Although Bowling Green State University is used to our head football coach leaving for another college, we hope coach Gregg Brandon will stay put during a time when coaches tend not to stick around.
Brandon interviewed for the head coach position of the University of Nevada-Las Vegas (UNLV) Thursday. The Toledo Blade reported he was “flattered” to be noticed by other colleges, but later he pulled out of the competition for the job.
We want to say we are impressed with Brandon and very grateful that he did not decide to leave us all wondering — weeks before a bowl game — will he be leaving us too?
If you look at the salary factor, you may be more impressed with Brandon. He currently makes $130,000 plus some perks and incentives, but the head coach at UNLV makes $600,000. And that makes it a little more complicated.
Former coach Urban Meyer, was not so good on his word. At the end of the 2002 football season, Meyer told the media he wasn’t interested in other coaching jobs. Days later, he bolted for the University of Utah.
Meyer’s success at Utah (12-0, ranked number five nationally in the Associated Press poll) made him a coveted head coach, and last week he opted out of his contract at Utah to coach at the University of Florida.
Counting next year, Meyer will have coached for three places in a span of 5 years.
It’s sad to see the relationships between universities and head football coaches seem to resemble one-night stands.
What happened to loyalty? It is disheartening to see the concept of loyalty run thin in today’s sports world. It sounds like loyalty may be a trait Brandon holds dear — atleast we hope so.
We want Coach Brandon to stay at the helm for a long and successful period of time, and that Athletic Director Paul Krebs feels the same way — e. g., not canning him after a five- or six-win season, like David Cutcliffe of University of Mississippi.
However, other college football programs love Brandon’s success, not just UNLV. In fact, now that Meyer left for Florida, Utah is again on the prowl for a new head coach. In Utah’s campus newspaper, Joe Beatty writes in the Daily Utah Chronicle that Coach Brandon “would be the best long-term fit” at Utah, given the candidates.
While Brandon hasn’t been contacted by Utah, Brandon is from Colorado and may consider a head coaching job closer to home.
Were Brandon to leave (especially for Utah), we would most likely give up hope entirely in terms of loyalty in college football. Like a lovelorn teenager, we would probably hold on for dear life to our next head coach and get jealous any time another school had a crush on him.
