses have been his assistants. Urban lost Dan Mullen to become head coach of Mississippi State after the 2008 season, and then defensive coordinator Charlie Strong to Louisville after the 2009 season.
Urban had to make a number of quick hires in the offseason to replace these key losses in his staff. The result was not a well-coached team and rumors during the season of major disagreements between coaches in terms of mid-season adjustments. Clearly, the attrition of highly successful coordinators takes a toll on a program, even one with top recruiting classes and top talent every single season.
Exhibit B – The 2010 Texas Longhorns
If there was a more surprising fall from 2009 to 2010 than the Florida Gators, it was definitely the Texas Longhorns. Now to make a disappointing season worse for Texas fans, Florida goes and gets their coach in waiting, Will Muschamp. Muschamp’s defense at Texas put up some impressive numbers even despite a very rough season.
Despite an aging head coach Mack Brown, Muschamp couldn’t pass up the position to be the Florida head coach. There are some rumors regarding the move of Major Applewhite also to Florida to work under Muschamp, but nothing substantial yet. If this happens, it’d be another loss of a key member of the Texas staff, and both Muschamp and Applewhite are huge assets in the recruiting department.
Exhibit C – The 2010-2011 Alabama Crimson Tide
The Crimson Tide under Nick Saban have achieved a very high level of success, going undefeated in two consecutive regular seasons of SEC play and a National Championship. While Saban’s staff hasn’t been picked off yet by other teams, defensive coordinator Kirby Smart is expected to be a target of new Florida coach Will Muschamp. While a bidding war for a defensive coordinator between Alabama and Florida would be interesting, a big bonus of the Muschamp hire was the fact that there was no buyout penalty and the likelihood that Muschamp will make less money than Urban Meyer did. That might result in Florida being able to buy Smart away from Alabama.
This will be an interesting area to watch as SEC fans. A bidding war for a coordinator might take SEC coaching to another level.
Exhibit D – The 2011 Auburn Tigers
Lastly, we get to the Auburn Tigers. The top team in the land for 2010. For Auburn, the loss of key personnel took even less time. Word is now that Gus Malzahn, the hot offensive coordinator that led Cam Newton and the Auburn offense, has been offered the head coaching job at Vanderbilt. I sure hope that if he accepts the offer, he doesn’t leave before the Oregon BCS Championship game.
The rise of Gus Malzahn demonstrates more than anything what a high level of success can do even in an insanely short time. Remember, Malzahn was coaching in high school just a few years ago. Now he might be getting a $20+ million contract (rumored).
Auburn went undefeated this year and has a great shot at winning the BCS Championship in January. Now, they’re probably losing their Heisman Trophy Winner Cam Newton to the NFL, and they’re potentially losing their offensive coordinator. What are the chances of them going undefeated again next year? What are the chances of them winning the SEC? The SEC West?
This is the new reality in college football today.
If you’re lucky enough to win a championship, don’t expect one the next year. If you have a coordinator that fans of any other team know about, don’t expect to keep him.
Sources close to Malzahn are saying he’s going to turn down the Vanderbilt offer, and accept a new salary of over $1.3 million per year to remain as offensive coordinator at Auburn. We should hear from Malzahn later this morning.
Very interesting.
That would be very smart of him. Waiting a bit will get him a big time job soon. Imagine this. Rodriguez out at Michigan, Miles goes north, and if not……
LSU or Michigan open
Nutt out at Ole Miss
Ole Miss open
And what about Richt?? Early talk was that he would be out soon as well, and if so….
Georgia open
Just sayin….
People amaze me. Every year since 2007, people have been saying Les Miles is going to leave LSU for Michigan, yet he’s still at LSU. Has it entered anyone’s mind that he might just be staying put at LSU for quite a while. I read recently where he said he was very happy where he was and that he was also happy with the progress his family has made living in the Baton Rouge area.
The man has a family. He may be a college football coach, but all in all family comes first before all else irregardless of what the circumstances are. Les does not strike me as one who will jump ship at the first offer. If he was to leave LSU, it would have to be an offer which would be better all the way around than what hes’ getting at LSU and that is in reference where his family is concerned as well.
I think the deal is people want to see Les leave and see LSU go back to the bottom of the barrel. Not going to happen anytime soon, so you would serve yourself much better by not even concerning yourself with such silliness.
irregardless isnt a word you idiot.
slade, it actually is a word, just not one that should be used in the majority of situations, and I would never call someone an idiot for the incorrect usage of a word, even if I were a smart enough person to know the entire dictionary by heart.
“Irregardless originated in dialectal American speech in the early 20th century. Its fairly widespread use in speech called it to the attention of usage commentators as early as 1927. The most frequently repeated remark about it is that “there is no such word.” There is such a word, however. It is still used primarily in speech, although it can be found from time to time in edited prose. Its reputation has not risen over the years, and it is still a long way from general acceptance. Use regardless instead.”
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/irregardless?show=0&t=1292275610
The only constant in the picture is the money. None of these coaches, whether head, offense, defense or special teams, stay put when more is dangled in front of them in terms of opportunity, advancement and moolah.
Plus, repeating a National Championship is nigh unto impossible to do even if you keep the same personnel. Just because you survive the meat grinder one year is no guarantee that the teams you thrash the previous season didn’t improve in terms of conditioning, strength and desire in the off season.
Any given team on any given day . . .
As for the coaching carousel, they are only interested in RIGHT NOW. They can’t look to becoming the heir apparent at any institution because there are no guarantees in sports. Coaches have to do what is best and makes the most sense to them and to their family regarding what offers they (coaches) accept or decline.
That would be awesome if he stayed so someone else can learn the system and run it when be does leave. 1.3 million is a good bit for a coordinator. Chizik gets 2.1 million. i expect him to get a good 2 mill raise at most next year. As Came said Saturday evening,”WAR EAGLE!!!”
That’s Chizik’s base salary. he gets bonuses for a variety of different goals, including winning the SEC West, winning the SEC and winning the BCS Championship. Chizik could have made even more of a base salary, but he wanted to make sure his assistant coaches were paid well, so he used some of the money that would have gone to himself, and gave his assistants more compensation. He is the only coach in the SEC that didn’t replace a single assistant coach from the 2009 season.
oh and I do believe irregardless is a word. who’s they idiot now?
Came is THEY idiot. lmao