Hyde5: Five pro's, con's of Al Golden's decision

January 4, 2014|Dave Hyde

Al Golden is presented two contrasting options between the Penn State and Miami jobs.  Miami isn’t the job to get a career payday. It’s a job a young, ambitious coach takes to win big and grab the money at the next job. Look how it’s worked through the years for Howard Schnellenberger, Jimmy Johnson, Dennis Erickson and Butch Davis. Penn State, meanwhile, is a job for a life. It is a small football kingdom. The job there can be one an alum like Golden could stay in forever. Two completely different jobs. What does Golden want?

So let’s do what everyone does when confronted with a job change. Let’s draw the list of pros and cons to each decision.

1. Financial pros and cons: Penn State pays much better – Bill O’Brien made $3.6 million to the reported $2.1 million Golden makes at Miami. And that’s a top-end price for a Miami coach. Let's not dismiss what this means for assistants, too, as a head ocach feels a great responsibility for the pay status of assistants. Again, Miami lags here. Still, there’s little question if Golden turns Miami into a big winner that a bigger payday would be awaiting him elsewhere. That’s the beauty of the Miami job. Make your mark here and you’ll get paid big somewhere else.

2. Emotional pro’s and cons of the jobs: The lure of Penn State is it’s Golden’s college. It’s the job he dreamed of when he started coaching. He wears an old-school sideline tie, like his coach, Joe Paterno, and that link to tradition even in these changed climes at Penn State can be beneficial. At Miami, he knows the players. They’re his guys. He also has worked the last few years at recruiting and now has a highly ranked recruiting class on the hook. Also, several people inside Miami have said that while his wife, Kelly, also is a Penn State alum, she loves living in Coral Gables.

3. Football pros and cons about the job: Miami is a better job if you want to win a national title. Don’t just look at Miami’s past. Look at the recruiting pool that has let Florida State and Florida win national titles. Penn State? Not so much. But Penn State has better facilities, games will be sold out every Saturdasy and  you have the support staff Miami just can’t provide. So this comes down to coaching in the richest pool of high-school talent in the country against coaching at a place you don’t have to worry about selling tickets or demanding better facilities.

4. NCAA pro’s and con’s. This could be a big one for Golden. He’s spent the last couple of years fighting through an NCAA storm at Miami. It wasn’t of his doing – and he wasn’t told of it in taking the job. But he’s out of the storm now. At Penn State, it’s still coming through the storm. O’Brien did great work there. But the new coach still has no bowls and scholarship limitations for the next two years. Does Golden want to go back into the NCAA fire?

5. Competition pro's and con's. Miami's in a so-so ACC. Penn State's in a so-so Big Ten. Neither has deep football talent. He'll be expected to win a national title at Miami. That seems presumptuous for a program that hasn't even won its side of the ACC since joining that conference. But that's the gig. At Penn State, the bar is lower. Win the Big Ten. That's what everyone points toward. Again, different jobs. That's what makes Golden's decision intriguing and comes down to this: Who is Al Golden?

draw a list of why he would and why he sWhy Golden wouldntake the job:

Don’t dismiss Golden going to bat for the pay of his assistants in this. The focus always is on the head coach making demands, and rightfully so considering the manner college coaches are the stars these days. But a university insider says Golden has been frustrated by the relative low pay of his assistant coaches compared to other schools. As much as we’re wondering if Golden wants a bump in pay – who doesn’t? – he also seems to be working for his staff as well.

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