College Football Coach Hopping Has Gone Too Far
College Football Coach Hopping Has Gone Too Far
Maybe I’m delusional, but I still believe loyalty in sports is important. These last few years, college football coaches have spurned their programs for new higher paying opportunities. In a way, Lincoln Riley leaving Oklahoma for USC was the trend setter. I get it’s all about the money, more so in college sports now than ever before. With that being said, these recent coaching changes have really ticked me off. Seeing Deon Sanders leave Jackson State for Colorado and Luke Fickell leave Cincinnati for Wisconsin especially are troubling.
Why?
Both coaches came in with a dream. Deon Sanders wanted to put HBCU (historically black college and universities) football on the map. He built up the program at Jackson State and emerged as maybe the best recruiter in the country. He had top recruits buying in. If Jackson State was a power five school, we would be talking about them so much more. Then there’s Cincy. Fickell said he wanted to create a Cincinnati style and keep the local kids in state. He led the team to the College Football Playoff in 2021 and became the first group of five school to the make the playoff in it’s history.
Yes, they lost to Alabama - who hasn’t at his point? But they got an invite to join the Big 12 and were set to do that in the next couple of years. Just as the program was really about to take off, you decide to leave? What the hell are we doing? Bomani Jones said it best when talking about Sanders on CNN and it applies to Fickell too. They both sold the dream, and then walked out on the dream.
This affects player development with kids bouncing around and constantly changing systems. At this ages they are playing, they need consistency or it will hinder their growth. It affects recruiting with having to start the process over again and having the transfer portal loaded with players. And here’s a radical idea - it also affects their education. Folks, college athletes are student athletes with an emphasis on student. The debate if they actually go to class or learning anything is a story for another day. It’s a process. Finding a school with a program that works for you and will help you grow as a person is hard. It’s even harder if regime changes keep making the players feel like they need a fresh start either to follow the coach that left, or to just start over.
Other Coaching Changes
Hugh Freeze is leaving Liberty to go to Auburn, and Jeff Brohm is leaving Purdue to go home to Louisville. I can understand why Freeze is leaving since he was waiting for another power five opportunity after his little escort debacle at Ole Miss. Brohm originally declined the Louisville job when it was open before to stay at Purdue, and they had a really good year with making it to the Big 10 title game after a rocky start. What changed? It seems like the direction of the program is good. Why not stay and build on it? You did it before.
The one issue I have with the Freeze hiring is that he signed an extension with Liberty a couple of years ago. That should mean something. Coaches who sign contract extensions should honor that commitment unless they get fired. If after the contract is up you want to see what else is out there, go nuts. Have a blast. Do we really need to have opt out clauses in coaches contracts now? Are we copying the overpaid baseball and basketball players now who don’t know what they want and change their minds every two seconds and complain when things don’t go their way like little cry babies? Cough cough James Harden, Kevin Durant, and all of MLB cough cough. It’s not just head coaches, it’s starting to happen with coordinators too.
This is a problem, and I’m not sure what can be done to fix it right now. But somebody needs to do something about this. This won’t get solved overnight, but the process needs to start to make sure college football, and college sports as a whole still has some integrity. NCAA, you are officially on the clock.
Up next, why I am officially out on the team that started my sports fandom.