« Picking apart the Pigskin
No loyalty among NCAA football coaches
NCAA football coaches are making a name for themselves as classless, greedy, spoiled and disrespectful individuals. This is a result of several coaches abandoning their current teams to pursue more prestigious or lucrative jobs at other universities or in the NFL over the last couple of months. This unfortunate trend is becoming tiresome as the sporting world is being flooded with press conferences held for jerks; for guys who didn’t uphold their end of a contract, and bailed on their former schools, team, and young student athletes. Why should these schools be left scrambling to find a coach, in a time when recruits are finalizing their decisions to attend these schools, just because some idiot wants more money or a better opportunity for themselves?
The most recent example of this has developed over the past few weeks at the University of Southern California where Pete Carroll left the Trojans and accepted the vacant coaching position with the Seattle Seahawks. This comes despite having recently signed a contract extension with USC in December 2005 with a salary over four million dollars per season. Carroll signed a five year contract with Seattle, leaving his former team without a coach, weeks before recruits sign letters of intent.
In order to solve this coaching dilemma, Southern California decided to lure another coach away from his collegiate team and announced that Lane Kiffin would be therir new head coach. Kiffin spent the past year at the University of Tennessee with the Volunteers where he went 7-7, including a loss in the team’s bowl game. The interesting thing here is that Kiffin’s contract with Tennessee stated that he would have to pay the university if he resigned, which means that he is on the hook for a total of 1.8 million dollars over the next five years. This proved to be an excellent decision by Kiffin as not only has he ticked off his old school for leaving them, but he also has to pay a portion of his new salary back to them. Nice move Lane. This comes all because of the presumed reward for coaching at the more prestigious USC; however, he will have to take over for a collegiate coaching legend and guide a young Trojan team.
Recently, the University of Tennessee has enacted some revenge and hired Derek Dooley, who resigned as head coach at Louisiana Tech, to coach the Volunteers next season. The resignation of Pete Carroll began a coaching carousal that looks to still be spinning with Louisiana Tech still without a coach for the upcoming season.
Unfortunately, this may not even be the worst recent example as Brian Kelly’s bolt from the University of Cincinnati to the illustrious University of Notre Dame was awful as he did it before the 2009 season was even complete. Kelly had been a major reason behind the Bearcats success in recent years, leading them to the Sugar Bowl this year following a perfect 12-0 regular season. Kelly left the Bearcats for the Fighting Irish weeks before their scheduled Sugar Bowl game against the Florida Gators. This unexpected departure by their coach severely hurt the Bearcats player’s psyche, and ultimately they were picked apart by the Gators in a 51-24 loss. This may be classified as one of the biggest jerk moves of all-time in collegiate football as Kelly left his team for Notre Dame before his current team was even finished their season. Ultimately, this had an effect on his former players as they were left reeling without their coach and it showed when they failed to show up in the Sugar Bowl. Again, Notre Dame, like Southern California, is one of the most prestigious jobs in NCAA college football and Kelly left his less acclaimed job with Cincinnati to join the Fighting Irish for more recognition and money.
This trend of head coaches of college football teams leaving for other jobs during their current contract is not just a recent problem. Other coaches have bailed on their former schools to better themselves without thinking about the school they coach at or the players they recruited. Bobby Petrino left Louisville University for the Atlanta Falcons in 2007, Nick Saban left Louisiana State University for the Miami Dolphins in 2005, and Jimmy Johnson left the University of Miami for the Dallas Cowboys in 1989 just to name a few.
The rise in the amount of coaches bailing from their former collegiate school in the NCAA to accept more prestigious or better paying jobs elsewhere is a disgrace to the game in my opinion. It raises questions about the value of a contract as they are being ripped up without any doubts by colleges and it shows a lack of respect by coaches towards the deal they signed when they joined that college. When a contract is signed, the intention, in any form of business or sport, is to live out the life of that contract, not to walk away from that contract whenever one wants. NCAA college football coaches are put on this pedestal and they can do what they want, when they want to do it without any question. These coaches who leave their schools to better themselves without any regard for their players or the school that hired them should not be viewed in high praise as they are an embarrassment to university athletics and the game of football.