These are all some good points. New coach vs NIL? In today’s new landscape it might make sense to allocate more assets to “buying players” vs throwing crazy money at some up and coming young OC. I can’t believe I’m saying that, but we live in strange and rapidly changing world. Winning is what will draw crowds, not some new carnival barker. Discussing Herman, Briles, etc is all moot now. Those guys were all pre NIL. Bringing in a solid coach like Willie Fritz may not be the answer either. It would take him several years to build the program the right way.
Probably the best plan is to keep Dana, buy the best team possible, and by all means hire some qualified assistant coaches, starting with a new DC.
This isn’t true. Recruiting is still about relationships, the NIL is just a check box now for the players.
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Maybe but we are really talking hypotheticals at that point. Just having a ton of NIL doesn’t build the roster. The coach has to have the relationships to bring them in with it. In specific cases some guys have been wooed with big $$ but on the whole you have to still recruit the team.
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But for real spend it on a coach. Find someone with charisma who can excite folks and NIL money will get a boost.
I hope. 
The NIL isn’t going away. Over time the money being throw at kids will mushroom. We best learn how to play this game quickly or we will be out of the game.
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I think the NIL pay will stabilize over time honestly. Right now every school is trying to figure the best use of it and how to make it work. I think you will see it used more to retain players than get them initially.
Maybe, but look coaches salaries. Have they stabilized?
I would argue not when you have schools paying $75M to coaches to “leave”. If you tell me when that insanity stops, I’ll tell you when the NIL stabilizes
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That’s such an outlier I don’t see that as the standard going forward. Coaching salaries have stabilized imo. There seems to be a range for coaches depending on the conference, program and coaches resume. I don’t equate increasing with unstable.
If we can’t fund NIL or a new coach, I think we need to start paying referees.
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A&M opened the vault for players and a coach and what did they buy? There is more to intrinsic motivation than money (except for me, if I don’t get paid I’m out).
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Good plan. UT seems to be quite good at it.
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Everyone knows I’m not a Dana Lover but I agree that investing the $14 MM in NIL would have a more immediate impact to UH football performance.
However, NIL isn’t a complete picture. Aggy has had Top 5 recruiting classes year after year yet are quite average compared to their peers. You have to have both coaching and NIL. It can’t be just one over the other.
Give $15M in NIL to a guy that is actively trying to get fired and collect his buyout?
How about everyone give me the $15M and I’ll double it in Vegas?
I hate to say it but we are in desperate need of “immediate impact”. “Buying” the best players and assistant coaches =
immediate gratification.
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I don’t think it’s an either/or situation. From what others have posted, we won’t be writing 1 check for $15 Mil. It will be spread out over a handful of years. We should and could do both.
At this point, the marginal cost of firing Dana is only the cost of the new coaching staff. The $15MM is getting paid over the next several years, one way or the other. The better question is how much you spend on the new coach’s salary vs. NIL, and I think that’s a much more interesting question. Do you spend 0 on the new guy (keep Dana) and spend your whole budget on NIL? Probably not. But I bet you can get better returns hiring a coach for $2MM who’ll be close to a $5MM/yr coach in performance and then spend the other $3MM on NIL for improved recruiting.
I wonder if there’s any public NIL data we could use to calculate those values? 
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Who you gonna hire for $2M? Not the names being bantered around on this msg board
We’re looking at $3M per as minimum for a new HC. That is bottom of the B12
Kiffen at Ole Miss and Norvell @ FSU are great examples how a coach can use the transfer portal to transform a team literally overnight. The key is that a coach must have an eye for talent and then be able to coach those players up. Regrettably, CDH doesn’t seem to process either of those talents.
The answer should be NIL. However, the area I have least faith in with this current staff is building a winning team. Dana might throw a million dollars at Iowa St’s 3rd string QB just because he likes him a lot. Defense is much harder to build through the portal too. You have to get the talent and the right combination of guys, then put them in the right spots.