Chancellor: NC State coach deal can be done quickly

North Carolina State University

Chancellor: NC State coach deal can be done quickly

Nov 29, 2012

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Raleigh, N.C. — No names were discussed at Wednesday's North Carolina State University Board of Trustees meeting, but the parameters of a financial contract for a new head football coach were.

"The process that we are using here is designed for us to be as quick about this as possible. It’s a very competitive market," NC State Chancellor Randy Woodson said following the meeting, “We feel like we have the opportunity to close this very quickly. "

Sources told to WRAL News Wednesday that both Louisiana Tech head coach Sonny Dykes and Clemson offensive coordinator Chad Morris have had contact with NC State about the head coaching position left vacant after Tom O’Brien was fired Sunday.

NC State Director of Athletics Debbie Yow was not on campus Wednesday but would not say where she was to protect the details of the interviewing candidates.

It has been widely speculated that NC State’s budget for a new head coach was between $2-3 million annually. Currently, the highest paid coach in the ACC is Jimbo Fisher at Florida State who earns $2.75 million yearly.

According to the USA Today, Dykes makes $760,200 annually in his current role and Morris earns $1.3 million.

O’Brien’s buyout calls for the school to pay him a total of $1.2 million spread over the next four years.

NC State hired Atlanta-based Parker Executive Search firm to assist in their search, the same company that the university used when hiring Yow. The university would not confirm the fee Parker is charging for the search, although reports of $90,000 are consistent with other search charges in the past.

O’Brien was released of his position after a 40-35 record in six seasons in Raleigh, taking the Wolfpack to four bowl games in five years, including each of the last three.

Woodson said O'Brien would be paid his bonus for reaching a bowl game this season, however he will not coach in the game. Offensive coordinator Dana Bible will serve as the interim for the game that has not yet been determined.

O’Brien’s teams finished in the Top 25 just once – No. 25 in 2010.

Yow said in a Sunday press conference that she expects the Wolfpack to be a perennial Top 25 team and to do so with a focus on in-state recruiting.

Reporters: Jeff Gravley, Mandy Mitchell
Web Editor: Aaron Schoonmaker

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RE: Chancellor: NC State coach deal can be done quickly

If all NCAA D-I football programs were to hire multimillion dollar coaches and coaching staff... what will the ADs and Chancellor/Presidents do when their particular multimillionaire coach(es)does not win "enough" games? Football games no longer can end in a tie... SOMEONE MUST LOSE! It is a certainty in intercollegiate football games... one team wins, one team loses. Half of all teams who play each Saturday LOSE!

We have the proverbial "arms race" with regard to stadiums, training facilities, palatial and high tech academic support centers with huge staffs, etc., etc., and we also have an "arms" race with football (and basketball0 coaches! Both "arms races" have led us to the point of being truly ridiculous! Miles, Brown, Saban, Stoops... their salaries are obscene for the coach of a sport team at an institution of higher education! And it seems that today universities will raise a coach's salary simply to squelch a rumor that their coach MAY even be thinking of going somewhere else and/or that someone else will offer them more money to leave. With regard to money - and with regard to admitting athletes who have no desire to be a student and for whom the term "student-athlete" is neither accurate nor appropriate in any way - has gone totally NUTS!
- Posted by Objective Scientist

Well said, thank you. The coaches and schools can make obscene money. But the players are labeled common, petty criminals if they dare even let someone buy them a hamburger and fries.

In a recent 60 Minutes segment on big time college football with Michigan as its focus, the QB said that football was a full time job, complete with year-round training.

But the clincher was the Michigan AD said that of the 120+ D1 college football programs, only about 22 were profitable. He said that the economic model for this arms race is unsustainable!