People are getting the axe, which means it’s Jimmy Sexton season for renegotiating contracts. Georgia popped back into the Top 5 in the national polls, but let’s see where our resident Refugees place them in this week’s Mumme Poll.
But first, here’s this. People wonder what the two of them were discussing after the game.
Kiffin was probably asking him about how to supermax his contract in Oxford to stay out of Hogtown, if you ask me.
Also, did you know that Hal Mumme is still coaching?
Looks like he should be on a painting in a chapel somwhere.
Voting ends tomorrow at noon.
Florida is going to throw a ton of money at the Laner and expect him to leave Ole Miss in the middle of a playoff run. I just don’t see that happening. He’s probably their best choice for the job, so we need the Rebels to keep winning.
He has said he is woven into the fabric of Oxford now. I just don’t see him going to Hogtown with what he has going in Oxford.
Are there jobs I would see Kiffin leaving for? Yes. Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, LSU and possibly Clemson.
Oh, and my ballot had 1 team as I’m still on the 16-0 roster voting system. I’ll release my first ballot for those who I believe can win the title regardless of record next week.
I agree. I don’t see him wanting to leave Oxford for Gainesville. Quality of life and expectations are much better at Ole Miss. I also agree Texas, LSU, and Bama would be able to lure him away. Not so sure about Oklahoma and Clemson.
The reason I say Oklahoma is they will tolerate basketball on grass.
I need “2nd half UGA” to be an option to vote for. Cause that’s the best team in the nation.
Truth.
I just voted for a best ten, but just realized I think I inadvertently left out the Vandy Fighting Diegos.
I see that and think of this:
https://youtu.be/P3vvJq8QeZ8?si=hvoz7-0sKN5gBXZg
I love that guy. I hope he makes it in the NFL or takes over for Pat McAfee he is just a badass little short guy running around like he is the baddest motherfucker on the field.
Funny how Mumme, Leach (RIP), and Holgorsen all look alike. Mumme just looks older. Mumme looks like he should be wearing tie dye and leading a jam band.
Photo caption…(Lane to Kirby) “So Sexton says they’re going to offer me $100 million guaranteed but Ole Miss will counter with $120. Can you believe that I’ll make more to still lose to you?”
Post of the Day!
I forgot to vote for Vandy, so if you want to add 1 more for them, they deserve it.
Maybe I was foolish for thinking that an expanded playoff, NIL, the transfer portal, and now revenue sharing would increase the leniency for head coaches. A few years ago you knew that it would take time to rebuild a team if you had a lackluster recruiting class. You might get a handful of transfers and maybe a couple of grad transfers that were available immediately, but it would take time to rebuild or retool a team. Now there is no question that a head coach can rebuild and retool an entire team, acquire serious talent, and upgrade all over the roster from one season to the next. All over the country we are seeing it.
But the actual effect has been quite the opposite. With Billy Napier and Jay Norvell yesterday, the number is nine head coaches fired since the start of the 2025 season. Wild. And I get the argument that once things are going badly the head coach may never get it turned around regardless of the amount of money that the athletic department and boosters throw at the roster, but it is still something else for these schools to be dropping millions to pay guys mid-season to go home and sit around for the rest of the season.
If not for the buyout I fully expect that Mike Norvell would have been left in Palo Alto (over $55MM today plus another $6.2MM for Gus and the DC). Luke Fickell is $25MM if he makes it to the end of the season. What is really even more wild to me is that numbers like Napier’s $21MM buyout and Freeze’s $15.5MM buyout seem like sensible bargains in today’s world!
If anything, it’s put more pressure out there, and I think the “but what about Vandy” experience has made it less arguable that you can’t, at the least, achieve the Top 12- status to at least get in the argument by season’s end. The razor-thin margin of the former CFP and BCS era gave everyone a reasonable excuse (“that’s the breaks, Coach Richt”) that you could have a good season and still be considered a great coach while being on the outside looking in, but now people are seeking a great result with an average coach because they think it’s the manpower and money management and less about X’s and O’s. You can be a shit coach and game manager (see: Mario Crystalballs) but fans now think that all the money and investment should yield trophies and rings without sustaining an actual, viable culture. You see what happened in Tallahassee, and while Vanderbilt has sustained some momentum from last year, the teams who can maintain their investment bump over a one-year time period is harder to find.
While insane to think about these buyouts, the value of the coach seems to be diminished, so the era of supermax coaching contracts might be coming to an end, as people would rather have a warm body who is a PR person to just maximize NIL investments and buy the most talent-rich program. Would you rather have a $4 million dollar QB or a $10 million coach? And how are the contract buy-outs going to effect NIL? That will be a built-in excuse for the next Florida coach or Penn State coach, initially, but outside the Indiana news last week, I wonder if we’re going to see these huge coaching contracts coming out once this season settles into a reflection period. People (fans) will take the talent over the scheme. It’s been seen in the pros, no matter how much they dump into talent, that egos and contract negotiations can unravel any team without the proper nucleus of culture and consistency within; however, the compelling call for action nowadays doesn’t care about culture, or sustaining anything, it’s what have you done for me lately.
I don’t necessarily disagree with anything you said. In fact, much of it I agree with. I probably misspoke by throwing in the expanded playoff. The expanded playoff probably decreased the leniency for coaches more than anything has in recent history (hell…maybe just history period). But I still thought that the counterbalance of the portal and NIL and legal booster buying of rosters would increase leniency for coaches because it has become absolutely possible to turn around a program from one year to the next (and especially for programs with plenty of cash like, for example, a Texas Tech).
Back in 2015 when Richt got fired and you reflected on some of the recruiting classes that hadn’t panned out and had hurt the team, it was clear that rebuilding a roster would take years. Making the move from Richt to Kirby contemplated that while it would take Kirby some time to rebuild the roster, the clear message was that Richt might never be able to do so because of the negativity in recruiting that he might not be able to overcome.
Fast forward ten years and the calculation is completely different. The oddity of it all, to me, is that a PSU or UF firing their coach mid season doesn’t guarantee anything in the expanded playoff format. In fact, if you are firing early to get a head start on the search, your school is likely going to largely miss out on both HS and portal recruiting for this cycle if your coaching target that is someone that would really excite the fan base is someone that is going to be coaching into January.
Just wait. Once the playoffs expand to 16 or 20 or 24 teams, there will be even less patience. Once we have a full third of the P4 teams making the CFP, coaches will start being canned in week 4 because ADs will think “duh, ya know, if I can get the right guy in here, he can win the next 8 and we’ll make the playoffs.”
Gotta believe that with all of these coach firings and soon to be coach firings that old Gus is going to get another shot at it somewhere.
Wouldn’t it be something if Gus went back to Auburn??? Or they offered and he laughed at them…or is he holding out for the FSU job?