Coach "In Waiting" For What?

The financial industry is no joke these days, but the running joke in the business world is: if you want to become a Vice President get hired by a bank. They will give you a title instead of paying you what your worth.

In what seems to be a new fad in college and pro football is the term "coach in waiting". Many successful programs have lost their top assistant/coordinators to other schools that had an open head coaching position. What coordinator doesn't want to be a head coach? They all do.

To stop the loss of their top guys, head coaches are now anointing their top coaches with the "coach in waiting" label. Recent examples include; Jimbo Fisher at Florida State, Will Muschamp at Texas, Jim Mora for the Seattle Seahawks, and yesterday Chip Kelly for Oregon.

What is strange about some of these anointment's is that the head coaches haven't announced their retirement or new jobs yet. There was a clear reason to name a "coach in waiting" when Mike Homgren announced last year that he was retiring after this year. You can also make a case for Florida State to name one with Bobby Bowden close to closing down his hall of fame career at FSU. But what is the deal at Texas and Oregon?

Mike Bellotti has been at Oregon for 14 years and will become the next Athletic Director at Oregon when he decides he is done coaching football. When asked yesterday, if he was going to move to the AD position after this season? Mike responded: "It could be a year, it could be more," he said. "I don't know."

The Texas example is even crazier then Oregon's. Mac Brown has 8 years left on his contract and doesn't have a time table of when he is going to hang it up: "I won't be a Bobby Bowden or a Joe Paterno," Brown said. "But I'll be here a long time and as long as it works for me. "For me, it's not any immediacy. I have eight years on my contract and plan on being here. It's exciting that Will would wait until the right time to move forward. Not many people would do that. I hope people don't think it's a twilight for me. It's a new beginning for all of us," he said. Seems to me the move was more to give Will a big raise ($900,000) and keep him away from the University of Washington job then really have him wait nearly a decade for the Texas head coaching position.

Some schools don't even care if a coach has the "in waiting" title when West Virgina went after Jimbo Fisher last year after their head coach left for Michigan. Jimbo seriously considered taking the job before staying with the Seminoles.

Here is my take, it's ok to want to protect your top guys, but don't try to lock them down when other schools come calling. The American way is to look at every opportunity and if you have a chance at a pay raise and the job you want, you should be able to go after it.

Most of these titles are done for recruiting purposes, kids need to be comfortable with their decision to commit to a certain program if the head coaches retires or moves on. So the kids are happy, but what about the alumni and University officials? Usually making a decision 5 years in advance doesn't make a lot of sense. Things can change dramatically, a certain "hot candidate" may not be so hot 5 years from now.

For Michigan fans it would have been a little scary if Lloyd Carr had announced a "coach in waiting" a few years ago. What will be very interesting in these situations is if Will's or Chips's dream jobs come open and that "dream" program comes a calling.