spanky wrote:
Shouldn't every Big Ten team be willing to spend $2M/year, save (maybe) Northwestern? I mean, the head coach is the single biggest attention-getter you can get for a college FB program, and when you get attention you get ticket sales, merchandise, etc. to recoup some of those contract expenses.
Yes, but some schools have been slower to adjust to the realities of college sports salaries. Purdue literally had to have a coach have a contract in hand to get what he deserved.
The decision here is easier though, because they probably are going to lose $5 million or more a year if they keep Hope, and $2 million or more if they make a cheap hire. It also has to do with assistant coaching salaries.
The good thing is that they can sell a new coach on the upcoming unannounced stadium upgrades, new facility upgrades that already happened for the athletic offices/football practice facility, and an outgoing President who didn't care about sports and all in all was pretty bad whereas the new President is expected to be more friendly with the athletic department.
The #1 choice here is clear, but he will definitely say no. Former player Kevin Sumlin is now at Texas A&M, and he's not leaving. If they had fired Hope last year, then there would have been a chance. Personally, my second call would be to Jim Tressel. He has a 5 year show cause, but the only real penalties with it are that he can't coach the first 5 games of the first season, and can't coach the bowl game. I don't expect there to even be an interest shown on either end, but I think it is an idea that makes sense for both sides. My next call is to Bobby Petrino, but something tells me he's going to end up in the SEC. Then, there is someone like Derek Dooley, who will be fired, but I'm not convinced he is a good fit and his results haven't been good, thus the firing. I do not expect any of those names to be the head coach next year.
This brings us down to the second tier, which would include MAC and Conference USA coaches who are finding success. For the MAC, this is probably Darrell Hazell or Dave Doeren. I don't know enough about Conference USA to even speculate on them.
Ultimately, this new coach better run a pass happy offense. That is what Purdue should be known for.
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