AAC Trend - Year 2 of 5 Firings

Big E · November 24

I’ve read multiple comments on this board of how UNT can’t afford to fire a coach in year 2 of a 5-year contract. However, the fact is that we have now just seen, in the AAC, Charlotte do it with Coach Poggi, FAU with Coach Herman and now Tulsa with Coach Wilson. The trend is shifting. Programs can’t afford to watch ticket revenue and overall support, financial and otherwise, fall off. Our coaches and AD get paid a ton of money to produce a quality product. This is like a sales job (career sales guy speaking here). If you don’t produce, leadership will find someone who will.

Green with Envy · November 24

What are their athletic budgets?
How deep are their donor pockets?

Big Z · November 24

6 minutes ago, Green with Envy said:

What are their athletic budgets?
How deep are their donor pockets?

They want champagne on a beer budget

MrAlien · November 24

At this point in the football cycle, if you fire a coach then you throw away all the recruiting work being done for the following seasons. The portal opens up in just a few days, and most AAC schools build their next years roster in the transfer portal. How hard is it going to be for these programs to build rosters for next season if they dont have a head coach going into the transfer window?

NT80 · November 24

"Wilson's firing marks the sixth job to open in the AAC (along with those at Charlotte, Rice, Temple, East Carolina and FAU). Tulsa, Charlotte and FAU fired their coaches before the finish of their second seasons, a sign that the expected length of coaching tenures in the Group of 5 is shortening."

Here is the ESPN article about the AAC and G5 trend...

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/42581760/sources-tulsa-firing-kevin-wilson-latest-blowout-loss

C Rod · November 24

Tulsa fired Wilson with a 7-16 record. Morris has a record of 10-13 with two of those wins vs Tulsa.

NM Green · November 24

Are any of these fired coaches defensive minded. They know the AAC and could focus on one angle of the incredible game.

GMG

Big Z · November 24

5 minutes ago, C Rod said:

Tulsa fired Wilson with a 7-16 record. Morris has a record of 10-13 with two of those wins vs Tulsa.

How can the AD justify keeping Morris if you lose to a 2-8 Temple team with an interim coach?

NT80 · November 24

3 minutes ago, Big Z said:

How can the AD justify keeping Morris if you lose to a 2-8 Temple team with an interim coach?

It has nothing to do with justification. It's all about the $$$... We are not Texas A$M.

FirefightnRick · November 24

We’re not firing Morris. He’ll be here at least one more season. which should be enough leverage by the AD for him to improve.

Rick

GMG_Dallas · November 24

2 hours ago, Green with Envy said:

What are their athletic budgets?
How deep are their donor pockets?

2 hours ago, Big Z said:

They want champagne on a beer budget

38 minutes ago, NT80 said:

It has nothing to do with justification. It's all about the $$$... We are not Texas A$M.

So Charlotte and FAU are Texas A&M? Quick Google search shows our athletic budget is $49.7 million, FAU's is about $32.8 million, Temple's (also fired their coach) is about $33 million, and Charlotte's is about $39 million. They could all fire their coaches but we can't? Unrelated but they all have baseball but we don't. Funny how others do things we can't afford despite us having a bigger budget. Even without the donors, our budget $10 million more than those schools. I'm sure we can find the money to fire the guy.

Edited November 24 by GMG_Dallas

keith · November 24

19 minutes ago, FirefightnRick said:

We’re not firing Morris. He’ll be here at least one more season. which should be enough leverage by the AD for him to improve.

Rick

If we can't fire Morris because we negotiated a horrible contract, then how about firing Mosley who created this mess? It's hard for people to recognize and admit they made a mistake and do what's necessary to clean it up. They usually hold on too long and hope that their guy can turn things around and prove all the nay-sayers wrong and waste another year or two. Get rid of the guy that created the mess and let the new guy clean it up since they have no skin in the previous decision.

NT80 · November 24

1 hour ago, GMG_Dallas said:

So Charlotte and FAU are Texas A&M? Quick Google search shows our athletic budget is $49.7 Unrelated but they all have baseball but we don't. …our budget $10 million more than those schools. I'm sure we can find the money to fire the guy.

I agree, we should have Baseball, and be able to fire a FB coach.

Let’s drop non-revenue sports like golf and track and use those $$.

wardly · November 24

2 hours ago, FirefightnRick said:

We’re not firing Morris. He’ll be here at least one more season. which should be enough leverage by the AD for him to improve.

Rick

Just my opinion but coaches should get 3 years to turn their program around. Having to beat Temple to go 6&6 and a 3rd rate bowl game is not what we envisioned 6 weeks ago but then life rarely is.

wardly · November 24

25 minutes ago, NT80 said:

I agree, we should have Baseball, and be able to fire a FB coach.

Let’s drop non-revenue sports like golf and track and use those $$.

The money saved wouldn't make a dent in the amount we invest in football. Basically at this point I feel that we are throwing good money after bad art this program.

jtm0097 · November 24

If we can come up with 2 mil, we can fire Morris. We're a poor program, that's not going to happen. He will here next year and his coaching seat will be hotter than the Sahara in the summer.

Side.Show.Joe · November 24

4 hours ago, MrAlien said:

At this point in the football cycle, if you fire a coach then you throw away all the recruiting work being done for the following seasons. The portal opens up in just a few days, and most AAC schools build their next years roster in the transfer portal. How hard is it going to be for these programs to build rosters for next season if they dont have a head coach going into the transfer window?

Based on the on our record, it looks like Morris' current recruiting hasn't got the job done. I think the idea is that a new coach and staff would be more successful at luring better players in the portal and on signing day.

Edited November 24 by Side.Show.Joe

Big Z · November 24

Doesn’t Morris get a bonus for making a bowl game ?

Green with Envy · November 24

15 minutes ago, Big Z said:

Doesn’t Morris get a bonus for making a bowl game ?

Yes. $35k for getting to a bowl game.

$20k for 7 wins, which would essentially be winning the bowl game too.

FirefightnRick · November 24

31 minutes ago, Big Z said:

Doesn’t Morris get a bonus for making a bowl game ?

You could give him $10 Million dollars just for ordering the Grand Slam at Denny’s tomorrow morning and his offense will still practice handing the ball off 5 yards deep on 4th and inches.

Rick

Green with Envy · November 24

1 hour ago, FirefightnRick said:

You could give him $10 Million dollars just for ordering the Grand Slam at Denny’s tomorrow morning and his offense will still practice handing the ball off 5 yards deep on 4th and inches.

Rick

FFR Unleashed

GMG_Dallas · November 24

4 hours ago, NT80 said:

I agree, we should have Baseball, and be able to fire a FB coach.

Let’s drop non-revenue sports like golf and track and use those $$.

If those schools can all have baseball AND fire their head football coaches with a budget $10 - $16 million less than us, why can't we? What are we spending our money on? Where are we overspending?

Edited November 24 by GMG_Dallas

wardly · November 25

32 minutes ago, GMG_Dallas said:

If those schools can all have baseball AND fire their head football coaches with a budget $10 - $16 million less than us, why can't we? What are we spending our money on? Where are we overspending?

First, in my opinion, firing a coach after only 2 years sets your program back at least that length of time if not longer.[ there are rare exceptions like I.U,. this year].Next, if you look at the return on investment in our football program from the outside looking in we are overspending . I know I may be exaggerating but it seems like we added a lot of administrative personal when Wren was A.D. Finely, I don't know how other schools handle their buyouts and quite frankly don't much care. What I do care about is that no matter who we hire as head football coach and regardless of the amount of money we throw at the program the end result stays the same. We just are not worth a shit and with rare exceptions have not been since Fry left 46 years ago in 1978. Looks to me we are just throwing good money after bad.

GMG_Dallas · November 25

38 minutes ago, wardly said:

First, in my opinion, firing a coach after only 2 years sets your program back at least that length of time if not longer.[ there are rare exceptions like I.U,. this year].Next, if you look at the return on investment in our football program from the outside looking in we are overspending . I know I may be exaggerating but it seems like we added a lot of administrative personal when Wren was A.D. Finely, I don't know how other schools handle their buyouts and quite frankly don't much care. What I do care about is that no matter who we hire as head football coach and regardless of the amount of money we throw at the program the end result stays the same. We just are not worth a shit and with rare exceptions have not been since Fry left 46 years ago in 1978. Looks to me we are just throwing good money after bad.

Not going to disagree with any of this. I would have no issue with cutting football spending a bit, dumping extra in basketball, and starting baseball up. We seem to do well in about every sport except football, there's no reason to believe we can't be competitive in baseball. Make the football head coach salary heavy on incentives tied to winning only, not media appearances or anything else. Second contracts if earned can have higher base pay. If this needs to start after Morris' deal is up the fine. That just means the AD has 3 years to figure out the baseball situation and how basketball can be improved.

Edited November 25 by GMG_Dallas

Green with Envy · November 25

4 minutes ago, GMG_Dallas said:

Make the football head coach salary heavy on incentives tied to winning only, not media appearances or anything else..

I don’t know what is standard, but Morris getting $300K for media appearances is baffling to me.