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oh boy, David Whitley is straight up UM hater!
UCF offers better opportunity for coach than UM, David Whitley says
UCF's coaching job more attractive than Miami's - Orlando Sentinel
Two coaching jobs opened Sunday in Florida. Miami's is getting most of the attention, but a really smart college coach would be looking 250 miles north.
In a lot of ways,
UCF is a better job.
(Let us pause now to let Miami fans clean up after spitting out their morning coffee.)
UCF can't realistically compete with USC or South Carolina. But it is unquestionably a better gig than Illinois and Maryland, two other Power 5 schools that will be looking for football coaches.
As for UM, I don't say that to be provincial. It's based on analytics, a phrase almost nobody used in 2003. That's the last time UCF went hunting for a coach, and look what the school had to offer.
College Football Now: State picks Florida Gators, FSU, UCF, Miami
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No on-campus stadium. No indoor practice facility. No trophy case stocked with hardware from four conference titles and a Fiesta Bowl win.
UCF had played one game on national TV. Its coach was making $185,000 a year.
The school will soon be paying an assistant $233,000 a year not to be its next head coach.
Now that's progress, at least as it is defined in the warped world of big-time college athletics.
What does Miami have to show since UCF hired George O'Leary?
Three failed coaches. Zero conference titles. A 2-6 record in piddly bowls.
No on-campus stadium. No indoor practice facility.
But hey, Nevin Shapiro threw some great yacht parties. And no group of ex-players can tweet like the 'Canes.
Warren Sapp (surprise) led the barrage demanding Al Golden's head during Miami's 58-0 loss to Clemson last Saturday. The "U" brand still has panache UCF will never match, and a good coach should be able to provide at least an occasional ACC Coastal Division title.
The money isn't that much better at Miami. Golden was making $2,539,000, according to USA Today's annual salary survey. O'Leary was making $1,890,000.
The next coach will make at least that, and he will go to a fan base that isn't spoiled by long-ago success.
UCF can also offer the largest undergraduate enrollment in the country. It's in Florida, where you can't throw a grapefruit without hitting a four-star recruit.
Orlando's TV market will make UCF a prime target the next time a Power 5 conference realigns. And as an added bonus, the new coach will be negotiating his contract with UCF.
That's the school that will pay offensive coordinator Brent Key $700,000 to go away. We learned Sunday of a contract clause stating Key will get that amount if he's not named O'Leary's successor.
Nobody can blame Key for taking such a deal. And such clauses aren't unheard of when a school wants to keep an assistant.
FSU was going to pay Jimbo Fisher $5 million if he wasn't named head coach by January 2011. But FSU knew Fisher was a sure thing.
What's more, UCF students are taxed $14.91 per semester hour to support the athletics programs.
I don't know what that works out to per student. But if I'm a zoology major taking 18 hours and don't care about football, I wouldn't like the thought of my money paying a coach not to coach.
So who will the next actual coach be?
Former Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt told a radio station Monday he was interested. Expect many more to do the same, publicly and privately.
The first question should really be, who will be the next athletics director? He or she will have to peddle UCF to prospective coaches.
The new AD can't compete with what USC or South Carolina have to offer. And with more firings on the way, the coaching bazaar is shaping up as a real seller's market.
But who would have ever thought UCF could be an easier sell than Miami?
dwhitley@orlandosentinel.com
