I heard somebody this week on radio, ask the rhetorical question of whether Houston head coach Tom Herman could become the first $10-million-a-year football coach. Correct. Highest paid college, OR pro coach.
The co-host of this particular show (again, I forget who it was, and it doesn’t matter, but I SWEAR it was a real discussion) responded with the thinking that you might as well overpay (even insanely) to “get the right guy.” As in, “the sure thing.”
Then came this Saturday: “Navy 46 Houston 40. FINAL.”
Imagine paying $10M a year, for a guy who can’t beat Navy! Maybe Ken Niumatalolo should be getting that offer from Texas. Or LSU. Or Oregon. Coach Ken has taken Navy football to the kind of consistently relevant D1 excellence that should be absolutely impossible in the modern climate.
Not so long ago, Brian Kelly at Notre Dame was considered so awesome, that he killed a kid by sending him up a scissor lift in a near hurricane to film practice. Charlie Strong was the tough talking, pride restoring answer in Texas. Then he wasn’t. Then he was. Now, nah…. he probably isn’t.
Mark Helfrich is getting his tailfeathers singed to a crisp at Oregon, just 2 years out from playing for the National Championship and losing. Now having watched regional rival Washington hang a 70-burger on them, it’s only going to get more insane.
Once proud programs, desperate to get back to being awesome – immediately, if possible! – keep churning through coaches like a teenager throwing her outfits on the floor because they make her look fat. Somebody should start a national college coaches “buyout” meter. You know, like the so-called “National Debt Clock” you can see in downtown Manhattan.
I want to see just how many millions are being paid to college coaches – to NOT coach!
That brings us to Michigan beating Rutgers 78-0 on Saturday.
Talk about a small school, er BIG TEN SCHOOL, ass whoopin’ of the week! The Scarlet Knights only gained 39 total yards, and passed for just five. Yes, FIVE! And the game was AT HOME. Where New Jersey residents – already taxed up to and over their eyeballs already – were chipping in to help fund such a gridiron humiliation.
NY Post columnist Phil Mushnick has repeatedly detailed what a joke Rutgers football is, and continues to be. When the program is not mired in rampant criminality – which, of course, is the residue of winning college football – it’s losing money hand over fist.
Yet still paying money to put its players up in a swank hotel the night before…. wait…. HOME GAMES!
Former coach Kyle Flood was bought out for $1.4 million, and new coach Chris Ash is reaping the burnt cinders of a program that is as directionless as it is financially incompetent.
Rutgers has now lost 78-0 and 58-0 in back to back weeks. Man, that season ending highlight video for the banquet will be short enough to post on Vine.
Now for the most important dumb question of the weekend. If the Michigan football team goes as a group for their 78% discount at Ruth’s Chris, would that count as an illegal benefit subject to NCAA sanctions?
I’ll hang up, and listen off the air.
PISCATAWAY, NJ – OCTOBER 08: Rutgers Scarlet Knights fans looks on in the fourth quarter of the game against the Michigan Wolverines at High Point Solutions Stadium on October 8, 2016 in Piscataway, New Jersey. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images) ORG XMIT: 668994551 ORIG FILE ID: 613451276
4 Comments
Mike Marks
Rutgers Mike here Czabe. Hope u R doing ok with time off
The program is a mess for sure but we have hope in this new coach and along with our new AD we remain confident it we’ll get turned around eventually.
What that clown Mushnick fails to mention is that RU will soon have 30 million reasons a year to be happy we are in the Big ten and will actually be one of the few self supporting athletic departments. So u may want to look elsewhere for money being wasted.
As for the beat downs, RU fans are used to it….maybe we are a bit too urbane and don’t live and die as much as we should with athletics.
jb in MT
It was so bad that the RU band started playing “Hail to the Victors”. Also Michigan only threw three passes in the second half using three different QB’s.
The money being wasted here is by the B1G for bringing RU in to the league and letting them steal money.
Mike
you are clueless as to why RU was brought in…$$….as in eyeballs on tvs in nations largest market…..if anything RU should get fully vested earlier clown.
dreman77
Steve Czaban used to rail against college players getting paid, regardless of their market value, and despite the fact they work 40 hours per week for the football program. Yet the discussion here is about whether or not Tom Herman is a good enough coach to make $10 million. Shouldn’t the discussion be why would we even consider paying a coach that amount when the students are putting their bodies on the line for our entertainment, and don’t even receive a proper college education in return?