🏈 Statement from DeBoer and Byrne on job rumors…

[AirForceBamaFan]

Scott Huff was the offensive line coach at Washington in 2023 and didn't follow DeBoer here. He stayed to coach in Seattle last season, and is with the Rams this season.

I don't know why he hired Chris Kapilovic. His offensive lines were garbage at Michigan State and they've been subpar here. Some of that is understandably the transition to DeBoer's offense, but it has been an underwhelming unit overall. Honestly, DeBoer needs to shake up a lot of his staff. And once the season concludes, he better be removing the dick head in charge of the special teams.

I guess I didn’t realize it wasn’t the same OL coach…good to know!

 

[Brandon Van de Graaff]

I guess I didn’t realize it wasn’t the same OL coach…good to know!

Huff did initially come here with DeBoer, but left with Grubb to go to the Seahawks before their suitcases were unpacked. There is a chance he is back soon.

 

[JoseyWalesTheOutlaw]

Nick's 1st staff 2007

Nick
Kirby
Steele
Lance Thompson
Joe Pendry
Ron Middleton
Bo Davis
Major Applewhite
Burton Burns
Curt Cignetti


Strong collection for year one.

 

[ElephantStomp]

I have said Bama needs a culture change he and those changes don’t happen quick. But, in two years DeBoer has us sitting pretty. The idea that people rant and rave about the bad, but don’t credit the good is weird.

As for the extension- if it gets DeBoer more money and a higher buyout then I’m all for it. It amazes me that everybody wants DeBoer except for some Bama fans

 

[UAgrad93]

I know there aren’t any details out yet on a possible extension, but it very well could be a guaranteed larger NIL checkbook and or some incentive boosts to his current contract and not necessarily be extension in length of term or base pay.

 

[TerryP]

As I stated, I think this is where Sexton continues to wield power over everyone and continues driving the price up that ultimately falls on the students and consumers.

I don't know if you have considered this.

As we sat back and watched the immediate buyouts on these huge multi-million dollar contracts while watching the blame assigned to different people—like Bjork and Sexton—have you ever stopped to consider who started it all? Who was the first school to step out of the norm with a huge contract for a college coach?

 

[UAgrad93]

I don't know if you have considered this.

As we sat back and watched the immediate buyouts on these huge multi-million dollar contracts while watching the blame assigned to different people—like Bjork and Sexton—have you ever stopped to consider who started it all? Who was the first school to step out of the norm with a huge contract for a college coach?

AL A BAMA

 

[#80]

IMO as of today CKD is not deserving of a contract extension. JMO.

 

[mando]

In their first 2 years:

CNS: 19-8
CKD: 19-7



Edit: Sorry Terry…I didn’t see you pointed that out first…

Yes but misleading in my opinion.... year one record versus year 2 and what each inherited.... Year 2 how one team was playing versus year 2. Now if CKDs year 2 team had kept playing at the same level as midseason that would have been more apples and apples for year 2.

 

[mando]

Logic? Where was the beat missed thus far?

This conversation is bordering on an exercise in futility because the game itself, the conference as a whole and its competitiveness, the landscape of the entire world of collegiate football ... none of it is the same now as it was in 2007 and 2008.

Repeatedly it's been pointed out the program would be in a huge transition last year. It was pointed out that transition was still continuing (as perfectly evidenced by the lack of fit with players on the offensive line, for one example.)

And where are we as fans?

We just saw Bama back in the SECCG in year two. So, that's a check mark.
We are seeing Bama back in the playoffs and competiting for another national title. So, there's another check mark.
19-7 versus 19-8 for the first two years compared to each other.

OSU/UGA do not seem to be having a problem with the changing landscape based on the on field results.

On being in the SECCG in year two, that is indeed a fact. How did each play in that game?

Another fact, they are back in the CFP but this team is not playing even remotely like they can win a national title. Could it all turn around and they start playing that way? I do not see it happening but will be pleasently surprised if they do. IF they play like they have been playing they will not make it out of round 1.

Back to comparing apples and oranges with the records. One will have 3 or 4 losses each year and in some cases they were double digit favorites. The other had 6 or 7 losses in year one and year two was much improved. CKDs year two team was much improved for about a 5-6 game stretch and then not so much. Consistency in performance. Maybe it is all about depth and injuries. When it is all said and done this may be the biggest explanation for everything and Bamas NIL money is subpar to get the depth needed. Maybe this takes us back to your point about the changing landscape and UGA/OSU have bigger banks.

 

[It Takes Eleven]

The most interesting counter-point falls within "he had to change the culture and get the 'Shulaitis' out of the building." This is true. There was a huge transition in how the department was ran as a whole.

NIL. Revenue sharing. The transfer portal.

The entire culture of the Alabama football program is in a huge transition. Not just the team itself, the entire building. But here it isn't about removing something. It's about adaptation from year to year.

And this is where the program is today.

Is it harder to excel as a coach and program today than it was nineteen years ago? When Saban got here - 19 years ago in three weeks - transfers were almost nonexistent. There was no portal, no NIL, no Texas and south Florida billionaires funding payrolls. We've talked about the arms race of recruiting, staffing, analysts, enhanced S&C, team psychologists - everything that Saban used to gain an edge that resulted in raising the bar for the entire sport. So, yes, Saban had to instill a winning attitude at Alabama and stock the roster through recruiting. He had a rough first year, and we faded down the stretch.

DeBoer had to hold the roster together, lost a good bit of talent, and struggled through some games in his first year. This year's losses have been frustrating, but we're still in the mix, just as we were in '08, before we faded again. Am I predicting a NC in year three? No, but I think we'll be better next year. And, this year isn't over yet.

 

[BamaFan334]

I don't know if you have considered this.

As we sat back and watched the immediate buyouts on these huge multi-million dollar contracts while watching the blame assigned to different people—like Bjork and Sexton—have you ever stopped to consider who started it all? Who was the first school to step out of the norm with a huge contract for a college coach?

Interesting. What coach was that? Talking Saban hitting $10M or we talking before then?

 

[TerryP]

Interesting. What coach was that? Talking Saban hitting $10M or we talking before then?

In January of 2005 Bob Stoops was the highest paid coach in college football at 2.5 million per year.

For College Coaches, the Cash Is Rolling In (Published 2005)

College presidents wø

www.nytimes.com

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Dec. 31 - In his 24-year odyssey through higher education as president at Brown, Ohio State, Colorado and West Virginia, Gordon Gee maintains he has had one aspiration.

"My goal in life has always been to earn as much money as my football coach," Gee, now chancellor at Vanderbilt, said in a recent telephone interview.

Right now, Gee does make more money than his football coach, but that is not typical at universities with N.C.A.A. Division I-A football programs.

When college presidents meet at the National Collegiate Athletic Association's annual convention, which begins Friday, the rising salaries of coaches will be an item on the agenda.

"How are we going to handle this escalation of cost?" Gee said. "Can we afford to stay in this environment? What are we trying to accomplish?"

The issue sets off drastically different emotions among the main players -- the coaches, the agents, the athletic directors and the college presidents.

Gee called it a tragedy. The Oklahoma athletic director, Joe Castiglione, said it was merely reality. Oklahoma Coach Bob Stoops said he makes "market value." The sports agent Neil Cornrich said the salaries were too low.

The N.C.A.A. president, Myles Brand, chalked up the recent increases to competition from the N.F.L. and predicted that faculty groups would soon start raising concerns.

Viewpoints may vary, but the dollars do not lie. At least eight Division I-A football coaches make more than $2 million a season, including recent additions to that club: Mack Brown of Texas, Urban Meyer of Florida and Tommy Tuberville of Auburn.

Castiglione predicted that by next spring, 12 to 15 coaches would make salaries of more than $2 million.

"I'm not all that comfortable saying it, but I believe we're much closer to breaking the $3 million barrier than people believe right now," he said.

Castiglione said he was uneasy with the salary escalation, but he was quick to add that it could be justified.

Oklahoma's Stoops makes more than $2.5 million a year, the highest known salary of any college football coach.

But he runs a football program that Castiglione said generates $41 million to $42 million in annual revenue. That finances 70 percent of Oklahoma's budget for its 20-team intercollegiate program. Football expenses account for 30 percent of the athletic budget.

Football, Castiglione said, provides financing in a self-sufficient athletic department that receives no taxpayer or state money.

"If it was a bad dynamic, more and more universities would drop football," Castiglione said. "The value is obvious. So why not apply good business strategy? From a business standpoint, we can justify every penny that we pay Bob and his staff."

He said salaries were reported differently 10 years ago, with coaches' outside revenue -- from camps, television and radio shows, speeches and apparel -- not counted as part of the total package.

Today, most coaches have all of their ancillary income included in their contract with the universities, which control the outside revenue from endorsements and appearances.

That is one reason, Castiglione said, that the numbers appear larger.

"We're all just trying to be smarter and more efficient in creating a better financial package," he said. "And when a coach leaves, you don't lose outside contacts with them."

Cornrich, the agent for Stoops and many other high-profile college coaches, including Iowa's Kirk Ferentz and Wisconsin's Barry Alvarez, said he saw the salary inflation as indicative of the money football programs make.

Gee said rising salaries were especially a problem because only about a dozen athletic departments were profitable each year, but Cornrich pointed to the huge revenue produced by football.

Cornrich also said that the peripheral benefits of a successful program should not be underestimated -- the corollary spike in alumni donations, ticket prices, television rights fees, marketing and merchandising revenue, and student applications for admission.

"If anything," Cornrich said, "I'd argue that coaches' salaries are lagging."

Cornrich said it was simply supply and demand: a winning coach will cost a college more money, just as an apartment in Manhattan will cost more than one in Duluth, Minn.

"It's whatever the market bears," Cornrich said. "As the game gets bigger and revenue increases, there's no reason to draw a line in the sand. The real question should be: When will they start sharing revenue with the people who produce it, other than the coaches?"

Brand, the N.C.A.A. president, said college coaches' salaries began to increase when the N.F.L. started recruiting them in the past few years.

"What's happened through the work of agents and others is that the market between the pro and college ranks has collapsed," Brand said. "It's a single market now. As a result, the salaries and the conditions of employment for football coaches in college are coming to resemble those in the pro ranks."

There has always been a demand to win on campus, but the big money has pressured colleges to win now, and that impatience has contributed to a spate of college firings, including the dismissal of Tyrone Willingham by Notre Dame after the completion of only three years of a five-year contract.

Brand said the consensus was that the trend of escalating coaches' salaries would continue.

Castiglione said: "You can debate it, curse it or embrace it, but if you're going into a competitive market, there's a decision to be made. It's a choice that an institution has to make. If they don't want to do it, they can say no. I'm not complaining, I'm just being candid."

 

[TerryP]

Interesting. What coach was that? Talking Saban hitting $10M or we talking before then?

Stoops, at 2.5 million with people saying he's underpaid as an answer to those saying the salaries were getting out of control (Gee.) Then ...

The following January Alabama hired Nick Saban to an eight-year deal for $32 million total that would make Saban's annual check of $4 million: the game changer.

Remember the collegiate football world screaming about $32 million?

There was a difference there to what we're talking about here. The buyouts.

As a program, through the direction of Coach Moore, Alabama caught up in the facilities arms race. At the same time Alabama set the first bar in coaching salaries.

 

[TerryP]

Is it harder to excel as a coach and program today than it was nineteen years ago? When Saban got here - 19 years ago in three weeks - transfers were almost nonexistent. There was no portal, no NIL, no Texas and south Florida billionaires funding payrolls. We've talked about the arms race of recruiting, staffing, analysts, enhanced S&C, team psychologists - everything that Saban used to gain an edge that resulted in raising the bar for the entire sport. So, yes, Saban had to instill a winning attitude at Alabama and stock the roster through recruiting. He had a rough first year, and we faded down the stretch.

DeBoer had to hold the roster together, lost a good bit of talent, and struggled through some games in his first year. This year's losses have been frustrating, but we're still in the mix, just as we were in '08, before we faded again. Am I predicting a NC in year three? No, but I think we'll be better next year. And, this year isn't over yet.

Further reinforcing how I see this transition. It's as big as the one in '06-'09, but completely different in every area; sans the name of the game.
He had his own way of roster management that was widely questioned for a few years early on. It continued until other programs saw the benefits of CRTL C + V. I see one benefit he had. The goal posts weren't moved every year when it comes to all those things you've mentioned of today.

Hell, they were discussing this years playoffs a few months ago.

 

[rammerjammer]

No, but I think we'll be better next year. And, this year isn't over yet.

I hope you are correct........but I'm not banking on it. Our schedule next year is absolutely insane. UGA, UT, aTm, and LSU in a 5 week stretch. We have so many unknowns. Week 2 with UK, how good will they be? Vandy comes to Tuscaloosa late next year, will they be as potent as they have been without Pavia? Miss St was much improved, but still not up to the level they need to be, but do they catch us looking ahead to UGA?

I know the games are played on the field and who knows what teams will look like next year once the season gets rolling....injuries, ect.
Right now, based on how things are, if we make it 10-2 through the regular season next year, I would take it and be thrilled.

 

[TerryP]

Right now, based on how things are, if we make it 10-2 through the regular season next year, I would take it and be thrilled.

As I believe you should be. The 10 win mark means something again. We didn't expect anyone to get through the SEC undefeated. No one did.