Ohio State AD Ross Bjork and Florida AD Scott Stricklin made similar decisions in lockstep during the 2024 college football season: backing up Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day and Gators head coach Billy Napier, respectively.
As USA Today’s Matt Hayes noted, those votes of confidence paid off. And not in the negative way Texas A&M, Auburn, FSU, LSU, and Nebraska did with head coach buyouts that cost those programs eight figures.
Because the former Ole Miss and Mississippi State rival ADs did, a paradigm shift in coaching Power 4 football is happening. And will continue to happen.
“The days of universities paying Jimbo Fisher (Texas A&M) $76 million to not coach, or Gus Malzahn (Auburn) $21.5 million or Willie Taggart (Florida State) $18 million, or Ed Orgeron (LSU) $16.8 million or Scott Frost (Nebraska) $15 million, isn’t sustainable,” Hayes wrote.
“So when Michigan beat Ohio State for the fourth consecutive season under coach Ryan Day, when Florida was embarrassed by Miami and had its worst September in decades under embattled coach Billy Napier, Bjork and Stricklin doubled down.”
Day’s team is College Football Playoff National Championship-bound with a date against Notre Dame separating Ohio State from a sweet revenge title after Michigan’s 15-0 title run in 2023/2024.
Napier’s is a popular pick to surprise in 2025 and end up ranked. His decision to go all in on DJ Lagway helped Florida get to this point. Without Napier, Lagway likely wouldn’t have stayed in Gainesville.
Loyalty is becoming a common theme in college football. We’ll see if it pays off or if the pendulum will swing back to rapid coaching changes in the future.
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
