I don't think the NFL would be the likely off-ramp unless he continues to have a lot of success here building the program. If he says with a national title in the next 2-3 years I doubt we'd let him leave if we could stop it. I still have hope and am optimistic he will get this ship going in the right direction. I know the sentiment is he'll have his guys this year but I'd say likely next year after this development year will be the real year where he will be expected to perform well.
I think this year, he gets his coaches he wants in, and gets his players through the portal/recruiting and then we see if he can develop the talent and put us in a position to compete every year. So far, he's done a good job. Just outside the playoff last year and this year reaching to quarterfinals. I know the losses to Georgia, Indiana and FSU are rough this year but let's be honest with ourselves. Similar to Oats, Oats may never get us a national championship but he's always got us in the running and I'd rather be in the running than hoping for some magic..IMO
Also, there's not a lot of options right now unless CFB sees some rule changes. Indiana, Texas Tech, Oregon, all the places that are spending crazy money to buy wins and turn things around. Cuban has opened the checkbook to the tune of 15-20 million a year for the next 5 years for them to go chase championships. Tech booster is dropping 20-25 million a year supposedly and we know Phil Knight at Oregon basically gives them a blank check. I love college football (Way more than the NFL) but I think it needs to take after the NFL model some and set caps/restrictions and limits so it isn't a pay to win scenario similar to MLB is now. It's not fun if everyone can just essentially buy championships. What happens if some random Billionaire decides to drop 50 million over 3 years for Bama, don't you think people would be crying for regulation??? It's kinda weird that people are ignoring it now but were unhappy with Bama and Georgia getting all the 5-stars before when it was about recruiting and developing.