Got to pay the piper

Naturally, there’s a lot of speculation about whom Nick Saban will turn to in filling his open coordinator positions.  Lots and lots of names are being bandied about.

There is something to be said for Occam’s razor, though.

Who will Saban and sports agent Jimmy Sexton — I mean Byrne — bring in this time? If I had to put money on it, my guess is Dan Mullen will be Alabama’s next offensive coordinator and Jeremy Pruitt will return to be the defensive coordinator. They’re both great coaches, and they’re both clients of Sexton who are looking to rehab their images.  [Emphasis added.]

You have to admit that all makes for a tidy package.  For Jimmy, especially.

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Outsourcing, Auburn style

You sort of have to admire the efficiency of this:

Freeze is asked about assistant coaches, and he says he has his own list of candidates and his agent Jimmy Sexton had a list for him this morning.

Freeze gets choked up thanking Sexton for sticking with him.

— Justin Lee (@ByJustinLee) November 29, 2022

Although, they could just go all in and name Sexton an assistant AD for football matters and be done with it.

Lack of leverage makes you bold.

Andy Staples‘ “athletic directors do the darnedest things” piece ($$) that uses Jimbo Fisher’s contract with TAMU as its jumping off point is a hoot to read, but Andy buried the lede.

… It was Woodward who fired Sumlin after the 2017 season. By that time, Woodward already had targeted Fisher. He wanted a coach who was a proven national title competitor. A “rare-air coach,” as Woodward termed it while working at Texas A&M.

At the time, only four working coaches had won a national title. Saban, Swinney and Ohio State’s Urban Meyer weren’t going anywhere (as far as anyone knew at the time). That left Florida State’s Fisher, who had been embroiled in conflict for several years with the Seminoles’ administration. Still, despite the issues, Florida State was a very good job. Woodward knew he had no leverage, so he offered Fisher a fully guaranteed, 10-year, $75 million contract. Woodward told me in 2018 that he’d been authorized to offer more, but Fisher accepted that deal.   [Emphasis added.]

What?  Jimmy Sexton left money on the table?  Inconceivable.

Good thing he recouped it when Woodward moved to LSU and used that threat to get the Aggies’ boosters to up the ante.  Useful idiots are useful.

Always follow the money.

You probably thought I was kidding the other day when I said “I’m really looking forward to the day when Jimmy Sexton takes on his first recruit as a client” — hell, I thought I was kidding — but I should have known better ($$).

How much has the game changed? CAA agent Jimmy Sexton, who runs CAA’s football division along with its coaching division, told ESPN that the last year has been seismic.

“From the college side, this is clearly the biggest time of change I’ve ever seen in 35 years in the business,” Sexton said. “A lot of times, change is good.”

If you’re Jimmy Sexton dealing with SEC ADs, when isn’t change good?

Striking while the iron is hot

The least surprising bit of news you will see today is…

Sam Pittman has requested a new contract at Arkansas that would nearly double his salary, reports @TomMurphyADG. Agent Jimmy Sexton is asking for a seven-year deal worth more than $50 million, according to the report.

Pittman recently switched agents. https://t.co/1ETcCZn8mD pic.twitter.com/Ex7S0GyjTu

— Brandon Marcello (@bmarcello) December 13, 2021

The hot iron referenced above being the insane market for coaches more than Pittman…

Gratitude only gets you so far.

Sam Pittman’s gonna bring a gun to a gun fight.

Sam Pittman has changed agents and will now be represented by Memphis-based super agent Jimmy Sexton, multiple sources have told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: https://t.co/iK7ANnsg4X

— WholeHogSports.com (@wholehogsports) December 5, 2021

Honestly, I’m surprised Sexton wasn’t already repping him.

When will Jimmy Sexton paint his masterpiece?

‘Cause I guarantee you, as obscene as Mel Tucker’s deal is, this ain’t it.

Can confirm that Mel Tucker’s Michigan State deal is $95 million over 10 years, as @freep reported. Source adds to @YahooSports that the deal is fully guaranteed and includes the potential for lucrative bonuses.

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) November 25, 2021

Fully guaranteed and lucrative bonuses?  Hoo, wee, it’s gonna be a fun Thanksgiving in the Tucker house today.  Dude has a career record of 16-14, his team just got pantsed by Ohio State and his reward is to be making almost 50% more than Kirby Smart.

Oh, wait…  I may have just figured out the answer to my header question.

You cannot defeat Jimmy Sexton.

You cannot even hope to contain him.

James Franklin will be staying at Penn State, after all, and possibly for a long time to come.

… Beginning Jan. 1, Franklin will be scheduled to make $8.5 million annually, including a $500,000 retention bonus each Dec. 31, according to a term sheet released by the school. That amount includes $1 million in the form of loans to be used to pay the premiums on a life insurance policy. Pennsylvania open-records law does not require Penn State to make employment contracts public, but the school likely will be entitled to reimbursement of the loans from the insurance policy’s death benefit.

The deal’s guaranteed value is $80 million – all the money involved except the annual retention payments. That will give Franklin the second-largest guaranteed amount of any public-school sports coach, behind the $95 million that Texas A&M will be guaranteeing football coach Jimbo Fisher as of Jan. 1, according to information obtained by USA TODAY Sports.

What a coincidence, eh?

Franklin is 67-32 at Penn State — certainly not awful.  He’s even got a win over Ohio State along the way to go with a conference title.  He recruits well, too.  For that, though, to be worthy of a 10-year contract to go with a top-five salary tells you that the market for head coaches is changing again, largely (I suspect) driven by the anticipated money coming in from new TV deals for the Big Ten and the CFP.  And Jimmy Sexton’s shrewd enough to read which way the wind is blowing.

Jimbo.  Mel Tucker.  And now Franklin.  It’s the new normal, peeps.

Can’t wait to see what Kirby’s new deal looks like.  You know it’s coming.  After all, who’s his agent?

Today, in there’s no money in college sports

I keep thinking there’s nothing a college athletic director can do any more that would surprise me, and I keep being proven wrong.

If all goes as planned, Mel Tucker will become the highest-paid coach in the Big Ten. And Michigan State will make a major show of strength that it plans to be a significant spender in college football in the next decade.

MSU is preparing a historic $95 million, 10-year contract extension for Tucker to remain with the Spartans, university sources confirmed to the Free Press on Wednesday. The 49-year-old Cleveland native is set to become among the highest-paid coaches in the country.

Alumni Mat Ishbia and Steve St. Andre will donate the private funding to the university for Tucker’s reworked contract, according to “Inside the Locker Room” podcast hosts Brian Mosallam, a former MSU Board of Trustee member, and MSU radio analyst Jason Strayhorn.  University sources confirmed Ishbia and St. Andre as the donors for the new contract.

The deal surpasses the estimated $7 million contract of Penn State’s James Franklin that is the highest salary in the Big Ten in 2021, according to a USA TODAY salary database. Only former MSU coach Nick Saban at Alabama ($9.753 million) is making more this season than Tucker will under his reworked contract, according to the database.

You read that correctly.  Mel Tucker, the current possessor of a lifetime head coaching record of 16-13 (11-6 at MSU), will soon be making more than his former boss, Kirby Smart.  Not only has Mel not even sniffed a division title in his three seasons of coaching, he finished his first two seasons with losing records.

These people are fucking nuts.

I don’t need to tell you who Tucker’s agent is, do I?  I also don’t need to tell you the sales pitch getting ready to be thrown Josh Brooks’ way soon by the same agent, do I?

Today, in pearls of wisdom

In response to the news that Va. Tech is canning Justin Fuente now, instead of waiting another month to get a reduced buyout, David Hale reminds us why ADs aren’t nearly as smart as they believe they are.

There are, generously, maybe a dozen truly difference maker coaches out there.
⬇️
There will prob be a dozen good jobs open.
⬇️
Most/all of the dozen great coaches already have jobs.
⬇️
Many of the schools hiring now will be doing it again in 3-4 years.
⬇️
Jimmy Sexton is rich.

— 💫🅰️♈️🆔 (@ADavidHaleJoint) November 16, 2021

And likely to be getting richer.