Rich Rodriguez cleaned house with his defensive staff, painful moves that including cutting ties with coordinator Jeff Casteel and line coach Bill Kirelawich. Oregon's Mark Helfrich demoted longtime Ducks assistant Don Pellum back to linebackers coach after two seasons at coordinator.
Norvell, Mazzone, Frost, Sitake and Casteel were five of the top six paid assistants in the Pac-12 last year -- UCLA offensive line coach Adrian Klemm ranked third -- and it's notable that, other than the Hoke, none of the new coordinators are likely to be among the 50 highest paid assistant coaches in the country.
We're all for giving young coaches opportunities, for loyalty to existing staff and for not giving in to the sport's wage inflation, but the lack of "celebrity" hires should at least raise an eyebrow. This also leads into a potential issue the Pac-12 might face in the coming decade. While conference commissioner Larry Scott and company were widely celebrated for signing a 12-year, $3 billion television contract with ESPN and Fox five years ago -- the most valuable for any conference in college sports at the time -- those figures are so 2011.
SEC and Big Ten revenue distributions are eclipsing the Pac-12 and the gap is likely to grow. ...
Mildly. Thanks.
Total Members: