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This hardly gets Neal out of the hot seat, as we still have heavy offensive woes as well, but it’s the first of many steps Neal will have to take to save his job.
I thought the university was very cash-strapped and that it wouldn’t be feasible to pay Neal Brown’s buyout and get a new coach. Although I just looked it up and I guess I had missed the off-season news that they restructured his contract to have a lower buyout. (And I guess Pat McAfee could probably cover whatever it is anyway?)
If they axe him this season, who do you think they’ll go for? There’s a West Virginia native with an impressive resume that is available… (low hanging fruit joke, I know)
I don’t fully understand it, but they restructured it and now E don’t have a reduction clause or something. The longer we wait, the more it functionally costs to fire him. Explained here. The cost is still likely too high, which is tragic, and it’s really going to suck cause yeah, the university is kinda broke rn. We’re like…between $30-$50 million in debt. Gordon Gee ran some asinine Sunnyside revitalization project and purchased a ton of land and houses, destroyed them, and built up student housing. Now we’re expected to lose about 5k students, and one of the bigger factors in attracting students (partying, for better or worse), has been killed. We used to be the place for people to go to party and maybe learn something. Now we’re just another state school for people to maybe learn something at.
And I have 0 idea of who we’d go after. Stupid people say Jimbo (he couldn’t win with infinite budget and the best recruits, so how is he going to fare better here?). Others say Rich Rod (lightning won’t strike twice). We just got burned by a small school hire. Rumors are that we may be kicking around the Saban tree, so some of his coordinators may be in line. However, even with that, we’re a pit stop school for most coaches. With success, they’ll leave to the B10 or SEC.
Silly, but personally important question: How do you feel about Kiffin? Even with recent success I think Ole Miss is a lowerer teir SEC school. And as we’re starting to see, portal heavy teams are hit or miss. Plus Kiffin has been known to drop to less prestigious positions before (that was a sick burn for any trojans hiding among us). I’m just saying that he might be worth it for y’all if Ole Miss gets fed up with missing out on Saban’s power vaccuum.
Nothing one way or another. He’d definitely help with our reputation a bit, recruits well, and has shown he’s good offensively. He’d get a good portion of control if he has us contending for conference championships somewhat steadily, which given the current B12, we absolutely should be, if not every few years at least. Problem is, idk if we can afford him. He’s 2.5x as expensive as Neal, at a university so cash strapped they’ve cut education departments and are still heavily struggling. I’d be surprised if they allow a leash that long. His staff will be more expensive, he’ll likely have minimum facilities expectations. And with on field success the money would likely be there, but our problems outweigh football revenue currently.
I’d personally be tentatively excited for him, as he’s just Dana 2.0 with some actual HC success, but I’m not super privy of all the options.
