Lane Kiffin's Contract
The word is out on the numbers within the contract, and I think they're pretty reasonable. GVX has the full breakdown here, but the basic gist is this:
- 6 years
- starting at $2mil a year,increasing to $2.75 mil in 2014
- buyout: $7.5 mil 1st year, $5 mil last year
- walkout (Kiffin's choice to leave early): $1 mil first year, $200k last year
The numbers probably look a little odd, but consider that it's kind of a balance act. The more you pay in salary, the lower the buyout tends to get (and vice versa). This contract is low in pay, high in buyout. That's a great help to the University in the short term; unless things go absolutely horribly wrong, that leaves a fair margin for the department to rebuild their "disaster" fund. (It also leaves more room for assistants).
The same applies to the walkout margin. By lowering the walkout margin, the salary doesn't have to be quite as high. (It's a good faith kind of issue, sorta.) Basically, Mike Hamilton is banking on Kiffin staying for a while, which makes sense; if Kiffin fails, Hamilton is probably on his way out as well. So it makes sense for Hamilton to go ahead and roll the dice on Kiffin's success.
If Kiffin is unsuccessful, there probably won't be many people lining up to steal him, so a buyout isn't a concern. If he is successful, Hamilton should have little trouble drumming up any support needed to rewrite the contract if needed. All in all, it's probably a pretty good deal for the guy.
***BUT***
If you happen to find a pdf of the contract, please post it. That link has the numbers, but the contracts are always helpful and I'm too cheap to sign up for an account at places like Coaches Hot Seat for a lousy contract.
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Congrats
I think Kiffin is a good, solid hire. And it’s not Mike Leach. Thank goodness…
by Tech92 on
Dec 1, 2008 8:49 PM EST
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Heh.
I didn’t know much about Kiffin as a hire, but the more I learn the more I like it.
The one problem he’ll have is that we all talked ourselves up into a frenzy about Clawson and his offense. By kickoff at UCLA, we were expecting about 70 points a game. (Most of us, at least.) So we’re probably going to be skittish in our expectations for a while. But he’ll have plenty of time to convince us!
And enjoy Leach. We did, if only for a few weeks. :-D
by hooper on
Dec 1, 2008 9:22 PM EST
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Chris Low had a post about how much money is left for his staff
Something like around 3 million. And Kiffin insisted that any “Coach of the Year” bonuses he received would be distributed to the staff as well.
I’m beginning to get on board with this guy.
by rblakeh on
Dec 1, 2008 9:18 PM EST
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Me too.
I want to learn more, but I really don’t have any reason to not like the hire right now. Sure, he’s 33, but he’s probably spent more life studying football than most 45-year old coaches have. I’m a big fan of teaching when young, too. I can only imagine what kind of mental sponge he was when his dad was drawing up plays in front of him at the age of 6 or so.
He does seem very dedicated to developing a strong staff. That’s a big plus to me. No coach can do it all, and the better the team of coaches, the better the team of players.
by hooper on
Dec 1, 2008 9:26 PM EST
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I'm a firm believer that the HC is overrated
It’s all about the staff, baby.
by rblakeh on
Dec 1, 2008 9:41 PM EST
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Any word on who will be his OC? I have heard Cutcliffe, but wasn’t sure if that was a done deal. And in most cases rblakeh is right, it’s about the coordinators. Leach, however, is our HC and OC.
by Tech92 on
Dec 2, 2008 2:14 PM EST
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Haven't heard anything yet.
I’d be very, very surprised if it was Cutcliffe, honestly. For one, Cut is ready to be a head coach now and can probably leave his Big Orange coordinating headset in the past.
For two, Kiffin will probably be the primary offensive guy (functional OC, if you will). He plans on calling the plays unless he really, really feels comfortable with the OC doing that. I would expect the OC to be more of Lane’s offensive assistant.
But nothing of any substance has been leaked.yet.
by hooper on
Dec 2, 2008 3:03 PM EST
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I'd be floored on Cutcliffe too
Didn’t he immediately shoot down coming back as HC once that word got out? I think he’ll have a soft spot for Tennessee from here on out, but coming back as OC would be a step down from taking a program he can basically define in Duke.
by Graysnail on
Dec 3, 2008 6:45 PM EST
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Didn't Kiffin say if he could find someone to run his offense he'd hire him
otherwise, he was going to call the plays.
by wvvol on
Dec 3, 2008 8:03 PM EST
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Yes.
He did qualify that if anybody else called the plays, it was going to be somebody he was very, very comfortable with. I’m assuming Kiffin will be calling the plays in the fall until I see good reason to believe otherwise.
by hooper on
Dec 3, 2008 8:10 PM EST
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I was hoping he'd let the
Rocky Top Talk open game thread call the plays.
by wvvol on
Dec 3, 2008 8:19 PM EST
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kneel, kneel, kneel, shank punt?
;-)
Go Vols!
by Joel on
Dec 3, 2008 10:34 PM EST
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You know, if they actually did start using RTT comments for playcalls,
I would expect a piece of that mountain of money they’re setting aside for assistants.
And you better believe I’d be a-commentin’. I’d probably have 2 keyboards up so I could start typing the next comment while waiting for the most recent one to upload. ‘cause that’s how hard I work.
Yessirree….hard at work. Relentless. Whatever it takes. Nobody would outwork me, that’s for sure.
(Think Kiffin’ll buy it?)
by hooper on
Dec 3, 2008 11:11 PM EST
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I'd make fun of my own playcalls.
Top that, EDSBS.
by Graysnail on
Dec 4, 2008 7:03 PM EST
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Sure, I can string four random words together for a play.
Did they want it to match the playbook? Well, that’ll cost extra.
by Graysnail on
Dec 4, 2008 7:03 PM EST
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I’m thinking he’s going to try to pull away Norm Chow from UCLA. That’s who he worked with at USC not Sarcasian. Sarcasian got the OC job after Kiffin left. All Star staff
1. Lane HC
2.Monte DC
3.Orgenon Co-DC and recruiting coordinator cause the old man won’t travel to recruit
4. Chow OC (he’s the only one he’d trust enough to run his offense)
by MERC44 on
Dec 3, 2008 9:05 PM EST
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