re: Worst new coaching search ever?

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Would the following coaches who only were pursued by 1 big name reject the HC offer at a top 15--25 program over smaller buyout? Would it be a deal breaker?

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Outside of Yaw Yaw, I think all those coaches were pursued by more than one school.

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Not top 25 programs

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What constitutes a top 25 program?

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But since you don't think any of these guys had leverage, I'll concede we should expect their buyouts should be among the lowest around.

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I'm saying the problem is that ADs are the most incapable negotiators of all time. Coaches have no problem trying to leverage their position for raises etc. ADs never play hardball negotiating and get "friendly deals"


The problem is the "benchmark effect," similar to the SOX top earners inflation problem for publicly traded companies

Let's say coaches at programs #10-20 should be roughly paid ballpark each other. You can then determine a "benchmark" what a coach should be paid as #10-20 based on public contract details

Let's assume coaches' performance can put them in 1 of 3 buckets: "Top Performers" , "Solid/Expected" and "Underperform"

What would make sense is that "Top Performers" get raises, "Solid/Expected" coaches stay where their salary started + maybe inflation, "Underperformers" probably get fired

The Problem

If a coach wasn't fired, they can be assumed to be viewed as at least "Expected results" Coaches paid less than benchmark then ask for a "reasonable" raise to be paid benchmark #10-

Coaches paid benchmark + above also get paid same or receive a raise

The benchmark salary then increases

all new coaches demand benchmark for 10-20 job, best 10-20 coaches demand raises above rising benchmark while current benchmark coaches ask for raises to keep up with future bnehcmark increases

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They don't play hardball because this isn't a negotiation. It usually comes down to the highest bidder.

ADs aren't car shopping.

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Who exactly are these teams bidding against?

These buyouts come in 2 forms: New Coach and Coach Extension buyouts (often to retain coach)

New Coach Only 2-4 "Top 25" type programs open up every year, of which maybe 1 coach hiring is truly competitive. Fact is that no coach spurns TAMU to coach at Purdue for $1mil extra & a larger buyout

Existing Coach: There is a weird myth out there that programs will snap up you coach. There are almost no coaches in the past 20 years to have been "hired away" from top 25 programs and find success

Jackie Sherrill left Pitt for A&M 35 years ago.

The last coach to leave a major program for a "lesser" one was Bret Bielema.

Also, the comment about the Eagles is bullshite as Chip Kelly was already the coach of the Eagles for 1 full season when Sumlin got his extension.

Only a true piece of work would try to claim that the Eagles, who were in year 1 of Chip Kelly, were trying to hire Sumlin at the end of the 2013 season.

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Is there some ray of hope everyone is missing?

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Nope.

The reason there's no excitement around this coaching search is because everyone knows we're just going to hire Aggie Chad, and because he's just another Sumlin at best, we'll be right back here in 3-5 years, making yet another bad hire.

It's just depressing that we have no balls. The theme song of this coaching "search" that began and ended with Aggie Chad is The Sound of Settling. I'm pretty much done with Aggie Football now. I used to base my life around it. But we just don't have anyone in charge who has testicles and a burning desire to win, so we never will.

HS football in Texas is all 7 on 7 these days so the OL can't run block anymore. At least not against SEC defenses.

A coach who can teach run blocking and implement a power running game is the best recipe for success in this league.

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The reason there's no excitement around this coaching search is because everyone knows we're just going to hire Aggie Chad, and because he's just another Sumlin at best, we'll be right back here in 3-5 years, making yet another bad hire.

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I'm curious as to why people keep saying things like this?

Morris wasn't a co-oc who didn't call plays or a mid season elevation to replace a fired coach for his OC jobs like Sumlin. Morris wasn't gifted a ready made team with an NFL QB at his first (college) head coaching gig like Sumlin. Morris doesn't have a holier than thou don't question me attitude like Sumlin when things go wrong.

Morris doesn't even run the same kind of spread that has been featured in Sumlin's offenses.

Other than the fact he is at an AAC school in Texas I'm struggling to understand why so many think he is basically the exact same as Sumlin.

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Other than the fact he is at an AAC school in Texas I'm struggling to understand why so many think he is basically the exact same as Sumlin.

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I don't think he's exactly the same. Yes, they're both "offensive" coaches, but Morris is actually responsible for his offenses, whereas Sumlin seems to just be rolling the dice on different offensive coordinators.

However, Morris hasn't shown the slightest ability to field competent defenses, which is one of the biggest problems with Sumlin.

In 2014,the year before Morris took over, SMU ranked #108 in defensive efficiency (based on per-play metrics adjusted for opponents). #120 rushing, #127 passing.

Since then, Morris's teams have been

2015: 119/125/120
2016: 92/62/54
2017: 97/84/112

And there are a ton of other similar stats that say the same. I understand he's an offensive coach and won't expect him to turn out elite defenses, but that lack of improvement on defense doesn't speak well of his prospects of having anything close to a championship level defense.

If we hire Morris then you all are right. This will have been the worst coaching search ever.