Better Jobs - NFL Vs College (1 Viewer)

[Joe Bryant]

The Pete Carroll thing has me thinking again about the perception of NFL HC jobs vs College.

I'm an NFL guy but I am able to recognize that everyone isn't like me. Living in Knoxville, TN and seeing rabid fans pack Neyland Stadium with a ton more people every Saturday than the Cowboys brag about putting in JerryWorld on Sundays has always been to me.

Whether I like it or not, the reality is that college football draws a TON of interest.

And I'll contend that some college jobs are "better" than the "equivalent" college job. The trick of course there will be defining "better" and "equivalent". Better is especially tough as that means different things to different people. But thought I'd throw out some choices here for people to judge.

These are just some comparisons off the top of my head. There can be lots more.

Also add whatever thoughts you have on the topic in general.

J

 

[Gr00vus]

Throwing out all the other considerations as secondary - if you can make it in the pros you can make it anywhere. Are there any coaches who've won the Super Bowl who have gone back to coach college? I don't think so (please correct me if I'm wrong). The NFL is the pinnacle. The best coaches will almost always view an NFL HC gig as superior.

 

[benson_will_lead_the_way]

College Jobs are by far better.

Think about it in a long term format.

If a powerhouse college wins the national championship year after year.....they still get the best recruits.

If a powerhouse NFL team wins the Super Bowl year after year.......they get the worst draft picks.

 

[Leroy Hoard]

College Jobs are by far better.Think about it in a long term format.If a powerhouse college wins the national championship year after year.....they still get the best recruits.If a powerhouse NFL team wins the Super Bowl year after year.......they get the worst draft picks.

"the worst picks" allow more cap money to be spent on free agents, and everyone wants to play for a team that is already a winner.

 

[benson_will_lead_the_way]

College Jobs are by far better.Think about it in a long term format.If a powerhouse college wins the national championship year after year.....they still get the best recruits.If a powerhouse NFL team wins the Super Bowl year after year.......they get the worst draft picks.

"the worst picks" allow more cap money to be spent on free agents, and everyone wants to play for a team that is already a winner.

Very true....but if you had the choice between dealing with a salary cap vs not.....I would rather not.Signing Free agents and late draft picks that will hopefully fill the expiring contracts....vs signing 5 star after 5 star to replace players.Again, just my opinion.

 

[Joe Bryant]

Two interesting points in this topic I heard talked about on radio this week.

In college, the players pick you. In pros, you pick the players. On the "players picking you" part, personality becomes a huge factor. A personable good looking, nice talking guy like Carroll has a huge advantage there.

The other point is the babysitting angle. When NFL players do something wrong off the field, it's the player's fault. When college players do something wrong off the field, it's the coach's fault. That has to be tiring.

J

 

[BigTuna]

I voted for the colleges across the board. Because as Mike Price can attest, being a college head coach has its advantages.

 

[FreeBaGeL]

Throwing out all the other considerations as secondary - if you can make it in the pros you can make it anywhere.

See, I've always felt the opposite when it comes to NFL vs. NCAA.How much do coaches really factor into personnel decisions in the NFL (I'm asking here)? While they have input, isn't there typically someone above them actually making the decisions?Whereas in college, getting the players is part of your job. In the pros they hand you a team and a bunch of players and say "coach these guys", which pretty much amounts to keeping them happy and motivated. In college they hand you the keys to the school and say "go win". College coaches literally control everything. Players, coordinators, scheme, it's all 100% their decision.If Urban Meyer went to the NFL and his GM gets him a statue at quarterback, he's not really been put in a situation to win. If he coaches college he can't complain that he didn't have the right QB to run his system because HE is the one who went and got that QB.How do we know that Tom Cable is really an awful coach when he's forced to play JaMarcus Russel at QB and forced to draft DHB with his top 10 draft pick? How do we know that Tony Dungy is a Super Bowl coach when someone else went out and got Peyton Manning for him to "coach"?

 

[CaptainHook]

Completely different skillsets.

I think it comes down to whether the individual prefers gameplanning or recruiting.

That said, I think jobs like USC, Michigan, and Notre Dame have to be considered the absolute pinnacle of coaching. Once you get beyond the elite, storied programs, the pro jobs are all better.

 

[GregR_2]

Throwing out all the other considerations as secondary - if you can make it in the pros you can make it anywhere. Are there any coaches who've won the Super Bowl who have gone back to coach college? I don't think so (please correct me if I'm wrong). The NFL is the pinnacle. The best coaches will almost always view an NFL HC gig as superior.

Bill Walsh.

 

[SSOG]

I voted for the college jobs across the board, mostly because you've got more job security (nobody gets fired after one season in college, and even buffoons like Weis get 4 years). A good college coach sticking around for 10 years is pretty much the norm. In the NFL, sticking around for 10 years is very uncommon. If you're an awesome coach then you can really put down roots and stay at the same college job for 30 years if you want. If you go to an elite college program, you've also got a built-in advantage over your competition from the word go- you have an easier time recruiting, only a quarter of the teams that you play can come anywhere close to your talent level, and only 10 programs in the nation can match your spending power. Further, in the NFL, there's only one team that ends its season on a positive note, while in college there are 30+. Also, in college, the coaches tend to get lionized a lot more. Nobody talks about Don Shula with quite the same reverence as, say, Bobby Bowden or Joe Paterno. I think it's because the players stick around for more than 4 years, so Shula shares the spotlight with guys like Marino, while Bowden's never sharing the spotlight for more than a year or two. The result is that if you succeed at college, you're set for life no matter what happens. For instance, in Gainesville, Steve Spurrier *STILL* does ads and makes money off of his success, despite the fact that he's currently a coach for a divisional rival.

With that said, the NFL has its pluses. The competition is higher, which is a big plus to anybody driven enough to be a superstar coach. The pay is better (although there's not a whole lot of difference between $7 mil a year and $4 mil a year in terms of lifestyle, and I'd rather have the smaller salary and the job security). The fans aren't nearly as crazy. Most NFL cities are, in my opinion, cooler places to live than most college towns. With that said, if I were a real rock-star coach and could have my choice of any coaching job anywhere in the world, I would either pick Southern Cal, Florida, or Texas. The pedigree, the history, the size and income of the programs, and their locations in the middle of the three biggest recruiting hotbeds in America make them too desirable to pass on.

The big exception to the "college team is better than a comparable pro team" rule is Notre Dame. I would never take that job. There's no other job in the nation where the perceptions that you're held to are so far out of line with reality.

 

[Light Blue Jesus]

Two interesting points in this topic I heard talked about on radio this week.In college, the players pick you. In pros, you pick the players. On the "players picking you" part, personality becomes a huge factor. A personable good looking, nice talking guy like Carroll has a huge advantage there. The other point is the babysitting angle. When NFL players do something wrong off the field, it's the player's fault. When college players do something wrong off the field, it's the coach's fault. That has to be tiring.J

Along these lines, I thought Tony Dungy made an interesting point in talking about college vs. nfl coaching. He said it may seem hard to keep a bunch of 18-22 year old college kids in line and focused until you think about trying to do the same for 25 year old millionaires.

 

[tbglog]

Pro jobs are better gigs. Constant recruiting? forget. Rule after rule after rule about calls to potential recruits, how many visits you get. Get into the pro football brotherhood, make your $10 mil on a multi year contract and wait for your brothers to give you a job on their staff after you fail. If you dont get bailed out by one of your buddies, (Mornigweigh,Mike Tice both did) then go get a nice six figure job back in college at a smaller school if you need to. Your name alone from coaching in the NFL will land you somewhere.

There are only 32 NFL head coaching jobs on planet earth. If you aspire to coach football for living, you want a shot at oe of those 32 atleast once. Bowdin and Paterno are the only 2 current truely great college guys that never took their shot in the pros. Even Urban Myer took his shot for a few hours. Saban,Holtz,Spurrier all took the money anda shot at being the the best of the best.

 

[psychobillies]

I voted for all of the college teams except UGA. I don't consider Georgia to be in the same elite tier as those other schools. Then again, how many Falcons coaches have been fired since the very average Mark Richt was hired? Maybe I should reconsider.

 

[Homer]

Dude, EDIT: Raiders vs, Tenn vs. USC?

 

[Homer]

Dude, EDIT: Raiders vs, Tenn vs. USC?

Quick, before Tennessee scoops up Cable!!!

 

[Homer]

Did anyone enjoy the Philip Fullmer moments in "Blind Side?". He was far more screenworthy than Saban!!!

Fullmer to the Raiders? Fullmer to Knoxville?

 

[SSOG]

I voted for all of the college teams except UGA. I don't consider Georgia to be in the same elite tier as those other schools. Then again, how many Falcons coaches have been fired since the very average Mark Richt was hired? Maybe I should reconsider.

People in Georgia actually care about UGA football. They don't really care about the Falcons.

 

[Happy Ragnarok]

Heard one of the talk radio shows asking about this earlier. Forget which one. They made the point that one of the big reasons any NFL head coaching job is better than any college coaching job, is because any NFL head coaching gig comes along with an absolutely unreal pension. Can't find much info about it online, though. Maybe someone more research savvy than me can dig something up.

 

[psychobillies]

I voted for all of the college teams except UGA. I don't consider Georgia to be in the same elite tier as those other schools. Then again, how many Falcons coaches have been fired since the very average Mark Richt was hired? Maybe I should reconsider.

People in Georgia actually care about UGA football. They don't really care about the Falcons.

People in Atlanta care about the Falcons, but I agree with your point as far as the rest of the state goes.

 

[SSOG]

I voted for all of the college teams except UGA. I don't consider Georgia to be in the same elite tier as those other schools. Then again, how many Falcons coaches have been fired since the very average Mark Richt was hired? Maybe I should reconsider.

People in Georgia actually care about UGA football. They don't really care about the Falcons.

People in Atlanta care about the Falcons, but I agree with your point as far as the rest of the state goes.

Atlanta sports fans are notoriously fair-weather and half-hearted. It's why the Braves' attendance figures were never in line with the attendance of teams having a comparable amount of success, and it's why Mike Vick got such a ginormous contract- because he was the only thing putting butts in the seats.