A youth minister instead of a FB coach. I’m sick of all this BS. If they don’t spend the money to hire a proven winner, the FB program is doomed. I don’t care if the guy is a womanizing alcoholic… Just win. If we don’t hire LK, Someone else will . Looks like we are heading towards another “unproven up and comer”. I’m just about done. I live out of state and have never missed going to game when close or watching on TV. Until this year and I just quit. Can’t take it anymore. Not fun. HY better get this right!!
2 Likes
If we don’t hire LK I don’t think his baggage is the issue. The issue is 
The BOT and HY need to put a dollar figure on an empty RRS…
2 Likes
Sonny nailed this, if money is an issue then somebody please put a number on … half empty stadium, down donations, parking, food, drinks merchandise, then impact on area for rooms, food, bars etc x 6 weekends what’s that figure?
Arkansas is close to being an endangered specie. This hire is more important than all the others since the Bobby crash, because the last 8 year results have been abysmal…that’s almost a decade…high school seniors were 10 years old.
Those outside of Arkansas must think we’re DOA.
Pay the friggin dough.
We went over a lot of this before CM was fired. Paying one, maybe two big buyouts (Bielema’s not off the books yet pending his legal action). Paying off the bonds for the stadium expansion and Baum-Walker and whatever else is still on the books. The RF does not have unlimited resources, and if there’s a big-bucks angel who says “hire coach X and I’ll foot the bill,” we don’t know about him. I think there was one of those angels in 2017 for Gus and we got played anyway.
Donations and ticket sales have undeniably slipped, although not as much as you think; a lot of those empty seats you saw on TV were sold, but those people found other things to do with their Saturday afternoons. Eventually, of course, those people will also find other things to do with their donations and ticket purchase dollars if football remains a dumpster fire. But it also means that the relative financial gain if we make a splashy hire is not that large.
No matter who we hire, though, a splashy name or a no-name, he better win pretty quick or the downward spiral continues.
That’s what I meant, but we must be willing to get the type of guy who can (potentially) do this.
When you younger guys get my age, 84, You will discover football is not all that important and to spend millions and millions on a name is foolish. I want to see the Hogs win but stacks of money is not the answer.
1 Like
I’m not in favor of trying to solve a problem by throwing money at it either (I’m 59), but there’s also false economy. If you fail to hire the right guy because he cost $500,000 more than you were willing to pay, and the wrong guy that you hired for a lot less gets fired in 2-3 years, did you really save money or just made the existing problem worse? The fact is that there is a limited supply of coaches who are good enough to win in the SEC and you’re probably going to have to pay quite a bit to get one. Maybe we can get lucky and get a Drinkwitz cheap who turns out to be the next Lincoln Riley, but maybe we don’t.
Tell’em Bob. These sinners need to see the light.
Well put the dollars on bonuses, not guaranteed salary. Pay him high, but not what he’s asking, and make up the difference in bonuses.
2 Likes
Then you might as well not even bother, because he’ll go somewhere that the money is guaranteed, no bonuses.
Orville Henry once quoted I believe John Barnhill: (paraphrasing some I’m sure), “you can’t pay a good coach too much, and a bad coach too little”
1 Like
make the bonuses HUUUUUUUUGE, so high he can’t refuse. It’d be well worth it.
Tuscaloosa, and SabaNation, is a perfect example.
Entitlement attitudes and Sexton to fulfill their financial dreams is the new millennial head coach, including guaranteed salaries & exorbitant buyouts
I’m reading Saban’s contract extension from 2013 right now. Like Morris’, a PDF is available online.
There are some bonuses for bowl games, conference championships, graduation rates, etc., there, but no more than Bielema or Morris had. His university salary is $245,000. His personal service fee (i.e., what their foundation pays him) started at $5.1 million and escalated to $5.7 million over the life of the contract. There are also retention bonuses of $1 million plus paid every third year he doesn’t leave. But the idea that most of his pay is performance bonuses is just flat wrong.
According to USA Today, when they gave him a new deal in 2017, the personal service fee bumped up to $7 million plus, with annual $400,000 increases, plus an $800,000 contract year completion fee for each year he completes through 2021.
Specific bonuses in the 2013 deal:
SEC championship game appearance, $75,000. Winning it, another $50,000
Routine bowl game, $65,000. more important SEC bowl game, $125,000, BCS bowl or playoff game $200,000, winning the NC $400,000. He only gets one of these bonuses, not all of them.
SEC coach of the year, $25,000
National Coach of the year, $50,000
APR greater than 925 and in the top 50% of all SEC football teams, $50,000; in the top 25% of the SEC, $100,000.
Maxing them out: SECCG title, $125,000, NC $400,000, SEC/national coach of the year (don’t think he’s won one lately) $75,000, high APR $100,000. That’s $700,000, which is less than 10% of his total pay.
I understand the realities of what is going on but we did actually hire at at one time or another, a Bowden Wyatt from Wyoming, Frank Broyles a one yeatr coach at MIssouri and a Houston Nutt, from Boise State well before they gained the stature they now have.
I also feel the names of coaches who have proved themselves in the SEC have no reason to come to Arkansas.
I fear there is no magic formula. I sure hope we get the right guy.
With a loss of 25,000 fans ( tickets NOT sold) and only 50,000, if that, in the stands, the U of A loses about $1.3 MILLION per game. Then you lose on concession sales, estimated at $500,000. Local restaurants, hotels, shopping centers … no telling how much they hurt $-wise during the 6 football game weekends in the Fayetteville area. With a stadium half full, many fans go to Rogers and Bentonville to get cheaper hotel/motel rooms which kills the profits from non filled Fayetteville-Springdale higher priced motels. Just a whirlwind of $$ deficits all over the place. Then there are Foundation loses, so many dropping their memberships or lowering their contributions while staying in the same class (Wild Hog, Super Hog, Broyles Matthews levels etc). It will take TIME to get these corrected, at least 3-4 years. That’s JMHO…
The new coach has been 90% hired but there are a couple of loose ends and discussions going on today. The second choice will be bolting away if he is not chosen by tomorrow. We could still lose our #1 and #2 choices. THEN we will be in a mess for sure with a real drop down to our #3 or 4 choices. And there IS a very big drop, considering all aspects of how it affects the U of A program for YEARS to come. We will know by tomorrow night and word will spread. Official announcement Monday.
I really do care if a candidate has a substance abuse problem. That requires some really careful investigation into the individual’s current situation and prospects going forward.
Womanizing is okay until it’s not okay-in other words when it starts impacting his work.
If God only used perfect people nothing would ever get done. That goes for the candidates for this job and the people making the hiring decision. But you have to carefully consider whether things in any candidate’s personal life are likely to adversely impact his ability to do the job.
1 Like