Last year, Charlie Strong flirted with Tennessee before ultimately agreeing to a contract extension at Louisville that made him the 10th-highest-paid coach in college football.
Charlie Strong’s gone. Who will replace him?
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Just before the new year, the Portland Business Journal investigated what schools “get” from their sponsorship agreements with adidas, Nike and Under Armour. Part of the research included obtaining the contracts of several college coaches. Strong’s is on the site, so I took a peek.
In addition to Strong’s $3.7 million a year base pay, he’s also entitled to bonuses that add up to more than $800,000. With news breaking late, late Friday night that Texas offered him its head coaching position, the buyout number became important, too. After July of 2013, any buyout of Strong’s contract would cost the interested school $4.375 million. Not a problem for Texas, though an SI report Saturday morning said the tax on the buyout is north of $1 million.
If Strong takes the Texas job — and he’s yet to make that decision as of Saturday morning — let’s run down a short list of coaches whose names have been bandied about by guys with hot sports takes:
Shawn Watson (Louisville offensive coordinator)
David Cutcliffe (Duke)
Bobby Petrino (Western Kentucky)
Chad Morris (offensive coordinator, Clemson)
Jim McElwain (Colorado State)
Matt Wells (Utah State)
Jay Gruden (offensive coordinator, Cincinnati Bengals)
Kirby Smart (defensive coordinator, Alabama)
Ed Orgeron (currently unemployed)
Pat Narduzzi (defensive coordinator, Michigan State)
Current staffer
Watson: He’s got the pedigree as an offensive coordinator who’s coached at Colorado, Nebraska, Northwestern and a few smaller schools before joining Louisville’s staff in 2011. He obviously knows the players and program well, and he’s an intelligent guy who’s known as a quarterback “guru.” It should be noted that his offense in 2013, even with standout quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, drew some ire from a faction of Louisville fans who wanted him to open things up. Louisville’s 36-9 Russell Athletic Bowl win over Miami may have at least diluted those complaints.
Head men
Cutcliffe: Turned Duke into a winner. Duke. I’ve said this before: Winning with Duke is like the Pope converting Iran’s Supreme Leader. It’s virtually impossible. Cutcliffe makes an estimated $1.7 million a year. Louisville could easily afford him. But he’s 59 and early reports indicate he wouldn’t want to leave.
McElwain: In his first head coaching job of his career, the 51-year-old McElwain turned CSU from a 4-8 season in his first year to 8-6 in 2013. He coached receivers and special teams at Louisville about a decade ago before moving on to Michigan State, Fresno State, the NFL and eventually landing as the OC at Alabama. He makes $1.35 million at Colorado State.
Wells: He’s young and he’s had a relatively quick rise up the ranks to his current spot as the 40-year-old head coach at Utah State. He makes a little more than $500,000, so he’s more than affordable. He was the quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator under Steve Kragthorpe, which isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement. But he did well at Utah State in his first year as head coach, pushing the Aggies to a 9-5 record and a bowl win.
Retread
Petrino: Really? Really. Lots of local chatter about the return of Bobby P to Louisville. He left under not-so-positive terms, and his reputation took a major hit when he was embroiled in a soap-opera scandal at Arkansas. But he did seek out Louisville AD Tom Jurich during his year out of football, and Jurich gave Petrino his recommendation for the WKU job. He makes roughly $855,000 at WKU.
Hot assistants
Morris: He’s the highest-paid assistant coach in college football, making $1.3 million a year at Clemson under coach Dabo Swinney. They’ve turned the Tigers into an annual power, especially because of their potent offense. Those are the pluses for Morris, who is 46 and rose through the high school ranks before landing at Tulsa in 2010 and jumping to Clemson a year later. One plus and/or negative: Morris is one of the hottest coaching names out there, and Louisville hiring him would undoubtedly bring on another few years of coaching searches perhaps three years down the line.
Smart: He’s definitely got the reputation as one of the best coaches — head or assistant — in college football. He’s just behind Morris in terms of salary for an assistant. He’s smart as a whip. But would he leave Alabama for this job when perhaps the Florida job may be open in a year? It’s long been assumed that he was waiting for a primetime gig to open. And if he left for Louisville, that assumption would remain for his entire time with the Cards.
Narduzzi: The DC at Michigan State just finished a major, major season with Sparty. MSU posted one of the best defensive seasons of anyone, and Narduzzi was just named the nation’s top assistant coach. He makes good coordinator money at Michigan State, but Louisville could definitely afford him. Connecticut and Akron pursued him, as did Texas A&M as a defensive coordinator. He seems like a real possibility.
Orgeron: Coach O, as he’s so affectionately called, became a folk hero with his admirable performance as interim head coach at USC for the second half of the 2013 season. He’s a big-time recruiter, who’s bounced around from Miami to Syracuse to Tennessee, a few places in between, including the NFL. He had a miserable stint as the head coach at Ole Miss, despite recruiting well. But there was a significant faction pushing for him to become the permanent head coach at USC after the Trojans went 6-2 under O and beat Stanford.
The old quarterback
Gruden: No, not THAT Gruden. Jay’s a bit more familiar with Louisville fans. The Bengals’ OC was a quarterback at Louisville in the 1980s. He’s coached entirely at the NFL and Arena League level. But he’s worked with some big-time players with the Bengals, and his offense — even with Andy Dalton at quarterback — has been one of the better units in the NFL under his tenure.
