Lovie, Lon Kruger and Nick Saban: The Importance of Hiring “Fit”

Adam Rittenberg of ESPN reports today, “Several industry sources say that Smith is miserable in Champaign. Yes, every 2-6 coach is miserable, but this situation is especially sour — and that the rebuilding job looks much greater than he anticipated. Could Lovie be one-and-done?”

For perspective, let’s recall Nick Saban’s failed experience as a head coach of the Miami Dolphins. The logic behind his hiring was (a) NFL rosters were becoming younger, (b) a college coach would understand younger players, and (c) Saban won a national title at LSU in 2003.

Saban was a head coach at Toledo (1990), and Michigan State (1995-1999) and LSU (2000-2004) before he had a HC job in the NFL. He wasn’t a bad coach but he was the wrong fit for the NFL. As soon as he returned to Alabama, his greatness as a coach became immediately evident.

Lon Kruger coached at a very successful level at Kansas State, Florida, and Illinois before he left NCAA coaching for the HC job of the Atlanta Hawks. He bombed there—but he was hired because the league was getting younger, and the Hawks assumed a college coach would relate to a younger team.

Like Saban, as an NCAA “retread” he revitalized UNLV, took a better job at Oklahoma, and took his team to the NCAA Final Four last year.

Lovie Smith has a similar pattern. He was never more than an assistant coach in college, and left NCAA football in 1996. Twenty years later, he returned to Illinois as a head coach.

There is a reason that labor markets for head coaches in professional leagues and the NCAA rarely overlap—the games are played very differently; a unionized employment relationship for players is very different from an NCAA-regulated relationship that coaches manage with “student-athletes”; and the cultures of pro leagues and NCAA teams are worlds apart. (Consider Chip Kelly in this context, too.)

Jim Harbaugh, you say, as a counter-example?

Let’s not forget that Harbaugh is the son of a “lifer” NCAA football coach, Jack Harbaugh. Quoting Jim Harbaugh’s wiki bio, “During Harbaugh's childhood, the family moved frequently, as his father held assistant coaching positions at Morehead State (1967), Bowling Green (1967–1970), Iowa (1971–1973), Michigan (1973–1979), Stanford (1980–1981), and Western Michigan (1982–1986).” Later, Harbaugh had a successful 13-year career as an NFL quarterback with the Bears, Colts and Chargers. No wonder he is a rare example of someone who understands both worlds of NCAA and NFL football.

Whether hiring is for Division I, NFL and NBA coaches, or any other setting what matters is getting the right fit between the job candidate and the needs of the organization. A hiring process that ignores the fit issues often yields disappointing results.

Big Money in College Sports: How Is It Spent?

The answer to this question was reported in Inside Higher Ed yesterday. The Knight Commission, a body that provides oversight of NCAA activities, put forth this chart (click to enlarge, see bottom chart):

Illinois is barely in FBS Quartile I. This means (roughly speaking) that 34% of revenues are spent on salaries of coaches and staff. Facilities get 21% of the pie, and athletic aid to student-athletes receives 10%.

How much does the school receive? About 2%, assuming that Illinois is typical.

This imbalance will be harder to maintain as state universities, such as the University of Illinois, cut and reorganize academic units while the athletic side spends lavishly on salaries and facilities.

How College Athletics Could Save the Nation

Suppose current polls hold up, and Hillary Clinton wins by a near-landslide. Further suppose that after the election, Donald Trump refuses to concede and doubles down on his narrative that the voting booths are rigged, thus making Clinton an illegitimate president-elect.

Would Alabama secede from the nation?

Hold that thought for a moment. Alabama has the #1 college football team in the nation—not in Alabama, but the nation. How long could a secession conversation go on without the NCAA weighing in by stating that it is an association of American universities? If a state secedes, it’s no longer in America; and its state university cannot compete in college athletics.

If you’re still reading, we can agree that this is totally absurd … until we think about the on-going transgender-bathroom controversy in North Carolina. Now seriously, a year ago could we imagine that a North Carolina law would bar transgender choice of a bathroom, and as a consequence, the NBA would drop Charlotte for the All-Star game, and the NCAA and the ACC would drop North Carolina venues for championships?

A year ago, I would have rated that possibility in realm of the absurdly improbable.

A lot of unpredictable events in politics and sports have occurred in a short time. Perhaps we’re on a path where people will need to choose between passion for a college championship and remaining in the United States.