UT Coaching Contracts

#1
T

TommyJoe

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#1
There needs to be some business acrumen applied to these. At present, the contracts are written in such a way that in any other business the writer of the contract would be terminated for even proposing such a one sided deal.

The contract should clearly state that if by the end of year 3, if UT is 0-9 against Florida, Georgia and Alabama then the coach may be fired with zero money due. So, he could go 1-8 over three years against those three schools and be paid the buyout part of his contract, if terminated. What could possibly be more fair. There simply has to be an end put to the University paying out all these millions of dollars to these coaches who cannot get results. I do not believe that any of the past three head coaches we have hired would have not taken the job if this had been in their contract. I also believe that Pruitt would have been let go today if this had been in his contract.
 
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#2
#2
TommyJoe said:
There needs to be some business acrumen applied to these. At present, the contracts are written in such a way that in any other business the writer of the contract would be terminated for even proposing such a one sided deal.

The contract should clearly state that if by the end of year 3, if UT is 0-9 against Florida, Georgia and Alabama then the coach may be fired with zero money due. So, he could go 1-8 over three years against those three schools and be paid the buyout part of his contract, if terminated. What could possibly be more fair. There simply has to be an end put to the University paying out all these millions of dollars to these coaches who cannot get results. I do not believe that any of the past three head coaches we have hired would have not taken the job if this had been in their contract. I also believe that Pruitt would have been let go today if this had been in his contract.
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Ok. See how that works for you. Good coaches set the rules, not the university.
 
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#3
#3
I agree to an extent. A highly coveted coach doesn’t have to agree to those types of terms. But nobody was going to hire pruitt. He absolutely would have a greed to an incentive-based contract. We’re just too stupid to offer it.
 
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#5
#5
I agree with the OP that I wish that we and College Football would adapt to performance-based contracts. But like others have mentioned, just don't see agents allowing this to happen.
 
#6
#6
chattavol420 said:
I agree to an extent. A highly coveted coach doesn’t have to agree to those types of terms. But nobody was going to hire pruitt. He absolutely would have a greed to an incentive-based contract. We’re just too stupid to offer it.
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Correction, our AD is too stupid to offer it.
 
#8
#8
volKano said:
Ok. See how that works for you. Good coaches set the rules, not the university.
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Valid point and true for the most part (for good coaches). The problem is we didn’t hire a good coach.

There is no justifiable business reason Pruitt should have been extended when he was. The extension and increased buyout is ludicrous but that’s what you get when you have an inexperienced AD. I have no idea if Pruitt turns it around next year or not but his current contract is absurd. If (and I don’t think he will be even if we lose to Vanderbilt) he is fired this year or next then Fulmer should pay the increased buyout from the extension since he loves the university so much, that’s only reasonable. Beyond stupid for Fulmer to extend Pruitt when he did.
 
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#9
#9
I never said we did hire a good coach although he was considered one of the best DC’s in the business. His post wasn’t about going back in time, unless I missed something, it was about hiring practices.
 
#10
#10
JPL said:
Valid point and true for the most part (for good coaches). The problem is we didn’t hire a good coach.

There is no justifiable business reason Pruitt should have been extended when he was. The extension and increased buyout is ludicrous but that’s what you get when you have an inexperienced AD. I have no idea if Pruitt turns it around next year or not but his current contract is absurd. If (and I don’t think he will be even if we lose to Vanderbilt) he is fired this year or next then Fulmer should pay the increased buyout from the extension since he loves the university so much, that’s only reasonable. Beyond stupid for Fulmer to extend Pruitt when he did.
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This is what the university gets for hiring an incompetent AD.
 
#11
#11
No worries volKano. My post wasn’t an indictment of yours. It was more of a general reply after reading through the thread “UT Coaching Contracts” I’m still incensed that Fulmer extended Pruitt when we did with having proven so little and not beaten one of our rivals. I have no problem with the increased incentives for appearing in a bowl game, sec championship, winning sec championship etc. The timing (why, there was no reason then) of the extension and increased buyout made zero business sense to me when it was announced. Fulmer put all his eggs in one basket. 2019 results were slightly above average. You don’t double the buyout to almost 13 million based on that performance which included some questionable losses.
 
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#12
#12
Tennessee could set the path for the future of coaching contracts if they offered a middle of the pack base salary but then offered absurd dollar amounts for performance. Like if the next coach won the division, give him $500K. Win the SEC, give him $1M. Make the Playoff, give him $500K. Make Natty game, give him $1M. Win the Natty, give him $2M.

Since these “bonuses” would be based on a year by year performance, we are only on hook for base salaries. Offer crazy ass bonuses for performance and see if someone takes it. Because if a coach can become the highest paid coach in the country one year and then a top ten paid coach in the next, we are fine. We’d all pay 10-15 million for a Natty season so make that the case if we win it. If we dont, we aren’t on the hook for a high number.

It protects us, but also challenges the coach to perform.
 
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#13
#13
JMSqb11 said:
Tennessee could set the path for the future of coaching contracts if they offered a middle of the pack base salary but then offered absurd dollar amounts for performance. Like if the next coach won the division, give him $500K. Win the SEC, give him $1M. Make the Playoff, give him $500K. Make Natty game, give him $1M. Win the Natty, give him $2M.

Since these “bonuses” would be based on a year by year performance, we are only on hook for base salaries. Offer crazy ass bonuses for performance and see if someone takes it. Because if a coach can become the highest paid coach in the country one year and then a top ten paid coach in the next, we are fine. We’d all pay 10-15 million for a Natty season so make that the case if we win it. If we dont, we aren’t on the hook for a high number.

It protects us, but also challenges the coach to perform.
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Won't work yet.

If Bama or Clemson offered this first then it might catch on

Coachea now would just laugh at TN and they'd get not better than the turd coaching now
 
#15
#15
igotworms said:
Won't work yet.

If Bama or Clemson offered this first then it might catch on

Coachea now would just laugh at TN and they'd get not better than the turd coaching now
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If a coach can make 10-15 million dollars for winning the title at a rebuilding program, I doubt their competitive edge would say no right away just because it’s Tennessee and not Bama or Clemson.

At this point with a coaching change, we have to get creative and spend money if we fire Pruitt
 
#16
#16
With the thought processes in our administration and the fact we are essentially bankrupt as a program I do not see a way out of this mess. Unless they do something out of the box at UT we are currently at the Kansas level of the SEC. And it will be years before things can change.
 
#17
#17
The issues aren't the contracts. It's the misnomer that a coach must be either terminated or given an extension when there are only 2 years left on the contract.

It was stated earlier this is common place and while it is common it's not being done by all schools.

The extension filmed got as a coach right before getting fired started this whole mess. We then brought on Kiffin with only a 500k buyout and then we give Pruitt an extension.

This is the part that has to stop.
 
#19
#19
unfrozencvmanvol said:
The difficult thing about contracts is that you have to get both sides to agree.
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Absolutely agree, so why offer an extension and double the buyout when it wasn’t necessary...Evaluate mid season if your afraid of losing your coach. I understand it was a vote of confidence but it was grossly premature and put the university in a terrible position, especially now.
 
#20
#20
volKano said:
Ok. See how that works for you. Good coaches set the rules, not the university.
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Good coaches, yes you are right, but not unproven hc. We just hired a coach with 0 hc experience, don't tell me he would not have taken the job without the type of contract he got, or the extension, he either would take the extension with much different wording on the buyout or he don't get the extension.
 
#21
#21
Tennessee has no bargaining position on the head coaching contracts, primarily because we have had such goofballs for ADs post Dickey, Hamilton was a bean counter and fundraiser, Handsome Dave was hired to consolidate the men and women athletic departments, Currie was hired and the behest of Jimmy Haslam, Currie was canned at the behest of the non Haslam SkyBox boosters, Fulmer was hired as an interim anti Haslam AD, but got a whiff of the money again, his ego has reinflated and we now have incompetence, no experience, no business experience and not a clue back at the top.

Tennessee is not the great coaching position that ig once was, Knoxville is not the cultural, business center of East Tennessee that it once was, nor sports center of the state as it once was, such that it takes people with knowledge of what Tennessee once was and what Knoxville currently is, to appreciate what can happen here.

Fulmer left no coaching tree such that we are relegated to hiring mercenaries and greatly overpaying just to get somebody to take the job. Sexton represented Hamilton and represents Fulmer which has been a terrible conflict of interest and outlines the basic problem with the coaches' contracts, the gatekeepers are represented by the agent driving the hard bargain, such that what most ADs balk at, Fulmer lets slide. The last thing Fulmer wants to do is crank up a head coaching search, but most experienced ADs are geared for that everyday, keeping a short list and succession plan in the top drawer. Not our guys, they would rather tell you how right the season is going rather than admit they made a mistake. The only mistake Tennessee made this year was extending Fulmer, which led to another mistake of extending Pruitt, we'll see if Fulmer makes more mistakes this month, odds are he will, he has no experience and no credibility in the external circles he has to function in as an athletic director to secure top flight coaches, not shopping in the bargain bins of flameouts, up and comers, and the truly not qualified.
 
#22
#22
onevol74 said:
With the thought processes in our administration and the fact we are essentially bankrupt as a program I do not see a way out of this mess. Unless they do something out of the box at UT we are currently at the Kansas level of the SEC. And it will be years before things can change.
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Lol. We aren’t even close to being bankrupt.
 
#23
#23
NEO said:
The issues aren't the contracts. It's the misnomer that a coach must be either terminated or given an extension when there are only 2 years left on the contract.

It was stated earlier this is common place and while it is common it's not being done by all schools.

The extension filmed got as a coach right before getting fired started this whole mess. We then brought on Kiffin with only a 500k buyout and then we give Pruitt an extension.

This is the part that has to stop.
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This is the part that really needs to be rethought.

The idea that recruits and general public don't know that a coach is on the hot seat just because he has 3 years left on his deal is absurd. Anyone considering signing with Michigan, Tennessee, Texas, etc., knows the coach is in trouble.

So, if you think that the extension fools people, especially since we all know these guys can and have been fired, it’s absurd.

Stop giving people extensions when there are 3 years left on a deal.
 
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#24
#24
BigOrangeTrain said:
Lol. We aren’t even close to being bankrupt.
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When you talk about all the coaches you can’t hire, yes you are bankrupt. No decent program tolerates the ineptness that is going on now if they have the ability to fix it. We do not have the financial abilities to fix it.
 
#25
#25
chattavol420 said:
I agree to an extent. A highly coveted coach doesn’t have to agree to those types of terms. But nobody was going to hire pruitt. He absolutely would have a greed to an incentive-based contract. We’re just too stupid to offer it.
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That’s true, another power 5 school was after Pruitt to my knowledge. However, everyone rejected us after the Schoano fiasco. Fulmer was hired and had to find a coach quickly for recruiting.

I was hoping Pruitt was the guy, just like I did with Dooley and Butch. I don’t know the answer and how to get to the point where UT is an elite job for elite coaches.
 
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