so no longer the special assistant to the head coach? sad
who's going to carry Sabin's binders now?

Lovie Smith fired at Illinois. Always thought that hire was never gonna work. He was probably there a bit longer than I thought he would be.

Gus got fired. They ****ing did it. Wow.

Thanks for everything Gus. Good luck. Hope he finds success

Wonder who auburn has in mind to replace him. This was obviously in the works before yesterday.

Can't imagine they don't have someone lined up. That is a lot of money to just hope for the best that they'll find someone better.

Has to be Freeze, right?

Wouldn’t mind him tbh. He’s probably the most realistic guy I can see auburn hiring.

Pretty risky to settle on someone currently infected with the coronavirus.

pay the players already

Do they still get turned down for no-penalty transfer requests, or did that get sorted out a couple years ago?

He’s from the south and the rumor is he wants to go back there to live. Simple enough. And he has nick saban ties.

Cristobal is currently negotiating a huge extension with Oregon. he was the 11th highest paid coach in conference, guessing that's going to drastically change soon.

2020 Pac 12 coaches salaries.

David Shaw, Stanford — $4,812,197
Kyle Whittingham, Utah — $4,634,178
Clay Helton, USC — $4,569,507
Chip Kelly, UCLA — $4,300,000
Herman Edwards, ASU — $3,640,000
Kevin Sumlin, Arizona — $3,283,333
Justin Wilcox, California — $3,276,248
Karl Dorrell, Colorado — $3,040,000
Jimmy Lake, Washington — $2,912,500
Nick Rolovich, Washington State — $2,870,000
Mario Cristobal, Oregon — $2,542,500
Jonathan Smith, Oregon State — $2,288,000

Well, looks like he’ll get to use auburn as leverage for an even bigger buyout... or he’ll go to auburn before he signs that extension.

i suppose Cristobal's current salary is somewhat understandable given his history as a HC. FIU from '07-'12, that's it, with an overall record of 27-47. yes, he took over a FIU program in its 6th year of history and had a winning record in his 4th and 5th years, but went 3-9 his last year before being fired. otherwise unproven as a HC and it makes sense Oregon didn't throw money at him after he took over after Taggert left. they were negotiating a new contract for him this past spring after the Rose Bowl win but Covid happened and that was paused.
the one thing that isn't in doubt is he can recruit and coach O-line...he did it at Alabama and he's done it at Oregon.

He's from Miami, which isn't the South and the only time he has spent in the South is 4 years assistant at Bama. I wouldn't really call that going back there to live, he knew it was just a stepping stone(unless of course Saban's wife had found a better realtor in Austin).

How much should a failed head coach be prepared to pay Saban to be an analyst?

For Millions of extra dollars is the most likely answer

So he could get $12 million when he's fired. Up til then, everything's gravy!

Vandy is hiring Notre Dame’s DC. Probably a good hire for them. Don’t we have a resident ND guy here? Maybe he can offer some insight

I've been wrong on my share of hires but still LOLing three years later at anyone thinking Sumlin had any chance at U of A.

The Leach to Tennessee posts are fun to revisit as well. That coaching search was such a **** show we got to laugh at Tennessee but then two years later we got Leach in the SEC anyway.

ND’s DC seems like he’s doing a good job. Who knows how it will transfer to Vandy though. Last ND DC to get a HC gig was Diaco at UConn who it turns out is a huge clown, so who knows?

He is from Nashville and Vanderbilt is his alma mater so that probably adds a little value as they may get him to stay an extra year or two if he (somehow) is successful.


As a general premise don't like the focusing on candidates with connections to a school as it unnecessarily limits one's pool of options (see: Michigan men) but considering Vanderbilt's challenges I think it makes sense for them.

Who's it going to be?

Probably Texas Tech.

There are rumors that Kevin Steele is the leading candidate at Auburn. He’s 9-36 as a head coach. I’d laugh at that but Coach O had a bad record and then won a natty.