Michigan Monday: Coaches Play Contracts Like a Fiddle

We all know big time college coaches in football and basketball are hired to be fired.  It's the life and profession they picked.  

We also know that coaches when they have even a little bit of success can work the system like no other.  I truly believe when Les Miles retires he should start a Michigan scholarship fund for all the raises and contract extensions he has gotten from LSU due to "conversations" he has had with Michigan about their football openings.  

We all know the Les examples, but let's take a look two other examples that involve coaches at Missouri.   The first one was Purdue's head basketball coach Matt Painter who flirted with the opening at Missouri a couple of weeks ago.   Was Matt really considering leaving Purdue for Mizzu?  Of course not!  He just wanted a raise from Purdue and got one.  He was on vacation when this entire thing went down.  Not too bad to be near the pool, get a couple of calls and end up getting a big raise.   I hope he called the front desk and got his room upgraded. 

The second comes from Gary Pinkel, Missouri's head football coach.  He is quoted in this article (regarding why he didn't interview for the Michigan job) saying, “That was a really difficult situation just because I grew up in Ohio and my whole life I hear about Ohio State and Michigan. To have an opportunity like that is sort of a once-in-a-lifetime thing. For me it still boiled down to I just feel so much a part of Missouri now.”



“The reason I didn’t pursue it was because I feel so much a part of Missouri. I’m so committed personally to continue to build the opportunity I was given. And family, a combination of those things. So, I bowed out of it. I feel really good about it. I thought a lot about it. It got really close. But before I went to the interview, it was a matter of hours before when I decided I wasn’t going to pursue it and I wanted to stay at the University of Missouri. So, that’s kind of the conclusion I came to.”

Gary just signed a two year extension and is now under contract until 2017.   Shocker!  He didn't even talk to Brandon and still got an extension.  We don't know any details of the search but I'm willing to bet Gary's "people" reached out to David Brandon about interviewing for the open position in Ann Arbor.
 
These coaches and agents have some special talent when it comes to getting more money and extensions when they names are linked with any other jobs.   Bob Stoops should have Bill Gates money by now with all the jobs he has been linked to.