Now is the best time to move on from Butch if we are going to move on from Butch. Several high profile coaches are in the market (Les Miles, Charlie Strong, Lovie Smith, Brian Kelly among others) with other coaches who may leap at the opportunity to coach at UT; we have a decent roster situation; and we are nationally relevant. With a few tweeks and better coaching, we could be an SEC Championship contender and potentially a playoff contender.
If we don't move on from Butch now, we face a lame duck coach who likely will leverage any success he has next year to get a better contract at a different school. Yes, his buyout is steep at $10 million, but Butch has little incentive to improve the program long-term and more incentive to have a decent year then leave.
The University is to blame for this situation after terrible negotiating last year and buying into the fallacy that coaches have to be signed to contracts for the duration of a recruiting class. Even so, if thats the move, there should have been limits to the extension's effect on the buyout. Now, we either have a coach who will have us stuck at 8 wins or worse or a coach who will catch fire and leave us/lock the school into another stupid buyout a year from now.
We should make the move sooner rather than later IMO.
If we don't move on from Butch now, we face a lame duck coach who likely will leverage any success he has next year to get a better contract at a different school. Yes, his buyout is steep at $10 million, but Butch has little incentive to improve the program long-term and more incentive to have a decent year then leave.
The University is to blame for this situation after terrible negotiating last year and buying into the fallacy that coaches have to be signed to contracts for the duration of a recruiting class. Even so, if thats the move, there should have been limits to the extension's effect on the buyout. Now, we either have a coach who will have us stuck at 8 wins or worse or a coach who will catch fire and leave us/lock the school into another stupid buyout a year from now.
We should make the move sooner rather than later IMO.
