Athletic: There are far more college football jobs on the market than quality coaches

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We have never seen a coaching carousel like this.

It’s not even Halloween yet, and already 12 FBS schools have axed their coaches, including blue bloods Penn State, Florida, and now LSU. A fourth, Florida State, could join the list by season’s end. And Stanford, UCLA, Arkansas, Oklahoma State and Virginia Tech have proud histories of their own. Wisconsin, Michigan State and perhaps Auburn could soon join the list.

Firing the coach was the easy part. Hiring the next one will be infinitely more challenging.

www.nytimes.com

There are far more college football jobs on the market than quality coaches

Will the lack of splashy candidates this hiring just doom the cycle to repeat itself?
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com
 

Given the ultra competitive landscape for top tier coaches from better programs, plus his massive buyout, it would be a mistake for Wisconsin to fire Fickell anytime before 2026. And I don’t believe they will. Or maybe it’s just my deep, dark desire to see Bucky sink further into the abyss that’s driving that prediction.
 






WindyCityGopher said:
Given the ultra competitive landscape for top tier coaches from better programs, plus his massive buyout, it would be a mistake for Wisconsin to fire Fickell anytime before 2026. And I don’t believe they will. Or maybe it’s just my deep, dark desire to see Bucky sink further into the abyss that’s driving that prediction.
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Curious if Leonhard would be willing to coach for them. He’s unproven but could be good for their program. But I have no idea how he would feel about it after he didn’t get the job last time around.
 





WashedGoph said:
Curious if Leonhard would be willing to coach for them. He’s unproven but could be good for their program. But I have no idea how he would feel about it after he didn’t get the job last time around.
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There’s no way. All the decision-makers that basically fired him are all still in place.
 

Obviously it depends how you define quality.

For programs like Minnesota, I don't see how every time the head football comes open you don't just go after the best young, energetic, and promising G5 candidate you can get.

Kill pulled us out of the Brewster dungeon. Fleck has elevated the floor.

If we ever get lucky enough to hire a Cignetti, the ceiling can also be elevated. It is possible
 


The math doesn't math. 10 team conferences becoming 16, 18, 20 etc. means there will be lots of traditional powers with extra losses on their schedule and fewer conference championships. Yet the alumni and fan bases will continue to expect the same levels of championships. This will either never be acknowledged by the fan bases or they will refuse to accept it as they burn through coaches.

At the same time, the transfer portal raises expectations that an "off" year can be reversed immediately and that just fans the flames.

Hopefully all this upheaval creates an opening for a program that has reached a perennial 7-8 win level to jump into the playoff conversation every couple years as programs rise and fall around it.
 



GopherGrit said:
Obviously it depends how you define quality.

For programs like Minnesota, I don't see how every time the head football comes open you don't just go after the best young, energetic, and promising G5 candidate you can get.

Kill pulled us out of the Brewster dungeon. Fleck has elevated the floor.

If we ever get lucky enough to hire a Cignetti, the ceiling can also be elevated. It is possible
Click to expand...
Once upon the time Fickell was not just the best G5 coach out there but also among the best of recent history. Comparatively to many other hires of that same tier, Fleck is probably a standard deviation above the mean rather than at or below it.
 

I don't think Fleck is a hot commodity but I wonder if he becomes a candidate at at least somewhat attractive jobs due to all of the openings? Its not inconceivable that an AD, striking out on his top 12 or 13 candidates thinks, what the hell, this oily sloganeer has had the best sustained mediocrity in 50 years at Minnesota, there must be something to him.

Even if he isn't, I'm sure his agent will have no problem convincing that dope Coyle that in fact, he is very sought after and will give PJ a big raise and increased buyout figure.
 


I'm just wondering when the pendulum swings back. The days should be gone where it is nearly mandatory to lock up a coach for the next 5+ years in order to win recruits. Every recruit is free to leave now whenever they like so the universities should be moving more towards 2-4 year deals with heavier financial compensation, but lower on the guaranteed money.
 

I've only really known one P4 coach, and his take was that for the vast amount of time, the teams with the best players end up winning. He couldn't say that publicly, but he did say it in private. At the P4 level, every coach knows fundamentals and how to make game plans and adjustments. It's the players who play the game.

These days, the way to get the best players is to have large amounts of NIL dollars. On the one hand you can say having a marquee coach brings in more NIL; or on the other side of the coin you can justify spending a few million less on hiring a star coach and instead put that money into NIL. Win games, and you get more NIL, and with more NIL you get better players, and you then win more games, and get even more NIL and so on.

Bottomline: HIre a coach that brings in NIL (e.g., one that's really good at marketing the program) and some lower paid very competent assistant coaches, and you'll win. Unfortunately, we have an AD who in my opinion is not very good at marketing our programs. Instead of Coyle, we should have hired Pete Najarian, who wanted the job, and would be great at pulling in those NIL dollars.
 

GopherGrit said:
Obviously it depends how you define quality.

For programs like Minnesota, I don't see how every time the head football comes open you don't just go after the best young, energetic, and promising G5 candidate you can get.

Kill pulled us out of the Brewster dungeon. Fleck has elevated the floor.

If we ever get lucky enough to hire a Cignetti, the ceiling can also be elevated. It is possible
Click to expand...
I'm sure Cignetti is a good coach but Indiana's football ceiling has been elevated by $$$ as well. I know they increased spending for NIL by a boatload. He's proven he's a good coach for sure but that's what makes judging the job a coach does so damn hard these days. Everyone wants a guy that can give them most bang for their bucks.
 

ergopher said:
Once upon the time Fickell was not just the best G5 coach out there but also among the best of recent history. Comparatively to many other hires of that same tier, Fleck is probably a standard deviation above the mean rather than at or below it.
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Matt Campbell at Iowa State is another that comes to mind.
 

Random Guy 12 said:
I'm sure Cignetti is a good coach but Indiana's football ceiling has been elevated by $$$ as well. I know they increased spending for NIL by a boatload. He's proven he's a good coach for sure but that's what makes judging the job a coach does so damn hard these days. Everyone wants a guy that can give them most bang for their bucks.
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I buy that all day.

What makes absolutely no sense to me, is why all these rich guys who love IU football ..... only just decided to load into the program in 2024. What the hell have they been waiting for ... all these decades???

In another thread I proposed the same, and another posted wondered if it was money from IU basketball coming over. Maybe ... but still, seems weird to me.

It's not like Cignetti had walked on water prior to 2024. That him coming in, as a 60 year old coach, that's what opened your wallet? Don't compute, for me
 

Full Speed Ahead said:
I've only really known one P4 coach, and his take was that for the vast amount of time, the teams with the best players end up winning. He couldn't say that publicly, but he did say it in private. At the P4 level, every coach knows fundamentals and how to make game plans and adjustments. It's the players who play the game.

These days, the way to get the best players is to have large amounts of NIL dollars. On the one hand you can say having a marquee coach brings in more NIL; or on the other side of the coin you can justify spending a few million less on hiring a star coach and instead put that money into NIL. Win games, and you get more NIL, and with more NIL you get better players, and you then win more games, and get even more NIL and so on.

Bottomline: HIre a coach that brings in NIL (e.g., one that's really good at marketing the program) and some lower paid very competent assistant coaches, and you'll win. Unfortunately, we have an AD who in my opinion is not very good at marketing our programs. Instead of Coyle, we should have hired Pete Najarian, who wanted the job, and would be great at pulling in those NIL dollars.
Click to expand...
Bud said that a long time ago. He never took credit.
 

GopherGrit said:
I buy that all day.

What makes absolutely no sense to me, is why all these rich guys who love IU football ..... only just decided to load into the program in 2024. What the hell have they been waiting for ... all these decades???

In another thread I proposed the same, and another posted wondered if it was money from IU basketball coming over. Maybe ... but still, seems weird to me.

It's not like Cignetti had walked on water prior to 2024. That him coming in, as a 60 year old coach, that's what opened your wallet? Don't compute, for me
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I guess it's a fairly recent development that you can just go out and "buy" a team out of the portal. Above the board anyway. They've seen other places do it and decided to jump in. I'm guessing with hiring Darian Devries as their basketball coach we'll see a significant jump in basketball spending at Indiana also. Great to have a Mark Cuban as a generous alum I guess. We've started to see the B1G and SEC separate even more from everyone else including the Big 12 and ACC. I think the gap will continue to widen.
 

WashedGoph said:
Curious if Leonhard would be willing to coach for them. He’s unproven but could be good for their program. But I have no idea how he would feel about it after he didn’t get the job last time around.
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How would you feel about Leonhard coaching the Golden Gophers?
 

I'll bet there are many, many times more great football coaches out there than jobs available.

However, most every fanbase wants the splashy name they poached off someone else and not an unknown coordinator or smaller school head coach.

LSU would have probably revolted had they hired Cignetti 2 years ago from James Madison.

There's probably hundreds of guys like that who could win big at LSU. But they will insist on a huge name and a huge contract and a huge buyout and to win the press conference. Maybe it will work and maybe it won't.
 

Cobra said:
How would you feel about Leonhard coaching the Golden Gophers?
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We’d be crazy not to consider it. Solid young coach, knows this region and Big Ten football well, and has plenty of NFL connections. The question would be if he’s bitter enough about not getting the Wisconsin job to come here, but if he is I’m sure he would get fired up for the axe game.

Biggest concern would be that he could get poached by a new admin regime at Wisco.
 

Full Speed Ahead said:
I've only really known one P4 coach, and his take was that for the vast amount of time, the teams with the best players end up winning. He couldn't say that publicly, but he did say it in private. At the P4 level, every coach knows fundamentals and how to make game plans and adjustments. It's the players who play the game.

These days, the way to get the best players is to have large amounts of NIL dollars. On the one hand you can say having a marquee coach brings in more NIL; or on the other side of the coin you can justify spending a few million less on hiring a star coach and instead put that money into NIL. Win games, and you get more NIL, and with more NIL you get better players, and you then win more games, and get even more NIL and so on.

Bottomline: HIre a coach that brings in NIL (e.g., one that's really good at marketing the program) and some lower paid very competent assistant coaches, and you'll win. Unfortunately, we have an AD who in my opinion is not very good at marketing our programs. Instead of Coyle, we should have hired Pete Najarian, who wanted the job, and would be great at pulling in those NIL dollars.
Click to expand...

Pete Najarian's net worth is exponentially more than mine: estimated at $25M. But as successful as he's been, he swims in a much different body of water than the type of people who can transform an athletic department. It is consistently suggested here that he would be a silver bullet for Gopher athletics, and I just don't buy that. There are a limited number of corporations putting money into college programs at a scale that matters, which is theoretically what Najarian would excel at. Beyond that, it's deep-pocketed donors (worth 100s of millions) that are driving things. What evidence is there that Coyle has failed to land donors that Najarian could?
 

Cobra said:
How would you feel about Leonhard coaching the Golden Gophers?
Click to expand...
i think he'd be a great hire and also a great middle finger to the east. 95% of Badger fans have to be sitting there right now wishing they'd have kept him. I have no idea how many of them wanted him instead of Fickell previously but I'm sure there was a decent amount. He's one of their own and he definitely got screwed over.
 

GopherGrit said:
Obviously it depends how you define quality.

For programs like Minnesota, I don't see how every time the head football comes open you don't just go after the best young, energetic, and promising G5 candidate you can get.

Kill pulled us out of the Brewster dungeon. Fleck has elevated the floor.

If we ever get lucky enough to hire a Cignetti, the ceiling can also be elevated. It is possible
Click to expand...
Let's say the Gophers hire another Curt Cignetti and the schedule makes it plausible for a 10-11win season out of the gate, does anyone see Minnesota's version of Mark Cuban coming out of nowhere to keep that level of success for many years after?
 

Scottsdale Gopher said:
Pete Najarian's net worth is exponentially more than mine: estimated at $25M. But as successful as he's been, he swims in a much different body of water than the type of people who can transform an athletic department. It is consistently suggested here that he would be a silver bullet for Gopher athletics, and I just don't buy that. There are a limited number of corporations putting money into college programs at a scale that matters, which is theoretically what Najarian would excel at. Beyond that, it's deep-pocketed donors (worth 100s of millions) that are driving things. What evidence is there that Coyle has failed to land donors that Najarian could?
Click to expand...
  • Najarian obviously has significant connections in the world of finance and investors - the people who can pay large NIL sums; Coyle's connections are to other ADs.
  • Najarian obviously understands marketing and is good at it, Coyle, from what we've seen, does not.
  • Najarian is great in front of a camera and being a spokesperson, Coyle obviously is not.
  • Coyle has not delivered on NIL, you don't even hear his name mentioned with any of the NIL efforts. He's basically an invisible AD.
 

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