re: Hottest seats in the SEC

Kevin Sumlin is Tier 0 now. As in "0 room for error".

Going back over the tenures of his last three predecessors:

R.C. Slocum was let go because the president (Ray Bowen) and athletic director (Wally Groff) who were protecting him were no longer there to save him from being held accountable for failing miserably. People forget that, had A&M not won the Big 12 in 1998, Slocum's contract would not have been renewed (1998 was the final year of his contract). He had no support whatsoever from the administration in terms of facilities because the mindset was that beating Texas was good enough.

Dennis Franchione was universally hated. The information about the VIP newsletter was leaked in order to reduce his buyout. Not even a perfect season in 2007 was going to save him.

Mike Sherman, while well-liked, no longer had the one individual (Mike McKinney) that was protecting him around to cover for him. John Sharp took over as chancellor that season. He also made two critical mistakes: He publicly spoke out against the move to the SEC and he refused to hire an offensive coordinator to delegate playcalling responsibilities to. This played out in the 2nd half collapses in 2011.

Kevin Sumlin has been getting more and more information leaked out against him. This is strategic, as he will basically have his most talented team across the board in 2016 top to bottom (2012 had 5 first round picks and Damontre Moore, but little else in terms of depth). This is also the team with the most upperclass leadership since his 2012 squad. This season will prove whether or not he is a good coach. Right now, all indications are that he will fail horribly. If he doesn't show significant improvement from the last two seasons, there will be enough information threatened or leaked about him to make him leave with minimal compensation.

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Eh, I think it would have to be a complete collapse, like 3 or 4 wins

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Not sure on that, 5-7 would do it missing a bowl IMO (say 2-6 in conference), but maybe he'd be one of those lucky teams to go bowling at 5-7

NM

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Odom

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Who does he coach for? Are we doing coordinators too?

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Bama won't tolerate mediocrity - there would be no excuse for Saban if he turned in 3 fricking years of 7-8 wins.

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Not that I think there's a chance in hell of this happening, it would certainly be interesting to see how the UA admins would handle it.

First of all, they would officially be on the hook for the remainder of his contract, which would be upwards of $30 million at minimum. Granted, Saban could agree to go quietly and "resign" for a settled amount, but knowing who represents him makes this unlikely.

The question would then become, who is worthy of succeeding him? Obviously it would have to be someone they believe would immediately get them back in playoff contention, so it will almost have to be an established HC at a major program with recent success - which means a hefty buyout to get him, and likely a substantial raise from whatever his current school is paying him - so, another $15 million or so up front, plus $7 or more a year in hopes that he'll be better than the legend he's replacing.

Let's face it - you'll be better off hoping Ms Terry tells Nick it's time to call it quits before any sort of decline happens. You're simply not going to upgrade from the GOAT, no matter how much you say you "won't tolerate mediocrity".

Freeze heating up with show cause looming