Lovie Smith as a TU analyst-Giving Back While in the Penalty Box

[Oak775]

My father, god bless the man, spent over 35 years with the Tulsa Public Schools during much of the glory days of the district and also watched the beginning of the multi-decade decline.

One of his last assignments was taking the reigns of Central High School at the newly opened campus west of downtown. His first chore was replacing the varsity football coach who had resigned abruptly. Dad cast the net far and wide and turned over a lot of rocks. One of his first interviews? A recently graduated young man from the University of Tulsa. He had played defensive back, well spoken, and very polished. Lovie Smith.

Dad usually went through a very thorough vetting process and interviewed a lot of folks and asked a lot of questions. After about 30 minutes into the interview my father leaned over his desk and offered Lovie the job. Love said “I’ll get back to you later this afternoon“. Dad had an eye for talent. He never got a call back from Lovie.

Lovie Smith has had some great runs and he’s had some setbacks. If you have ever been around football for any length of time you understand. To receive your severance after being dismissed as an NFL/NCAA head coach there’s usually language in the contract that says something to the affect,

”any and all remunerations cease when you are hired in a new coaching job”.

Well, to circumvent that clause the job of ”analyst” was invented. Nick Saban, and I’ve watched a few of his practices while living in Mountain Brook for over a decade, took the analyst position to a high art. The names of so many great coaches who have spent time as an analyst at schools like Alabama and Oklahoma are numerous. The analysts do work and evaluation on upcoming opponents and help prepare briefing books and lean in to the position coaches and share subtleties of their upcoming opponent, and much more.

To me, I think Lovie would be a great analyst at TU. He understands the 4-2. He understands TU. He understands working and communicating with young men. He’s a high ethics guy. Humble to help.

Get this guy in for an interview, and for goodness sake, set up a time when he’s going to call back!

 

[Tu Geo]

My father, god bless the man, spent over 35 years with the Tulsa Public Schools during much of the glory days of the district and also watched the beginning of the multi-decade decline.

One of his last assignments was taking the reigns of Central High School at the newly opened campus west of downtown. His first chore was replacing the varsity football coach who had resigned abruptly. Dad cast the net far and wide and turned over a lot of rocks. One of his first interviews? A recently graduated young man from the University of Tulsa. He had played defensive back, well spoken, and very polished. Lovie Smith.

Dad usually went through a very thorough vetting process and interviewed a lot of folks and asked a lot of questions. After about 30 minutes into the interview my father leaned over his desk and offered Lovie the job. Love said “I’ll get back to you later this afternoon“. Dad had an eye for talent. He never got a call back from Lovie.

Lovie Smith has had some great runs and he’s had some setbacks. If you have ever been around football for any length of time you understand. To receive your severance after being dismissed as an NFL/NCAA head coach there’s usually language in the contract that says something to the affect,

”any and all remunerations cease when you are hired in a new coaching job”.

Well, to circumvent that clause the job of ”analyst” was invented. Nick Saban, and I’ve watched a few of his practices while living in Mountain Brook for over a decade, took the analyst position to a high art. The names of so many great coaches who have spent time as an analyst at schools like Alabama and Oklahoma are numerous. The analysts do work and evaluation on upcoming opponents and help prepare briefing books and lean in to the position coaches and share subtleties of their upcoming opponent, and much more.

To me, I think Lovie would be a great analyst at TU. He understands the 4-2. He understands TU. He understands working and communicating with young men. He’s a high ethics guy. Humble to help.

Get this guy in for an interview, and for goodness sake, set up a time when he’s going to call back!

LOL I was there the first year the "new" Central opened what is his name?

I agree with you Lovie is a class act!!!!!

Go TU!!!!

 

[Cane1963]

There is a beautiful video of lovie in 2011 or 12 talking at homecoming to the team...I would show it to every recruit..that good

 

[TU 1978]

Lovie should be available after his dismissal from the hellhole that is known as the Houston Texans. Perhaps he would like some time off from the NFL and what better place than TU.

 

[HuffyCane]

The analyst role was invented to get around the NCAA limit on direct instruction coaches (10) and mimic the pecking order of pro staffs where the secondary assistant or analyst or whatever is the one responsible for doing things like film cut outs, computer presentation prep and tendency evaluation for the players so the actual coach is focused on coaching players directly and not ministerial or administrative tasks. Indeed many schools call them administrative assistants, not analysts, because the relevant state laws on state employees that cover the types of tasks these employees perform calls them administrative assistants and so they have to call them that. (An AA or an EA is more than a secretary even if you give your secretary a raise by calling him/her that. Ask any Pentagon General if his EA or AA is a secretary and he will likely hold you down while his EA flogs you and his secretary and scheduler laugh at you.)

By definition, they cannot be a coach on the field and do not have responsibilities that coaches at that school perform. For instance, they cannot recruit or supervise non coach recruiting staff, they can’t have direct contact with recruits, they can’t directly instruct players, etc.
They are like a combination of a GA and an NFL quality control/advance guy. They are not like GAs in that they are not required to be enrolled in school, but many do enroll to make their credentials better for moving on to other schools. Or they were a GA, couldn’t keep up with school, are a few credits short and take an analyst job to finish up.

Most SEC schools have between 6 and 10 analysts. Alabama has 8. One for each critical assistant coach. There are QC and Strength personnel that aren’t coaches in addition to that. These guys make roughly $40 to $85000 a year and most have given up position coaching jobs at lower levels.

A few guys with no other options who have elite college coaching experience will take on analyst roles but it isn’t to be paid pay outs. It’s about staying in the game for the next pay day. So there really isn’t any dispute about analysts and pay outs. Nobody is hiring these guys for jobs and they are doing grunt work and learning because they hope to move on someday. Nobody running Ford Motor company takes a job helping somebody else manage GM unless they’ve got no other options and hope to get hired by Chrysler some day. Indeed many folks take jobs as analysts because they can’t otherwise demonstrate that they are actively looking for coaching employment which many standard contracts now require. They don’t want to lose years 4 and 5 of the buyout in a few years when the school refuses to pay because they are completely out of the field. So they take an analyst job and their agent documents them expressing interest to various schools. But it’s not about hiding an additional coach on your staff and your rival paying for it. For guys like Saban it’s simple management principles and ego. He’s got the budget and discretion to hire two brilliant guys and be called brilliant for doing so, while Genius #2 has Genius #1 looking over his shoulder. Saban has a lot less questions to answer about who is really running the offense in that situation, him, as opposed to a single coordinator running the show and taking the media coverage and professional respect if it’s successful.

Nobody thinks you are coaching if your job is to watch every punt return an opponent has run for the last 10 years and know that it’s a fake if number 37 is in the game and it’s your responsibility to yell 37 down the hall to the coaches in the booth so they can call time out if you see 37 and not 82 in the game as usual. The coaches don’t have the time and interest to break that down and are incapable of that type of split second recognition in real time when they are focused on other things. I laugh when I hear some commentator say that Gundy or a coordinator must have seen something so they called time out. No, a kid making $30,000 and no benefits saw it and just saved a millionaires job a split second before it was too late. And contrary to popular belief even high profile analysts aren’t coaching in disguise. Sure, they bring their experience to bear in prep, but they aren’t coaches.

TU doesn’t need to insult Lovie or anyone else by offering that type of work. As an unpaid fundraiser/fan ambassador? Sure. Great idea. We haven’t really had one since Coach Hudspeth passed away. I’m not sure he’s interested in doing something like that, but he’s been generous with his free time with TU when asked. I would bet he will be again.

TU does need to fund four or five analyst positions for kids who are really going to do the work and go on to larger programs. That pays dividends later when they are recruiting for Arkansas or whoever as a coach, can’t take a kid, and suggests he look at Tulsa. And that happens more than you think. And we haven’t been taking advantage of that.

 

[TU_BLA]

Didn't the NCAA just pass a rule that analysts can now recruit?

 

[Oak775]

The analyst role was invented to get around the NCAA limit on direct instruction coaches (10) and mimic the pecking order of pro staffs where the secondary assistant or analyst or whatever is the one responsible for doing things like film cut outs, computer presentation prep and tendency evaluation for the players so the actual coach is focused on coaching players directly and not ministerial or administrative tasks. Indeed many schools call them administrative assistants, not analysts, because the relevant state laws on state employees that cover the types of tasks these employees perform calls them administrative assistants and so they have to call them that. (An AA or an EA is more than a secretary even if you give your secretary a raise by calling him/her that. Ask any Pentagon General if his EA or AA is a secretary and he will likely hold you down while his EA flogs you and his secretary and scheduler laugh at you.)

By definition, they cannot be a coach on the field and do not have responsibilities that coaches at that school perform. For instance, they cannot recruit or supervise non coach recruiting staff, they can’t have direct contact with recruits, they can’t directly instruct players, etc.
They are like a combination of a GA and an NFL quality control/advance guy. They are not like GAs in that they are not required to be enrolled in school, but many do enroll to make their credentials better for moving on to other schools. Or they were a GA, couldn’t keep up with school, are a few credits short and take an analyst job to finish up.

Most SEC schools have between 6 and 10 analysts. Alabama has 8. One for each critical assistant coach. There are QC and Strength personnel that aren’t coaches in addition to that. These guys make roughly $40 to $85000 a year and most have given up position coaching jobs at lower levels.

A few guys with no other options who have elite college coaching experience will take on analyst roles but it isn’t to be paid pay outs. It’s about staying in the game for the next pay day. So there really isn’t any dispute about analysts and pay outs. Nobody is hiring these guys for jobs and they are doing grunt work and learning because they hope to move on someday. Nobody running Ford Motor company takes a job helping somebody else manage GM unless they’ve got no other options and hope to get hired by Chrysler some day. Indeed many folks take jobs as analysts because they can’t otherwise demonstrate that they are actively looking for coaching employment which many standard contracts now require. They don’t want to lose years 4 and 5 of the buyout in a few years when the school refuses to pay because they are completely out of the field. So they take an analyst job and their agent documents them expressing interest to various schools. But it’s not about hiding an additional coach on your staff and your rival paying for it. For guys like Saban it’s simple management principles and ego. He’s got the budget and discretion to hire two brilliant guys and be called brilliant for doing so, while Genius #2 has Genius #1 looking over his shoulder. Saban has a lot less questions to answer about who is really running the offense in that situation, him, as opposed to a single coordinator running the show and taking the media coverage and professional respect if it’s successful.

Nobody thinks you are coaching if your job is to watch every punt return an opponent has run for the last 10 years and know that it’s a fake if number 37 is in the game and it’s your responsibility to yell 37 down the hall to the coaches in the booth so they can call time out if you see 37 and not 82 in the game as usual. The coaches don’t have the time and interest to break that down and are incapable of that type of split second recognition in real time when they are focused on other things. I laugh when I hear some commentator say that Gundy or a coordinator must have seen something so they called time out. No, a kid making $30,000 and no benefits saw it and just saved a millionaires job a split second before it was too late. And contrary to popular belief even high profile analysts aren’t coaching in disguise. Sure, they bring their experience to bear in prep, but they aren’t coaches.

TU doesn’t need to insult Lovie or anyone else by offering that type of work. As an unpaid fundraiser/fan ambassador? Sure. Great idea. We haven’t really had one since Coach Hudspeth passed away. I’m not sure he’s interested in doing something like that, but he’s been generous with his free time with TU when asked. I would bet he will be again.

TU does need to fund four or five analyst positions for kids who are really going to do the work and go on to larger programs. That pays dividends later when they are recruiting for Arkansas or whoever as a coach, can’t take a kid, and suggests he look at Tulsa. And that happens more than you think. And we haven’t been taking advantage of that.

Tell that to every big time coach that was “rehabilitated” down in Tuscaloosa for a year.
I promise you they weren’t step and fetch its down there. Truth.

 

[HuffyCane]

Didn't the NCAA just pass a rule that analysts can now recruit?

That’s been proposed but has not passed iirc.

 

[HuffyCane]

Tell that to every big time coach that was “rehabilitated” down in Tuscaloosa for a year.
I promise you they weren’t step and fetch its down there. Truth.

We normally agree, but we are going to disagree here. Sorry.

Sure, there have been some big time names on the analyst staff, but none of them were hirable anywhere else and none were performing coaching duties. That would be a violation and not a small one because it deals with competitive balance. I forget who it was, Ole Miss or Auburn, they lost bowl eligibility for a year because an analyst sat in on a film session to make sure the computer editing was working right after it went screwy a couple of times. They can bring their talent to the prep, but they can't deal with the kids, call plays, speak on the headsets, etc.

But just for the sake of discussion, lets talk about the analysts in Tuscaloosa.

I'll spot you Derek Dooley, the old UT coach. But he has been on and off Saban's staff since LSU and the Dolphins and is being paid less than $100,000. So he aint coaching or his patron would be paying him more. He would not have left his position coach job in the NFL in NY for $80,000 or whatever in Alabama. He's learning management and prep concepts so he can go run a program the right way, not that freak show he helmed in Knoxville. But honestly, would any Alabama fan have any level of comfort with Derek Dooley having any input whatsoever into Alabama football? Absolutely not. Saban knows that. He's there to help out, learn, and move on. He aint coaching.

Here are your other analysts going into spring ball:

Dean Altobelli: In his 14th year in support and analysis at Alabama. Never been a coach.

George Banko: Graduated from Alabama in 2020. Did not play sports. Has a tech background. Was a student assistant in the defensive film room.

Bert Biffani: Moves into an analyst position after being in quality control and football operations at Texas A&M and Florida State for the last ten years. Did not play sports, Has never been a position coach.

Nick Cochran: Former UA student manager. Was a GA at Maryland. Did not play sports. Has never been a position coach. Probably the closest thing he will ever be to a coach was as a GA at a terrible school with an incompetent staff where he likely did little more than draw up (ie copy old) daily install sheets for select practices.

Dave Huxtable: A legit coach. Used to be the DC at NC State.

Will Lawing: Spent some time with the Texans coaching TE iirc. A legit coach.

Alex Mortensen: Another UA Student manager/Career Analyst who spent some time in the XFL and UAB. Never played the game.

Mark Orphey: A DII guy who was a position coach at Utah State for a couple of years.

Zach Mettenberger: The former Georgia and LSU quarterback with two seasons coaching at Nashville area high schools.

Nick McGriff: Ole Miss analyst last season. He was the South Carolina long snapper from 2014-18.

IOW, the analyst staff is closer to what I said, than what you think.

Now, if you want to discuss Coach Saban's Special Assistants to the Head Coach (sounds a whole lot like a job at the White House or a Governor's Mansion, huh?) and what they are paid and why. Or discuss why and how some head coaches have official and unofficial consulting relationships with people outside the process. That's a different story. But again, those folks aren't coaches and can't do what a head coach needs an assistant to do.

I hope this helps.

I know the perception is that Alabama and others break the rules with this system, but its really not that way. Even if they wanted to structure it that way and they could get around the obvious enforcement problems, there's just too little time to devote to such a thing for the amount of value you get back from it. Its one of many reasons Scott Frost is unemployed. Its a violation to try it and it just doesn't work. Every second of practice is filmed. You dont last long having your analysts act as coaches, because if they act as coaches it will be caught on film and you have to turn it over. Which Nebraska found out -- quick.

 

[TU_BLA]

And which NFL head coaches started as those analysts who never played the game? The Dolphins coach for one and I want to say there may at least 2 more

 

[Oak775]

A number of coaches do a year, or two, as analysts. I promise you Mike Stoops wasn’t kissing everyone’s coaching shoes and asking if they needed cream and sugar in their coffee.

Too sad you don’t understand, money has nothing to do with it. Zilch.

It’s all about networking, but you just truly don’t understand that.

That’s okay..It’s all about networking and intellectual capital while you’re in the “penalty box” collecting millions.

 

[HuffyCane]

A number of coaches do a year, or two, as analysts. I promise you Mike Stoops wasn’t kissing everyone’s coaching shoes and asking if they needed cream and sugar in their coffee.

Too sad you don’t understand, money has nothing to do with it. Zilch.

It’s all about networking, but you just truly don’t understand that.

That’s okay..It’s all about networking and intellectual capital while you’re in the “penalty box” collecting millions.

Just exactly who in college football would Mike Stoops need to network with that he doesn’t already know? And assuming he did Network as an analyst, why is he working for his brother and not even coaching all of the linebackers, much less working as a DC or HC? Why did he end up at Florida Atlantic with Willie Taggart after networking, maybe the worst coach in the last twenty years? Who exactly was paying his “buy out” as a fired assistant during all those analyst years? He went to UA after an assistant job with one, maybe two guaranteed years? Mike Stoops didn’t need to network. If anything, he needed to unlearn everything that he supposedly knows about how to coach football. Which is pretty much what an analyst does besides go to AA in some cases. Whether that applies to Mike Stoops depends on whether you believe the internet.

 

[HuffyCane]

And which NFL head coaches started as those analysts who never played the game? The Dolphins coach for one and I want to say there may at least 2 more

I don’t know. Doesn’t matter. The discussion is about whether schools have an impermissible number of coaches and whether that has an effect on the competitive balance. It simply doesn’t. A lot of sore losers looking for excuses want you to think that, but it definitely ain’t the case, at least as far as what happens during practice and during actual games.

I won’t say the same thing about 30 people working recruiting in one capacity or another. But that’s a good thing where it happens. Coaches don’t have to plan and supervise visits anymore. “Hostesses” aren’t being threatened with loss of scholarships if they don’t adequately welcome high school boys and hold their interest. And people are being paid to produce mailers and social media rather than leveraging students to do it for free.

 

[Oak775]

Just exactly who in college football would Mike Stoops need to network with that he doesn’t already know? And assuming he did Network as an analyst, why is he working for his brother and not even coaching all of the linebackers, much less working as a DC or HC? Why did he end up at Florida Atlantic with Willie Taggart after networking, maybe the worst coach in the last twenty years? Who exactly was paying his “buy out” as a fired assistant during all those analyst years? He went to UA after an assistant job with one, maybe two guaranteed years? Mike Stoops didn’t need to network. If anything, he needed to unlearn everything that he supposedly knows about how to coach football. Which is pretty much what an analyst does besides go to AA in some cases. Whether that applies to Mike Stoops depends on whether you believe the internet.

Huffy, Lovie Smith is going to be collecting millions and same with Mike Stoops.

You don’t get it and you never will.

 

[HuffyCane]

Huffy, Lovie Smith is going to be collecting millions and same with Mike Stoops.

You don’t get it and you never will.

Mike Stoops was fired without cause and received a total buyout of 15 monthly payments of $24,917 or $373,755.00 total.

You think you know what you are talking about, but it doesn’t happen anymore. And it only really happened once or twice. Every coach in America with an offset clause now has a new contract with an offset clause that says it applies if they are employed anywhere in university athletics: Coach, analyst, janitor, etc.

And your dreams of a $2 million DC taking an analyst job means they get a full buy out at their full compensation just doesn’t happen. But assistant contracts aren’t like head coach contracts and neither are fully guaranteed usually. So for instance Mike Stoops, since you bring him up, he was likely making around $1 million a year, but that wasn’t salary. Most of it was essentially what you and players know as NIL. A made up number to pay him extra if everything went well and to do TV shows and radio, go to booster events annd coaching clinics etc. When you get fired, that money isn’t in the guarantee. Neither is the portion of your pay that is advertised when you signed it at the press conference that is essentially a stay bonus. So he got chump change. His base salary for the remaining length of his contract, which was $275,000 yearly and he 15 months to go, plus a monthly stipend for his families moving and health insurance. And he was paid next to nothing at UA.

Now is Mike making money on the side as an independent contractor with some booster, we will never know. But Alabama wasnt paying him much more directly than Tristan the former intern and none of that offsets anything OU owed him after the first year, if at all, because OU owed him nothing after the first year, and they probably lump summed him the first year anyway since it was so little money and they wanted to make it as easy as possible.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Huffy, Lovie Smith is going to be collecting millions and same with Mike Stoops.

You don’t get it and you never will.

The new guy is getting a little feisty.

 

[drboobay]

NFL head coach is more than a step above a college coordinator.

 

[Oak775]

NFL head coach is more than a step above a college coordinator.

Doc, you understand, and the discussion is about Lovie. He’s going to be making millions after being fired.

 

[drboobay]

Doc, you understand, and the discussion is about Lovie. He’s going to be making millions after being fired.

Yes.

 

[drboobay]

Yes.

I think the bigger idea here is to find a way for Lovie Smith to help the program.

That would be great if we could figure out a method.

 

[TU_BLA]

I think the bigger idea here is to find a way for Lovie Smith to help the program.

That would be great if we could figure out a method.

You ask. Maybe he is brought in by Rick to lead a fundraising campaign for the IPF specifically reaching out to former players.

 

[TULOYAL]

Can someone name a coach who failed as miserably as Lovie Smith the last 10 years? I just don't get the fascination with this guy. He played at TU..so what?

 

[drboobay]

Can someone name a coach who failed as miserably as Lovie Smith the last 10 years? I just don't get the fascination with this guy. He played at TU..so what?

He also coached in a Super Bowl.

 

[astonmartin708]

He also coached in a Super Bowl.

And he got Rex Grossman there. That was a complete miracle. Lol.

 

[Oak775]

He has a great agent. He has a net worth, reportedly, over 20m dollars.

“The game can use you or you can use the game. Not bad from being from Big Sandy.”

 

[TU 1978]

Can someone name a coach who failed as miserably as Lovie Smith the last 10 years? I just don't get the fascination with this guy. He played at TU..so what?

The coach can often be only as successful as an inept GM or clueless owner. The Texans have both and will continue to be a trainwreck.

 

[TU_BLA]

He also coached in a Super Bowl.

He won a Super Bowl while the Rams DC as well. He's a brilliant defensive mind. He got the freaking Bears to the Super Bowl with a meh QB. He's a good coach but this situation in Houston was designed to fail by the owners and upper management. They lost their franchise QB because it turned out he's a walking sexual harassment lawsuit. They literally have traded away every good player they had and were tanking to try and get the #1 overall pick. Lovie destroyed that chance by winning the last game. Again, Houston fired the coach they had last year and then Lovie this year...maybe the problem isn't the coaches but the front office and the players they are acquiring.

 

[Tu Geo]

Lovie was pretty much handpicked to clean up Houston not from a football competitive standpoint but from a public relations standpoint. He is pure class and the NFL knows that and put him in Houston in coordination with the ownership.

Winning with that broken team was not going to happen. Their ex QB was/is a PR nightmare.

GO TU!!!!

 

[TULOYAL]

He won a Super Bowl while the Rams DC as well. He's a brilliant defensive mind. He got the freaking Bears to the Super Bowl with a meh QB. He's a good coach but this situation in Houston was designed to fail by the owners and upper management. They lost their franchise QB because it turned out he's a walking sexual harassment lawsuit. They literally have traded away every good player they had and were tanking to try and get the #1 overall pick. Lovie destroyed that chance by winning the last game. Again, Houston fired the coach they had last year and then Lovie this year...maybe the problem isn't the coaches but the front office and the players they are acquiring.

He was the head coach coach at Illinois and the DC. They sucked for years and got worse. Nobody else to blame but himself.