Is it due to a shortage of money at the U of A and the Razorback Foundation? This is a reasonable and serious question, I believe.
Ole Miss gave Kiffin about $4,000,000 per year. Why didn’t we give him $5,000,000 to kick Ole Miss to the curb? The rumor was we offered Gus nearly $7,000,000 two years ago. Was that funding just not available during this coaching search?
I can’t believe we spent $160,000,000 for that North End Zone construction and can’t find an additional $1,000,000 to pay Kiffin to put Ole Miss in their place. Yes, I am still pissed Ole Miss got their guy and we didn’t. Why?
Cliff’s notes version: Jimmy Sexton was trying to play us off against OM to get more money and HY told him to get lost. What I’m told is that OM is paying LK less than we actually were going to pay, but Hunter wasn’t going to get into a bidding war.
That’s my understanding too. If given his choice HY would change the current coaching contracts to be more incentive driven. In due time that may change (probably not) but hope. I saw where Ole Miss top recruit reopened his recruiting.
Here’s my take. Hunter wants a coach who wants to be here. Not just, “I want a P5 job,” or “I want a SEC job,” but “I want the Arkansas job.”
If Hunter initially thought he had that with Kiffin, he was proven wrong when Kiffin - through his agent - angled for additional terms. I think that was a red flag for Hunter, and that it wasn’t about the additional money; it was about the fact that Kiffin ASKED.
Nah. It’s just Jimmy Sexton doing what Jimmy Sexton does, trying to get more money. It’s a game of chicken, which you play if you think your client is so valuable that people will want to engage in a bidding war. OM might have played along. HY didn’t. Sexton may not have even discussed it with LK, just told him I’ll present you with the best deal I can get.
Mike Norvell, Kiffin and Mike Leach were among the best candidates for this job. We knew going in we were going to have to pay top dollar for the top candidates. We were paying Chad Morris $3,500,000, right? He was not highly regarded when we hired him, and, of course, was a bust.
I wonder what Hunter’s max amount was he could have offered for a new coach? How much was Hunter armed with to go into battle for a coach? I just don’t know why he bailed out on Kiffin after we got into competition with an unexpected competitor in Ole Miss. Hiring an outstanding coach is usually going to entail battling it out with other schools. It wasn’t Kiffin’s fault that Ole Miss came into the picture. Sometimes you just have to get in there and battle with another school for your man.
We may never know what really happened on this Lane Kiffin saga. I am not sure I buy into the theory that we moved on because Kiffin wanted more money. Everybody wants more money.
Maybe Lane or Jimmy Sexton just told Hunter Kiffin was going to Ole Miss now that they were after him. Money may not have been the issue.
I suspect Lane feels more at home at a school that will pay the price to stock his team with great athletes and jumped on the offer when Ole Miss came in to play.
Asking for more money DURING negotiations is perfectly fine; asking for more money AFTER an agreement has been reached reflects poorly on the asking party.
