Never been a football coach but I would imagine most of the guys that get into coaching love the game and all the strategy involved. I bet a lot of them love developing young players into polished men. There are great challenges and rewards and if you have success, you can make a lot of money too.
I doubt any coach gets into it because they ove recruiting. When I hear college coaches talk, it always sounds like it is a necessary evil they do so they can do the other parts of the coach they love.
Over the last couple of decades, it seems the demands on coaches time for recruiting have dramatically increased.
Even before the portal opened, demands on coaches time for recruiting have been growing steadily. More camps. More specialty camps. Early and late recruiting periods. More visits allowed.
It was bad before and then the portal happened and coaches have to recruit all year now. End of the season, end of the semesters, the demands on their time just continue to grow. And they are being asked to help raise funds for HS recruiting NIL and player retentiion NIL now, and make tough choices about where to spend money and what players are most important to retain.
It is a far different job now than almost all of these guys signed up for and it is no surprise we are seeing a lot of turnover and early retirement.
I think we will see the average age for college HCs drop in coming years. The strain and constant work is too much for most older guys to handle. For a lot of these guys, if they are good enough to coach in NFL, they will.
Especially if they have already spent time in the NFL, like Hafley, and know the different life style coaching there brings.
Hafley is only 44. But he knows there is a better option and for him anyway, you can see why he did what he did.
Who wants to be stuck in a job at a school with no fanbase where it is impossible to get good talent and win consistently? Why work your butt off all year long when you can’t win and it is inevitable you will be fired for losing too many games?
The way to go is to hire an ambitious hard working young HC and have them hire a similar coaching staff.
I don’t think BC can find a good young coach who will take the job. I think they will end up having to hire an older guy content to make $2.5 or $3 million a year and try and occasionally get to a 6-6 season.
