Oklahoma and the divine right of coaches
The Sooners appear to be aiming to be first through the wall in having a front office-driven college football program.
Recently after North Carolina shocked the college football world by hiring Bill Belichick I noted there was an interesting dynamic at play in the move. These days in the post Money-ball world, the NFL is like baseball or basketball in that the franchises have powerful front office executives, often Ivy leaguers, entrenched within the operations.
Consequently, if you’re a head coach who wants a lot of sway and influence over the operation of a team, finding an NFL team with both an owner and front office willing to install you as tyrant can be difficult.
This was the situation Belichick found himself in, so he decided to take a page from his colleague Nick Saban’s book and see if how he might do at the college level. He found a fascinating option in North Carolina, who traditionally hasn’t been all that invested in football but was willing to do so in order to secure his services.
For the last few years, the front office has been coming for college football. I wondered if Texas A&M might try it due to the need to be smart with money after flushing $75 milly on the Jimbo Fisher buyout. It appears not.
Instead it’s “brokelahoma” who appears to be first up to try something of this nature. Check out this recent podcast from the Sooner Scoop guys breaking down how Oklahoma is currently aiming to build a front office that will theoretically outlast the next coach:
The reasoning in Norman appears to be as follows:
Pay-for-play is here.
We don’t have elite resources or advantages in a pay-for-play era
We have to get ahead by being smart with roster building.
The future of OU football needs to be built around a front office-driven approach.
That’s pretty radical in college football and there’s a lot to consider in the attempt.