In 2009, when UH was vying for a Sugar Bowl bid, the only thing in the Coogs way was So. Miss in the Championship game at Robertson
Except, one of our local P5 teams from Texas started whispering big money and fame into CKS’s ear. Of course, he denied it, but legend has it he missed 3 of the team practices that week. Most of you know that UH played uninspired ball that Saturday and lost, but Sumlin hit the lottery and has been cashing ever since.
Do you blame the coach? Nope! Too much money. The NCAA doesn’t care enough about the integrity of the game to prohibit in-season tampering. We’ve seen this movie before so we know how it ends
My suggestion is this: if UH is going to be used as a springboard to the P5 for coaches, fine. Put a $1 million per each remaining year on the coaches contract as a exit fee. That way, we win even when we lose.
In the end, college football is a business and Tom Herman is a playa. Except he lost focus because of the whispers too. And again, we’ll be holding the bag.
We can handle commuter fans and commuter coaches but Tillman should build in this recognition so we don’t continue to get abused for free
Herman’s contract already has a buyout clause, but it’s insignificant compared to many others. I believe it’s something like $2 million, which can easily be paid out via installments by the likes of UT and LSU. Even though a large buyout won’t deter everybody, it provides us with funds to help cover future coaches and deters a large number of poachers.
When Herman’s contract was renegotiated last year, we should have pressed for a significantly higher buyout that would have matched Herman’s commitment to the program to UH’s significant investment in facilities. We didn’t…and here we are.
The problem is, a coach would have to agree to that. Also, buyouts usually work both ways – if we hire a guy and want to fire him later, we have to buy him out.
People seem to be confused on buyout clauses for a university. If there is no buyout, you have to pay a coach the full amount remaining on his contract unless it’s for something other than performance like harassment.
When you are committing to a coach with a contract bigger than any other coach at the same level (G5 in this case) and you are also committing to other things like new indoor practice facilities, it shouldn’t be a big deal to ask for a large sum for a buyout which would of course be paid off by the new employer. Call it a “finders fee” if you must put a label on it.
If a school like UT is willing to pay Strong $10 million to let him go and another $5.5 million a year to Herman, Houston asking for $5 million wouldn’t be enough to deter big budget schools from hiring Herman.
I remember that 2009 game- even Case Keenum over road some of the plays that came from the sidelines- well written Scotti Scotto- There should be a Big Buyout formula based on the wins the coach has had- not sure what that would look like.
I read that Strong’s and the assistant coaches’ buyouts totals $18M. That is a lot of money to spend because you don’t like the results on the football field. No doubt the Horns can pay it, but this is getting to be crazy money.