I trust Rick Dickson to do the right thing with respect to evaluation of the football program and staff. I did not trust Gragg to perform this function satisfactorily.
Does Monty Deserve A Extension
- Thread starter TulsaFanFromStigler
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Two different philosophies and challenges. Gragg had a Vanderbilt “somebody’s gotta lose” attitude and very focused on individual student outcomes. He had budget crisis after crisis. Monty was perfect for that era. Dickson has the challenge of reorganizing the development process and building out after a decade of stagnant fundraising. Monty supposedly loves the guy but he may be too inexperienced to see that he could hide his underperformance behind bigger problems and deflect blame with them. Those days are likely over if Dickson performs as he did at WSU and Tulane.
Huffy , I’m talking solely the football budget because that’s the only sport that makes any money. Basketball is basically a break even proposition and the remaining sports live off AAC football conference money which this is roughly seven
million per university .
Then by those numbers, I believe we are third from the bottom. But the distance between us and ECU at the bottom is significant. You can’t look at raw numbers and draw conclusions about competitive budget. ECU might raise more and spend more than us, but they are way upside down on debt servicing and they aren’t putting that money on the field. They are bleeding worse than us and may be terminal. Schools like USF have high revenue due to student fees (for now) but they rent their facilities and have huge payments towards that. It’s not money on the field. So it’s a tough gauge. 3rd from bottom on actual dollars spent on football is what I’ve been told. But everyone does their books different so it’s hard to tell.
ECU is a trip. And a cautionary tale for some of you on here. They hired a rah rah AD who pushed a stadium expansion and practice facilities on the Board. He claimed it would generate up to $45 million in unrealized revenue, mostly luxury experiences on football game day. The plan was backed by student fees and tuition. They projected loss is over $5 million and counting. They are literally using tuition dollars to pay debt on unused athletic facilities in a period of plummeting enrollment. They are in trouble.
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I'm just trying to get this straight from hearing a little of this and a little of that over the years...
Is this what happened: Gragg, Haith, & Montgomery accepted a pay cut in 2018. Then they wanted to make it semi official and do some Contract restructuring in 2019, and Gragg & Haith accepted this, but Montgomery wouldn't???
I’ve never gotten the full story or really any story but that’s what has been suggested to me by several different people.
I don’t know if that should preclude him from being allowed an extension. Without knowing all of his reasons and all of the university’s options at the time, I’m not sure I can make a judgement on that situation.
I’m actually more concerned that Haith will be owed more money with interest than what we already owed him. Could make finding a replacement difficult if it comes to that at some point. I’m guessing all of this was done prior to Haith winning a share of the conference title as well.
Boise coach just went to Auburn, might still be some moving parts in other places, but as of right now I have not seen his name, there have also been very few spots open that would make any sense for him.
I seriously doubt any school that he would be interested in will approach him. Not knocking him just looking at the facts Two winning seasons in 6 years. This year is so strange not sure people really know how it fits in the evaluation process. One other year at 6-7 that included a bowl. Finally 3 very bad seasons. It would be a hard sell for a search committee to make Monty their recommended candidate.
Not exactly a record you gamble your job hiring him on, not to mention $7 or $8 million.
He might be a good fit for the likes of Kansas, Wazzu, or Duke. Somewhere where there aren’t huge expectations, but he could bring in good recruiters and maybe build something.
The other big issue is these other schools aren’t going to allow him to continue to be his own OC. If he was a trailblazing offensive guru like Malzahn it might be different. But given our anemic offense and his obsessive control issues, I just don’t see him as a HC candidate anywhere else.
Especially since his recruiting is tied so hard to Texas.
Of course the fact that the Tulsa job isn't as bad as some try to make out also means roughly half the jobs total are automatically out.
The MW programs pay less by a noticable margin, but are on the same level perception as Tulsa or an AAC job. That's a pay cut and a long way from Texas.
CUSA jobs pay less, have less opportunity, lower perception.
SBC similar to CUSA, the Louisiana job is becoming a good gig and is in the same recruiting grounds. Pays less.
MAC. No recruiting area, colder, lower pay, lower reputations, etc.
So you are with his record probably looking for a private school or high academic school not in a win or die mode (Miami, Baylor when he was there) because they will want a better hire.
One either with Texas recruiting or a p5 that he can still go pull from his usual areas as well as the school's traditional recruits.
Our list is really small now whether or not they have an opening.
The nightmare scenario is Briles comes in to BA and coaches a year, has success, Montgomery moves on and suddenly Briles is the presumptive replacement with his system and it’s players already in place. I’d be in Laureate by the close of business.
Unless it’s upside the head
there are several reasons I would not want him to run my offense.
The part of the team that Monty coaches has been our Achilles the past three seasons. And he won’t do anything to bring anyone in to improve it (an OC). the defensive staff got this team where it is. Recruiting and coaching. He deserves another year, but not an extension.
and if he made no improvements to the part of the team he coaches, then next year should be his last.
in my opinion, we win both of our losses if our O is better. I think we have a bottom of the league offensive coach and a top of the league defensive coach.
and if he made no improvements to the part of the team he coaches, then next year should be his last.
in my opinion, we win both of our losses if our O is better. I think we have a bottom of the league offensive coach and a top of the league defensive coach.
You can't have a coach without a contract after the next year. It makes recruiting impossible. You would just eliminate a recruiting class of any substance whether you canned him or kept him..
2 year extension. Low or minimal buyout. New OC.
New President and new AD coming in but it will take two seasons for them to decide on a coach and for all of college football to adjust to the losses and changes caused by this season. You offer an extra year at a lower salary to facilitate resolving those issues if he performs to this level next year. Otherwise you let the contract run and start over.
Recruiting is a concern as raised above, but is already in the toilet in part because recruits know we stopped building projects and allegedly didn’t fire our coach because we didn’t have the money. (We had the money not the guts.) Both of those are worse than the coach might leave/get fired because he doesn’t have an extension. Recruits know that’s always a risk unless youre Alabama. The other two are bigger problems we have to work through. It would be nice to have a revolving five year deal in place, but transfer rules can and should ease the impact of Montgomery working himself out of a job. To be honest, with Montgomery’s record, if he had a five year deal in place and I’m the father of a recruit, I’d look at other programs because it would be obvious to me we weren’t serious about winning or investing $1.6 million in infrastructure. We can go 2-6 and pay someone half that to do that.
Recruiting is a concern as raised above, but is already in the toilet in part because recruits know we stopped building projects and allegedly didn’t fire our coach because we didn’t have the money. (We had the money not the guts.) Both of those are worse than the coach might leave/get fired because he doesn’t have an extension. Recruits know that’s always a risk unless youre Alabama. The other two are bigger problems we have to work through. It would be nice to have a revolving five year deal in place, but transfer rules can and should ease the impact of Montgomery working himself out of a job. To be honest, with Montgomery’s record, if he had a five year deal in place and I’m the father of a recruit, I’d look at other programs because it would be obvious to me we weren’t serious about winning or investing $1.6 million in infrastructure. We can go 2-6 and pay someone half that to do that.
We can pick the hottest up and coming g5 coach for 3/4ths of that and roll the dice. A million a year is what most top end non-power/AAC coaches make. Hell they might even give us a break on a buy out hoping to catapult to the p5 in three or four years, which means if they crash and burn we can eject.
Again the job is advantageous, even if it could be better than what it is.
You can believe what you like, but $2 million will make you the lowest paid coach in the AAC, except for Tulsa ($1.6 million) and whatever Tulane and Temple are paying their people. Tulane paid $1.6 in 2018. Temple paid Collins $1.9 in 2019. Dykes makes $1.3 as a base but it’s performance based and gets a bonus for finding his car keys.
Youre thinking is perhaps ten years outdated. Nobody is signing to coach for Tulsa while we are in the AAC and agreeing to get paid less than what we paid Graham a decade ago. Unless they are alumni with no other realistic shot at any other job. Or some random high school guy. Or both. And we saw how that turned out.
North Texas paying $1.8. Rice paying $1.5 plus incentives. I supposed if you want to troll the Sun Belt for some guys, you’ll find reasonably competent dudes that everyone else wants who aren’t coming to Tulsa to make $200K more than the $800 they are making.
We are going to have to spend money. And protect that investment. And support that investment. And structure that investment so it looks like a commitment. Thank god we’ve got Rick.
Some of you live in really nice neighborhoods with really nice recently purchased cars in the garage. In a neighborhood where you are expected to have a nice car. And the rules don’t say you have to have one, but you have to park it in the garage. When the newest owner down the street parked his 2013 Camry in the driveway, it raised eyebrows from some neighbors, angered others, and a couple got together to get the HOA to fine him and uninvite he and his wife to holiday party. Similarly, schools have nice coaches parked inside their IPFs and new facilities. You put a $700,000 high school coach and dont build the IPF or update the facilities after 15 years and you’ll find you killed your own golden goose when they take their TV money and move on. And screw you out of home games. And send unsympathetic refs. And tattle to the NCAA. And ignore you on Twitter, etc.
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As of this month every single piece of weight equipment has been removed from the Reynolds Center Weight room and a massive renovation of that facility will begin sometime in January.....
For as long as we’ve lived on this block, our neighbors have had nicer cars than us, especially that loud neighbor to the south who took out a second mortgage to have his custom car shipped in from West Virginia only to spend half its time in the shop and wreck it again in Plano this week. Give me a Camry that gets us where we want to go on Saturdays over that. Even if I do have to whack the starter with a wrench to get it running.
I thought I was the only one that kept a wrench to knock the starter. But mine is a 2000 Jeep.
God bless Coach Dry and all those that helped match his gift for that last year. We built that out in what?, 1997, and it hasn’t had a major renovation since then.
and his son for writing out that check in his honor. Coach FA and his family (Diane, Doug, Mike) have been tremendous supporters of TU. Thanks to each of them.
