Question for college football experts.

[Ken Burch]

There's been this trend in the last few years of colleges needing a new coach hiring a head coach away from another school while that school's team is still playing.

It happened today with Willie Taggart, the first-year Oregon head coach(Oregon will be playing in the Las Vegas Bowl on December 16th), who has apparently signed to coach for Florida State, but it has happened in a lot of other schools recently.

Is it generally the coaches being casual about ditching their current teams? Or is it the schools doing the hiring putting hardball pressure on the coaches to leave before the bowl game, or the last game of a winning season? You'd think the schools doing the hiring would respect the need of the current coach to finish the season he(at this point in NCAA football, it's still universally "he)is leading the team through?

When did it get accepted that it's asking too much to wait to hire 'til the current season is actually done?

And is there some reason they NCAA doesn't have a rule banning this practice?

Why the need to be this ruthless about hiring?

[rurallib]

1. Not an expert, but have been a fan for a long time

living near a campus.

My observation has been that the hiring school leaves it up to the coach. Some coaches want to complete their season as they feel they owe it to their players that they recruited and coached.

Others can't wait to get the ball rolling, especially on recruiting and hiring assistants. Good assistants go fast as do good players.

As far as the courtesy of waiting until the season is done, well he who hesitates is lost.

There are huge reasons not to be a college sports fan. This is one of the bigger reasons not to. But living near a major school can be fun when our team wins.

[yallerdawg]

2. It's about recruiting and stagnation.

Nick Saban was with a new prospect when he found out Alabama made the playoffs!

When a university has an opening, they are compelled to fill it.

[Ken Burch]

4. What's the difference between filling the vacancy in December, or filling it in January?

The team's not going to start practice until March or so. January would still leave a solid two months for recruiting.

Just trying to understand this, because it seem to have become much more aggressive a practice in the last decade or so.

[yallerdawg]

5. While the new coach is fudging around at the old school...

the new school has a massive hole in its program.

A very good coach can also get ever more competitive offers - or the new coach can see his job go to another coach!

In college football, entire athletic programs and even major portions of school funding are dependent on the success of the football coach.

In many states, the coach is the highest paid public employee by far!

[underpants]

6. Lots to unwrap here.

First they go where the money is and where they have recruiting contacts - basically high school football coaches. Football recruiting pales in comparison to basketball.

Case in point - Marshall's current coach Doc Holliday (yes that's his real name) was offered $1M per year to simply recruit for Ohio State. He has extensive contacts in Florida football. He currently recruits 2nd and 3rd tier recruits to Marshall. BTW getting Florida and Texas recruits through the NCAA clearinghouse is a nightmare due to their horrible education systems.

If you miss a week of contact with recruits you lose ground.

Also cash is king. Basketball is way worse where you only need 1-3 strong recruits. Payments to the local pastor or high school coach (which always end up back with the parents) are always under $10k. Even if the NCAA saw you paying someone connected to a top recruit they'd have to prove it was connected.

Facilities are also a big selling point. Alabama has an out of this world "locker room" as does Oregon (Nike headquarters).

Alabama

Oregon

[Sancho]

3. The problem is recruiting for the next season...

The hiring school offers lots of dough, and the coach knows that his success lies in recruiting. They leave before the bowl games, so that they can get going to sign the best players at their destination.

[brush]

7. This move I don't quite get unless Florida State made an offer he couldn't refuse.

Taggart is a first-year coach whose own recruits haven't even had a chance to play for him yet.

He coached his predeccesor's players this season as he will next season at Florida State so he'll essentially be starting over in the recruiting process.

Another factor is Florida State and Oregon are IMO just about equivalent programs. Both have been to the championship game in the last four years.

Florida State won, Oregon didn't but Oregon has a huge resource in that Nike, the athletic equipment company showers them with top notch uniforms, gear and facilities (Phil Knight, it's CEO is an alum).

Neither school had a great record this year, although Oregon's 7-5 is slightly better than Florida State's steep fall off to 6-6 this year. Seems Taggert could've leveraged the Florida State offer to up his deal with Oregon.

[Ken Burch]

8. I wonder if the U of O athletic director or people on his staff dissed the coach in some way.

A lot of sudden decisions like this derive from personal slights.

[brush]

11. Could be. I hadn't thought of that.

[OriginalGeek]

15. FSU had to get someone in because Jimbo left for Texas A&M before their last game even

Taggart has a lot of ties to the area being from Bradenton and coaching at USF. He grew up a Nole's fan and we Nole's fans are happy to have him. He has a history of good recruiting and he's taken over losing schools and brought them all to winning records.

As for the legalities and moralities of the contracts and buy-outs and all that - I imagine schools have all that built-in or they wouldn't let coaches do it.

I've had a sore spot about Jimbo since his part in ousting Bobby Bowden to get the "dream job" he always wanted. Now it looks like it wasn't so much a dream job. I don't think he did as good as his record would indicate either - I think he skated a lot of his early success off Bobby's back.

Then again, as great a coach as BB was, he turned out to be a tRump supporter - but since he's no longer the FSU coach I reckon that doesn't matter much. I figure it was senility and religion making him think stupid things. Which may be why they got him out of FSU earlier than he seemed to want to go.

I just hope Willie gets a chance to make this his dream job. I look forward to FSU winning again.

Who I feel more sorry for is UCF. Coach Frost took them from losing to undefeated and then left for HIS dream job - I imagine UCF knew all along the Nebraska alum would want to go back there some day. Just kinda hoped they could have enjoyed a few more years of success with him.

[Bradshaw3]

9. New early signing date

The NCAA approved an early signing date this year, Dec. 20, whereas before high school players had to wait until February (there is still a signing date then). That is a recent factor but the overall trend is just more and more money being poured into these programs, with salaries for top coaches going through the roof. Coaches still pay lip service to "team" and integrity and loving their players but when it comes down to it, a coach who makes a big leap from a mid-major or even a less successful Power 5 school to one of the big time programs can go from making hundreds of thousands or a million a year to $3M to $5M a year. Even if they fail and get fired some still walk away with $10M left on their contracts the school owes them.

So to answer your question big-time college football has become extremely lucrative for the top coaches, so loyalty to their previous school is a low priority compared to getting a running start at their new school that is paying them a lot more money.

[MichMan]

10. Contracts apparently are one sided

What I find distasteful is that the contracts between the coaches and schools appear to be one sided in practice.

Coach signs 4 year contract (or extension) for $5 million per year. If he gets fired partway through, demands that the school pay him every penny still owed. Fine, a contract is a contract right?

Coach quits for another team in the middle of a contract and expects to be let off the hook and have the contract broken. Even if there happens to be a buyout clause, those are almost always covered by the new school.

[GeorgeGist]

12. It's all about G R E E D.

[trotsky]

13. This. n/t

[Brother Buzz]

14. Regular season contract obligations have been fulfilled

To Hell with morals and ethics, it's legal.

[kairos12]

16. The timing and firing of coaches during the season makes it an arms

race to who can hire the next best coach. The firing leads to others claiming jobs while still in jobs. Grab a coach before somebody else does. Greed, and no integrity whatsoever.