This article is a must read for what's happening in college coaching hires. Opinion: Brian Kelly's move from Notre Dame to LSU shows college football has a real problem on its hands Coaches change jobs all the time, and desperate schools do desperate things this time of year. But for Kelly to leave Notre Dame high and dry when his team still has a chance to win a national championship is both something we’ve never really seen in college football and a rubicon crossed that takes the sport down a perilous path. How does anyone continue to pretend that this is amateur sports when a multi-million dollar coach leaves his players in the lurch while they could still end up playing for history? How does anyone take the sanctity of the College Football Playoff seriously when it means so little to Kelly that he high-tails it out of town before he even knows whether his team gets in?
Wow... I never put a thought to that rumor, mainly because Kelly looked to have the Irish machine going, and he doesn't look like a fit in Red Stick. Just Wow...
SI reported that K’s 2020 extension at ND provided him a yearly salary of roughly 2.65M. So, if the 15M report is correct, LSU is offering him close to 6X more than what he was making at ND. Guess Tucker, Riley, and Kelly ought to send a thank you note to Ed O as his firing resulted in an insane financial windfall for these three guys.
Fickle earns more than Kelly at UC. Sounds like the padres better dig deep for the next one in. In all seriousness.. Our game is changing for the worse. It has been morphing into a professional league for years but this revelation with Kelly shows just how far along it has moved. The four big changes, in order were the eligibility rules for players, the transfer portal, the ability of players to be paid in addition to everything they already get and now the exploding coaches compensation. We have players leaving for the NFL after two and half years, some sitting out games at the end of their abbreviated stays to avoid injury. other players are in their sixth year because of one loophole or another. the transfer portal is where spoiled brats go when they don't get their way; not enough playing time, not in my favorite position, don't like the weather, etc. This year the portal will be completely out of hand. Then we got the idea that an opportunity for a FREE college education, pampering like a Arab sultan, tremendous travel and exposure and all the bling and freebies they can carry home was not enough so now we allow them to be paid pitchmen for products and services. Saban even joked before this year that his freshman QB was already a millionaire. The kid at OSU foregoes his senior year of HS to stand on the Buckeye sideline, do TV commercials and drive a $70,000 truck given to him. And now the coaches have joined in with a fervor. A month ago no one had ever heard of Mel Tucker but at this moment he is the highest paid coach in college football. He celebrated by getting his ass kicked by 50 in his next game. The Sooner coach ran off the field after losing and kept running to Los Angeles to sign a huge deal. Now Kelly sticks it to his team and we are shocked but why? This is exactly how we got him; he stuck to the script. The school spirit, the mascots, the bands and the campus photos are for sentimental saps with long memories. College football is a big business, a training ground for the NFL. The only question is how much are we willing to pay to keep this altered reality afloat?
Maybe it's not as hard to leave a team for money if the team's best player doesn't play because of money.
The money in College football seems really out of hand. $15 million a year? Unreal. If the reports I have seen here and elsewhere are true Kelly was making less than $3 million. That is also unreal by today standards. I am still very happy with our hire. A young guy that looks like he checks all the boxes. I just hope my fellow Gator fans are patient enough to give him time to install his program and get our recruiting back where it belongs. I have no fear that Notre Dame will sink, they will get a good coach. Might well be Fickell if they are willing to wait till bowl season is over. He looks like a real winner to me.
Bill, we are all living in an unreal environment and I do not believe it will improve much in our remaining life time.
I sure have to agree with that. I am also glad we got our guy without having to pay such a high salary. I am not sure just how much college football can support this kind of madness.
It's again interesting to watch the reaction to Kelly's firing. For a long time now, Kelly who has never been "beloved" like Ara or Lou has been attacked/scorned by a lot of the online ND fans. Almost daily wishes that he'd retire/leave/get fired. Many just longed for the day he was gone from ND. Now they are outraged about how he left. I get it, both he and Lincoln Riley blindsided everybody and in Kelly's case even those who wanted him gone wanted him gone but not like this. Kind of a careful what you wish for situation.
Recruits and Commits are starting to show up on social media. A common theme is that their fine if Freeman is the coach.
LSU says Kelly is 10 years 95M. Swarbrick said Kelly didn't give him the chance to match it. Says that the Interim HC will not be a candidate for the job. Meeting with the players was over in 10 minutes. Speculation of course on what coaches will go with Kelly. Expects to have a HC quickly, will be moving fast.
I guess the "logical" progression would be Fickle to ND, and Freeman back to Cincinnati as HC. The playoff berth will probably throw that all out of whack tho. At least the 15mil was incorrect. The model is becoming more and more unsustainable. How many schools are running in the black right now? 2 dozen maybe? You start making coaches pay the 10+ million club, and that number will drop even more. I also don't think the NIL money that's floating around right now will last. Boosters do have deep pockets, but it's not a bottomless pit. How many kids have to get a 7 figure deal, never play, then transfer before that well starts to get a little tapped out?
Matt Rhule is starting to be the name that ND fans seem to want, I'm of course skeptical that NFL coaches want to come back to college. Nick Saban wasn't happy at Miami, Bobby Petrino wasn't happy at Atlanta, and Pete Carroll was unemployed after getting fired at N.E. I don't know if Matt Rhule is unhappy at Carolina, maybe he is, so no harm in giving him a call. I predict that ND fans who were unhappy with the hire of Brian Kelly back in 2010 and there were many, will also be unhappy with almost any hire not named Nick Saban or John Harbaugh or maybe even Matt Rhule. Even Luke Fickell is not leading the list of who the fans want.