And before you hear my reasoning, I'm not doing the research on which coaches this probably excludes. If you're a fan of guys like Drew, Beard, and Cronin and I'm right, you can scratch through your favorite if he needs to be paid more money.
Also, I'm not considering whether these coaches have large buyouts at their current schools. If there's a buyout and it amounts to much, his name is off the list as well.
Mack was paid in the vicinity of $4 million annually. And no coach or highly paid staffer in athletics has been replaced in the last several years by a person whom U of L paid more money. There are valid reasons for that if everything we understand about athletics is true.
The first reason is we haven't been able to balance a budget. The second and related is that we have blown through pretty much all of the money we had saved/reserved. A $20 million contract is a huge commitment when you have $0 in the bank. Those are quite simply facts.
These next couple of points will be debated although there's no evidence I'm wrong. You can believe what you wanna believe from whomever you wanna believe...
There are no big donors waiting in the wings to rescue us financially. I say that with confidence after years of watching us spiral down a hole financially. No one paid a dime to get rid of Petrino or Mack, and no big donors will pay to get rid of Satterfield as I expect will be hotly debated later this year. I don't know that those people ever existed at U of L because we never needed donor money to hire or fire coaches. Now and despite recent history, we suddenly have donors waiting to fund a clown show so clowns can make yet another great hire? Ain't buying it.
Also, if our objective is to defund and downscale athletics, it makes no sense to hire a coach who's paid MORE money. Clowns understand why they're in their positions, and that ain't it.
I'm not an advocate of Kenny Payne as the next coach, but IMO he fits under the $4 million ceiling. Five years at $3-3.5 million annually is what I expect to hear whether it's Payne or Willard or someone else we can afford. Or maybe Heird can talk Drew into a lower salary than I would expect. But why a coach with potential would risk his career stepping into a dumpster fire for less money than he can get on the open market defies logic. If I'm Drew, I bump my U of L figure UP 25% to compensate for having to wear a fireproof suit to work everyday...
Also, I'm not considering whether these coaches have large buyouts at their current schools. If there's a buyout and it amounts to much, his name is off the list as well.
Mack was paid in the vicinity of $4 million annually. And no coach or highly paid staffer in athletics has been replaced in the last several years by a person whom U of L paid more money. There are valid reasons for that if everything we understand about athletics is true.
The first reason is we haven't been able to balance a budget. The second and related is that we have blown through pretty much all of the money we had saved/reserved. A $20 million contract is a huge commitment when you have $0 in the bank. Those are quite simply facts.
These next couple of points will be debated although there's no evidence I'm wrong. You can believe what you wanna believe from whomever you wanna believe...
There are no big donors waiting in the wings to rescue us financially. I say that with confidence after years of watching us spiral down a hole financially. No one paid a dime to get rid of Petrino or Mack, and no big donors will pay to get rid of Satterfield as I expect will be hotly debated later this year. I don't know that those people ever existed at U of L because we never needed donor money to hire or fire coaches. Now and despite recent history, we suddenly have donors waiting to fund a clown show so clowns can make yet another great hire? Ain't buying it.
Also, if our objective is to defund and downscale athletics, it makes no sense to hire a coach who's paid MORE money. Clowns understand why they're in their positions, and that ain't it.
I'm not an advocate of Kenny Payne as the next coach, but IMO he fits under the $4 million ceiling. Five years at $3-3.5 million annually is what I expect to hear whether it's Payne or Willard or someone else we can afford. Or maybe Heird can talk Drew into a lower salary than I would expect. But why a coach with potential would risk his career stepping into a dumpster fire for less money than he can get on the open market defies logic. If I'm Drew, I bump my U of L figure UP 25% to compensate for having to wear a fireproof suit to work everyday...
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